Meet Philly chef Kyle Timpson, who made Gordon Ramsay chuckle on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

When Philadelphia chef Kyle Timpson faced the cameras for last week’s premiere of Season 23 of Hell’s Kitchen (8 p.m. Thursdays, Fox), he stood out among the 18 contestants.

He was wearing a pink-and-black zebra-print suit.

Host/provocateur Gordon Ramsay: “That zebra outfit. Where did that come from?”

Timpson: “My closet.”

Ramsay: “Most people don’t wear an outfit like this on the first day of a competition.”

Timpson: “I want people to underestimate me. I want people to be like, who the [expletive] is this clown? If people underestimate me, they will have no idea what I can bring to the table.”

Timpson also wasn’t shy while presenting his initial dish: red snapper with crispy skin. “I am going to make my food big, bold, flavorful, and sexy, just like me,” he said.

Timpson, who turned 30 last month, grew up in Cape May County, knowing all along that he would become a chef. He’s between gigs, helping friends at their restaurants, after stops at the Moshulu, the Four Seasons, and Steak Italian Nightlife, aka, SIN.

“I started cooking super young, like about 6,” he said. “When the other kids were at home watching cartoons, I was watching the Food Network. That’s all I did.” He credits his aunt, who just turned 100 years old, for his cooking skills and his appreciation of dining.

Timpson attended Middle Township High and Cape May County Technical High School, where he took pastry classes.

At Atlantic Cape Community College, he continued his cooking education with culinary arts and pastry arts. “Most people, when they’re that age, don’t want to do both,” he said. “It’s important to do both because it makes you more valuable. Making a hollandaise [savory] and making a sabayon [sweet] is like almost the same thing. But then it also translates to everything.” Timpson moved to Philadelphia after graduation.

Asked what he liked about cooking, he replied: “I love to eat. I really like making people happy. Good company and good food is a good thing. I don’t know if that comes from not having a lot of friends when I was younger, but I like to say that on the show, I always like to make people happy whether it’s for food, or something else.”

The show’s winner gets $250,000 and the head chef job at the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., where the season was shot.

The show “really is like that expression: life is all about what you make it,” Timpson said. Though “some people went to the CIA [Culinary Institute of America] and I went to a community college, it really is all about what you make of it and the opportunities.”