Zac Hite wasn’t nervous when he cooked a meal for a celebrity chef Monday — because he didn’t know his cooking was eaten by Gordon Ramsay until much later.
Hite is a cook (though he thinks he might now be able to call himself a “chef”) at Three Fold Noodles and Dumpling Co., where Ramsay visited Monday for lunch.
Ramsay tried the beef noodle soup and a regular bun, Hite said, and the chef “said it was good.”
Ramsay seems to be in Arkansas to film his show "24 Hours to Hell and Back," a reality TV show that aims to rescue “struggling restaurants” across the country,
The show’s Hell on Wheels truck was set up in a parking lot near the corner of Bruce Street and Farris Road in Conway over the weekend, steps away from the University of Central Arkansas campus. The vehicle serves as a temporary kitchen while a restaurant is revamped in under 24 hours.
Nearby, college student staple and dive bar Bears Den Pizza was closed over the weekend for “renovations,” and from the outside Saturday, it still appeared to buzz with activity.
Commenters on the restaurant’s Facebook page tried to ask if the restaurant was set to be featured, but comments from the account said everything was “top secret” and it would “confirm and deny nothing.”
An employee told the Democrat-Gazette through the restaurant’s Facebook page that it will reopen at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Three Fold manager Jonathan Boney said he didn't know Ramsay was coming Monday, and he did a "double take" when he saw the chef.
He didn't talk to Ramsay except to ask him how the meal was at the end of his visit. When Ramsay said it was good and thanked him, Boney said he took Ramsay at his word, given his reputation of being brutally honest.
"That was such a huge compliment," Boney said. "I'm sure he's eaten at a lot of great restaurants."
Matt Steel, an employee with Three Fold, said he’d heard Ramsay was in Conway, but he and his coworkers didn’t know he was coming to Little Rock or their restaurant.
“I don’t think anyone expected him to be here,” Steel said.
The chef was wearing a cap Monday, Steel said, and seemed to be trying to keep a low-profile.
Steel didn’t say much to the celebrity but had a brief exchange with him when Ramsay asked him for the Wi-Fi password.