The final lap of local contestant Danny Veltri's trek to become the champion of the Fox reality cooking competition "Hell's Kitchen" begins tonight at 9 p.m.
According to Fox, the first part of the two-part finale will feature the final two chefs, Veltri and fellow contestant Paula, as they design and plan out their own would be restaurants.
Veltri, the executive chef at Flip Flops Grill and Chill in New Smyrna Beach, couldn't be happier to be in the position he's in.
"It's been crazy. It's been an amazing experience," Veltri said. "Everything I got to do while I was out there doing the show with the private jets and the helicopters. There were just things that I'd have never gotten to do otherwise."
Tonight's episode will see Veltri and Paula headed back to the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City where they must impress the chief operating officer of the casino with their potential restaurant menus.
Veltri, who visited the casino earlier in the season, did not hide his love for the space.
"Man, it was so crazy getting to fly out to the Borgata and getting to see the actual area where the restaurant was going to be and like trying to visualize how it would be set up," he admitted. "It was surreal."
Win or lose, however, Veltri thinks the experience has been more than he could have hoped for. "Thinking back through the whole thing, it just reminds me of how much I love to cook," Veltri said. "It reassures me that I'm in the right business." Part 2 of the "Hell's Kitchen" finale of will air May 14 at 9 p.m. on Fox.