It’s not the first thing she says to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, but it’s close. “Shut up!” she exclaims, when he mentions he has a copy of her 2017 cookbook, Cast Iron Gourmet.
Megan Keno (’08 Poli. Sci.), a home cook and food blogger, is making cast-iron steak with whiskey garlic cream sauce during the home-cook audition round for the fourth season of Fox’s Next Level Chef when Ramsay drops that tidbit.
(Courtesy Megan Keno)
“Are you kidding me?” she says, reflecting on the moment months later. “I couldn’t possibly conceive of that. I joke it was my Princess Diaries moment.”
From that fun start to the final episode, Keno sets herself apart from the other 23 contestants. Ramsay, an executive producer on the show, which also stars mentor chefs Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais, “is funny and jokes around a lot. And I’m someone who will give it right back to him.”
Keno finishes as one of two runners-up and the only remaining home cook in the competitive cooking show, with $250,000 and a year-long mentorship on the line. The series, which filmed in Ireland and aired mid-February to mid-May, often cuts to Keno, showing her emotional responses to twists and turns in the intense competition.
The three-tiered set features an oversized dumbwaiter that passes each floor—from the tony top-level commercial kitchen to the bare-bones, ill-equipped basement. Contestants have 30 seconds to grab ingredients. And they usually have 30 minutes to complete a cooking challenge, such as barbecue, ramen, a five-course tasting menu, or a twist on Ramsay’s signature Wellington, sans beef.
“The show is really based around thinking on your feet,” Keno says. “I don’t think there’s any mom who’s trying to get dinner on the table in 45 minutes with whatever’s in the kitchen who doesn’t regularly think on her feet. That was my saving grace, and it shows on-screen. Being able to harness that quick thinking and pivot were really helpful.”
Keno, of Auburn, is a married mom of two boys, ages five and seven, who have “been on a ramen kick lately. I doctor it up with shredded pork, veggies, and jammy seven-minute eggs.”
Her oldest already wants to be on MasterChef Junior. “He says, ‘Do you think Chef Ramsay would like my scrambled eggs?’”
Keno notes, “He might have to learn to make more than scrambled eggs. But he’s on his way.”
On Next Level Chef, the celebrity chefs select teams composed of home, social media, and professionally trained cooks to mentor. Blais chooses Keno, a project manager for Jacobs Engineering Group who’s consulting with the Port of Seattle on the renovation of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s north terminal.
Nights and weekends, she blogs about food. Keno started her Country Cleaver food blog in 2010, rebranding it in 2022 as Homemade Home. There are now more than 1,000 recipes on the site. “I do all the cooking, photography, and writing,” says Keno, who aims to post about once a week.
Page Street Publishing approached Keno with the idea for the cookbook, which took nine months to complete. “Cast iron was the perfect avenue for me to learn to flex my muscles,” says Keno, a self-taught baker and cook who recently rereleased an updated, self-published version with new recipes.
Her blog and book caught the attention of casting directors, who invited Keno to apply for Next Level Chef. She was familiar with Ramsay’s notoriously loud, intimidating, and explosively angry on-air persona á la Hell’s Kitchen. And, she says, “that environment wasn’t really appealing to me.”
But Next Level Chef shows Ramsay’s softer, more encouraging side. “The thing about Next Level Chef is that it’s a mentorship-focused show,” says Keno, who watched a few episodes before deciding to go for it. “Chef Ramsay is still very firm. He’s a teacher and a mentor, and he wants you to succeed. But he’s also kind of a jokester. We had a lot of great banter on the show. I truly enjoyed working with him.”
Keno calls Washington State University “a jumping-off point for the rest of my life. I want people to understand what a special part of my life WSU was.”
For four years, she was a member of WSU’s intramural logging sports team, and that fact is referenced on the show. She notes that she was a “lumberjack.” And, at one point, Blais calls Keno “an ax-throwing firecracker.”
All banter aside, Keno says the set of Next Level Chef “was a supportive environment. I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.”
In fact, she says, “I would love to work with Chef Ramsay again.”