Leominster firefighter Vincent 'Vinny' Alia competing on Team Ramsay in 'Next Level Chef'

LEOMINSTER - On Super Bowl Sunday, there will be two men with strong Leominster ties competing in front of the world - Noah Gray, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Vincent “Vinny” Alia, contestant on Season 2 of “Next Level Chef.”

While Gray is expected to give it his all as his team competes against the Philadelphia Eagles for the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy, Alia is expected to be cooking up a storm on “Next Level Chef,” the new Gordon Ramsay’s culinary competition premiering Feb. 12 immediately after Super Bowl LVII on FOX, seen locally on WFXT-TV (Channel 25) in Boston.

Alia, 43, a self-taught cook who makes everything from scratch (including pasta), graduated from Leominster High in 1997. He served in the U.S. Navy for four years before becoming a full-time Leominster firefighter and EMT In 2004.

His specialty dish is chicken piccata.

“It’s the best chicken piccata you’ll ever have in your life,” Alia said. “I just like to throw ingredients together and see what I can do. I think I’ve made a lot more bad dishes than I do good dishes. You give me ingredients and I am determined to give you the best meal that you ever had. And that’s my goal. That’s what I want.”

Cooking since a little boy

Alia - a Leominster High School graduate who moved to Westminster a few years ago - has been cooking since he was a little boy, kind of.

“I wouldn’t call it cooking. I call it getting in my mom’s way while she cooks. You work your way up from watching to flouring or breading something and finally you get to chop onions,” Alia said. “I grew up Italian. I grew up eating Italian. My grandmother, who was one of the best cooks on the planet, was this full-blown Sicilian. And the sad thing is she never let me cook with her. It was her kitchen. But I was also 10. I couldn’t throw my muscle around her or anything.”

Alia, insists that every person who has ever been a chef or a cook all learned from a family member first.

"You have a meal in your head that you’ll never forget for the rest of your life that your grandmother or mother cooked and you try to replicate it and you can’t do it. You just can’t do it,” Alia said. “My mother’s fried chicken was out of this world. People would beg for it. And my grandmother made this sauce and I can’t even come close to it. I still have the taste in my mouth. She died like 10 years (ago) and I haven’t had her sauce in about 20.”

A permanent firefighter/EMT at the Leominster Fire Department since 2004, Alia credits his Italian upbringing as being a big influence in his culinary pursuit.

Carrying on tradition

“Nobody forgets a great meal. And growing up Italian, the meal was the heart of everything. When you met with your grandparents, aunts, uncles, it was the food. And I wanted to carry on that tradition,” Alia said. “I like the old school. I have a garden. I make my sauce from tomatoes that I grow. I make jelly from the grapes I grow. I’m very all about the raw ingredients that we can grow. It’s more than just eating and cooking. It’s soulful because it’s from the heart.”

Despite never cooking in a restaurant, diner or greasy spoon, Alia , who has fed up to 22 guys on Thanksgiving at the firehouse, said he used to cook during every shift before suffering a heart attack in mid-December, followed by surgery.

Fellow Leominster firefighter Shawn Phillips brought the cooking competition to Alia’s attention. When he learned that they were accepting applications for the second season, Alia filled it out “for fun.”

“It was a 40-page, (expletive) application. And most of the questions were: 'What restaurant did you work in? What catering company did you work for? What did you do here?' And it’s all food-based. A lot of that I crossed out and put, ‘I work at a firehouse. And I’m a firehouse cook.’ Automatically, you’re like, they’re not going to (expletive) take me.”

'You made the Top 22'

After several interviews (including a live one) and a few months waiting with no word, Alia got the call.

“It’s ‘OK, we’ll contact you. You don’t call us. We’ll talk to you by the end of July.’ The end of July rolls around and, I’m like, they didn’t pick me. I didn’t hear anything from them. Now we’re into August,” Alia recalled. “Next thing you know, I’m at the firehouse. My phone rings. I’m getting off-duty and all my boys are around me. ‘Hey, just want to let you know, you made the top 22.’ ‘I don’t get it.’ They’re like, ‘You’ve made top 22 in the country.’ And I said, ‘Get the (expletive) out of here.’ I was freaking out. I was beside myself.”

Team Ramsay

After being flown to London, Alia learned that the 22 prospective contesters were getting weeded down to 18 and placed in teams of six with each team “mentored” by a renowned world chef including Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais.

Alia was picked on Team Ramsay and he couldn’t be happier.

“Not only did I make the cut out of thousands of people but I also made the cut again out of 18 people to be on his (Ramsay’s) team,” Alia said. “Chef Arrington, Chef Blais, great chefs in their own right but we’re talking the great Gordan Ramsay. You can’t touch this guy.”

Also on Team Ramsay are: Preston Nguyen, 19, of Arlington, Texas; Cassie Yeung, 28, of South Brunswick, New Jersey; Tucker Ricchio, 31, of San Francisco; Mark McMillian, 52, of Henderson, Nevada; and Michelle Calcagni, 30, Washington Township, New Jersey.

Contestants are competing for a $250,000 grand prize, plus a one-year culinary mentorship and, most importantly, bragging rights.

'Speed is everything'

Alia said all his years as a firefighter has taught him how to work well under pressure. Although he has signed a confidentiality agreement on the happenings of the show, Alia did say what a would-be “Next Level Chef” needs to compete.

“Speed is everything. It’s a big part of it. There are so many aspects. There’s presentation. It’s flavor. It’s delivery,” Alia said. “This is a strict competition and good luck. Go grab what you can. You can end up with potted meat and beans and an onion and some bread. Obviously, that sounds all (expletive) but you better make Gordon Ramsay, the greatest chef on the planet in my eyes, happy.”

Due to a recent heart attack, Alia, is not planning a big spread for the national television debut on Super Bowl Sunday. He’ll be watching the show with his 9-year-old daughter Madison, her daughter’s mother, Erin McKenna, and her husband Dave, his sister Ashley and her husband Mike, and his two nieces.

Noah Gray, 23, graduated from Leominster High, went to Duke University and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round (162nd overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Leominster firefighter competing on Team Ramsay in 'Next Level Chef'