“Hell’s Kitchen” Extraordinaire: Nicholas Peters Bond

A fixture in the New England culinary scene with more than 15 years of experience, Nicholas Peters Bond has a deep understanding and appreciation of North Shore cuisine. Combined with his natural creativity and extensive training, he can transform classic recipes into delicious, unique, and revolutionary dishes.

Peters Bond began Kitchen to Aisle Catering & Events in 2018 with his business partner, Meghann Basque, but before that, he was introduced to the world by competing on the 14th season of Fox’s hit cooking reality competition Hell’s Kitchen. Dodging the screams and insults of Chef Gordon Ramsay, he placed in the top five, and later returned to Season 17’s All Stars edition where he competed as a finalist. 

Always humble and sincere, Peters Bond gained valuable insight from his time on television and eventually hopes to move into a career in food media. Most recently, he competed on Food Network’s Chopped Sweets and started his YouTube Channel, Commanding Your Kitchen.

OFM connected with Peters Bond to talk more about his time in Hell’s Kitchen, how his passion for cooking began, if being openly gay has ever affected his career, and how Kitchen to Aisle once catered a dinner for The Real Housewives of New York. 

We were first introduced to you when you competed on Season 14 of Hell’s Kitchen, and you later returned for Season 17’s All Stars. Overall, what have you taken away from your experience on the show?
I think Season 14 was probably the pivotal point in my career, when I decided what I wanted to do, and I took away from Season 14 a better sense of independence and more confidence. Even just going there was a big step for me because I was kind of a homebody before. I don’t love to fly; I was not very independent, and I was afraid to go out there. Just taking the step to do that was a big deal for me, and that only around seven years ago. I felt like if I could do that, I could pursue other things and not have as much anxiety doing so. 

Is it true that the producers of the show sought you out to audition?
Not necessarily me specifically, but it was a casting agency that contacted me. I think Hell’s Kitchen or Fox hired them in the Boston area, where I am from, and they messaged me on Facebook. Again, this was six or seven years ago, so I thought it was odd because I have never received a message like that. Come to an open casting call, this is probably a scam or something, but I looked into it more and it wasn’t a scam. So, I spoke with someone from the casting team, and they were like, ‘we’re looking for Boston-based chefs to come to this open casting call and we think you would be great.’ I ended up going, obviously, but I don’t know if they sought me out particularly, or if they were just looking for Boston-based chefs and my name came up. 

Were you initially a fan of the show?
Yes and no. There are people on the show who are avid watchers, and they were like, ‘this is the episode I think this is going to happen in,’ and ‘I saw this in this season. This could be us.’ I’m like, I don’t know what you guys are talking about because I didn’t follow the show religiously. I had only seen clips. Obviously, I knew who Chef Ramsay was, but no, I was not an avid watcher of the show, but I have seen the show.

Do you watch it more now?
I did for a little bit, and I was like, I think I have PTSD [laughs]. I will watch it and sometimes cringe and be uncomfortable. It brings up memories and emotions I don’t want to deal with.

We all know that Gordon Ramsay rules the kitchen with an iron fist. What were you feeling when you first met him?
When I first met him, he’s very stoic, so he was a little intimidating. I was kind of starstruck because you can tell how confident he is, and he has such a big presence about him, but he was cool. I didn’t really get the brunt on either season, so I don’t think he was as bad. Maybe I just didn’t get yelled at as much as some other people. I think he has softened up over the years a little bit.

I watched a couple episodes of this latest season, Hell’s Kitchen Young Guns, and I did notice that he was not as harsh on those contestants as he has been in the past.
Maybe he’s just over it, or maybe because they are young. Technically, I could have been on Young Guns too when I was on season 14 because I was 24, and Michelle was 23 or 22, but he still yelled at us. It definitely wasn’t like MasterChef Junior or anything like that, but some of the comments he has made in the past, he probably wouldn’t say nowadays. It may have been funny back then, but people now would probably be like, wow, what an asshole.

Do you keep in touch with Gordon or any of your teammates from either season?
I do keep in touch with people from Hell’s Kitchen from both seasons. The people from season 14 that went on All Stars with me include Milly and Michelle, and we remain close. Michelle and I will text and talk on social media. I got really close with Dana, who was on Chef Christina’s season when she won. She is now the sous chef, and I already knew Chef Jennifer Normant. I was actually her sous chef at one point before I went on the first time. So, I already knew her going into All Stars. Other than the obvious people that I didn’t necessarily get along with, I will pretty much message anyone and have good rapport with them.

If you had an opportunity to compete again on Hell’s Kitchen, would you?
Yes. I’m a sucker for it. The first time was very anxiety-inducing, and I said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing; I am never going to have the opportunity again.” Then I did have the opportunity again, and I was like, “I can’t pass the opportunity.” They told everyone that it was going to be different this time on All Stars, but I was like, “Was it that different?” But yes, I would do it again. It’s a good opportunity that I could pass up, but I don’t think I would want to.

Be honest, is there a Hell’s Kitchen dish that will forever haunt you?
I think if I had been making beef wellingtons every day we had dinner service, if I was actually making all those myself, then probably. They had a lot of that stuff ready to go. So, I would say probably beef wellington. It is delicious, but I don’t make it in everyday life. That is for a very special occasion. Unless someone requests that kind of thing, I am not going to seek it out to make it again.

Can you tell us when and how you discovered your passion for cooking?
Everything revolved around food with my family while growing up. Like, every holiday. Some people’s families aren’t like that, but I know a lot that are. You always end up in the kitchen, especially if it’s a big kitchen, and everyone is eating and hanging out there, even though there is plenty of other space. The kitchen has always been the central focal point of every family gathering that my family is a part of, and I feel the same with my friends too. 

I was in the kitchen a lot anyways when I was younger, but I also tried sports. This is when I was very young. I did it all the way up until high school, and then it became too competitive. I was not that good, so it wasn’t fun anymore. I really didn’t have a thing in high school. A couple of my friends and I did crew for the drama productions, and that was fun for a bit, but it wasn’t what I was passionate about. It was just fun to hang out with my friends. 

When I started getting into cooking, it was probably propelled by the fact that I didn’t have a passion or hobby that I really liked to do. Also, I was definitely influenced by my mom. She always cooked for us, and she is a really good cook. My dad is too, but my mom was the one that cooked all the time while growing up. When I started to do it more, it just kind of spiraled. I was like, I love this, and I did it all the time.

What are some of your absolute favorite dishes to cook?
Ironically enough, I really do enjoy cooking risotto and scallops. Not necessarily in the same dish, but I do find something very satisfying about searing, not just scallops, but a piece of fish. Whenever I did work in restaurants, I was always on the sauté station, which is basically fish and a couple other pasta dishes or something, but I was usually always on that station, and I became super passionate about it. There is just something very satisfying about a perfectly crisp crust on a piece of fish, crispy skin salmon, or a seared scallop.

Has being an openly gay man ever affected your culinary career?
That’s a good question. I have only been asked this once before. I came out at 21, and that is basically when I was going through culinary school, so I was in the restaurant industry. There’s a lot of different people from different walks of life in the kitchen and restaurants, so I never felt like an outsider or that people were treating me differently because I was gay. That is why I love the culinary world and hospitality industry. It is usually very accepting.

I worked in Cambridge, which is a very liberal city close to Boston, and it has a really good food scene. I was at a restaurant called Harvest, and I was pretty much accepted. I had a lot of fun. Outside of my job, maybe there were jokes and things that were made, or inappropriate humor, but that was generally used all around anyways, not just because I was gay. So, no, not really. 

When I came out, I was also working for a gay, female chef, Mary Dumont. She had been on The Next Iron Chef, and she was on Iron Chef America before. She is someone I really look up to. She is a person that is openly gay, in a relationship, is the executive chef of a restaurant in a big food city in Massachusetts, and she is super successful.

So, you feel the culinary community is open and accepting of LGBTQ people in the kitchen?
Honestly, I think it depends on where you live, but in my experience, no one gave a shit. It is kind of like a melting pot in the kitchen. At least it was. I know staffing is super hard right now for everyone because of COVID, but prior to that, I think it was just a big melting pot of different people from different walks of life. 

There are several reality competition shows involving food and cooking. Why do you think these shows are so appealing to audiences?
I hate to say it, but I do miss the days of regular cooking shows. I posted a meme the other day on my Instagram of The Great British Bake Off complimenting a scone or something very sweet, while on American TV shows, chefs have to prepare a meal in a room full of coyotes with no knives. It’s to the extreme where everything is bigger, and everyone tries to outdo each other. Each show that comes out, it has some crazy theme, it’s a competition, or it’s a race, and I think Americans just love that sort of competitive, outlandish, the bigger the better dramatics. I don’t know why that is, but I feel like each show or season has to top itself and its competitors. 

When I was growing up, I watched people like Gail Gand, and she was a cool person to look up to during the daytime old school Food Network. Same with Julia Child and Emeril when he first came out. That kind of timeframe.  Sara Moulton is another one that I watched a lot. I just miss those shows because everything is just extreme competition nowadays. I miss the chatting, actually cooking a meal, showing it off, trying it, etc. 

You competed on Chopped Sweets last year. How much fun was that?
It was kind of spontaneous. I have literally applied to regular Chopped so many times. Like, I didn’t even seek out Hell’s Kitchen. I was seeking out Chopped. I grew up watching that show, and it’s hard to keep up with all the episodes and spin-offs now, but I love the concept and I used to love doing that sort of thing. Just going to the pantry at my parents’ house when I was living there, seeing what we had, and just creating a dish from very random and few ingredients. That was very satisfying to me, and I loved doing that because I felt like I could be creative. Plus, it was fun. I totally love the concept of Chopped.

I have applied and tried and tried, but I got an email about casting for Chopped Sweets, so I was like, I’ll see. I really got into baking and pastries these last 3-4 years. Nothing crazy, but I have always loved to bake anyways, so I thought I could do this. When I did the interview, I felt I may be out of my league with this, but I also felt it would be a really cool experience. I was confident going into it, and I had a lot of fun. It’s only a day too, which is the best part. Hell’s Kitchen is weeks long, Chopped Sweets was only a day of torture [laughs]. 

Besides Chopped, are there any other cooking competition shows you would like to compete in?
I would be open to anything, and I would just love to do more food media. Whether that be TV, or the YouTube channel I started, just propelling that. I really do love food media, and I would love to do some sort of cooking show segment or something like that. 

Post-Hell’s Kitchen, you co-founded Kitchen to Aisle Catering & Events in 2018. Can you tell us how the business began and what sets it apart from others?
My business partner Meghann and I were both working at the same restaurant/event space, and there was a person working there with us who had a catering company inside. They asked me to do a wedding with them, and long story short, the wedding ended up being great, but along the way, there were so many bumps. I was like, this is insane. Afterwards, I was like, if we can do that with such limited resources, then we could do this ourselves and make some great money. We started talking about it like that, then shortly after we solidified it, it was great timing because Hell’s Kitchen All Stars was airing. So, we initially got a few bookings from that. We were just starting to get our LLC and become official, and it ended up working out really well.

I think what sets us apart is, I think chefs get a bad rep for being mean. Hello, Chef Ramsay. Mean, intimidating, serious, and that’s just not how I am. Even when I am catering, I want people to enjoy themselves. Obviously, you need to be serious when the time calls for it, but I think you have to have fun, keep your staff happy, and just be happy in general. We just started going from there, and I think we do a lot of customized catering. I am open to creating a menu with each couple. I have menus they can choose from, or we can choose something, say, your mom made when you were younger, and you would love to recreate this dish into an appetizer. Let’s do it. It’s exciting for me too, and it’s better than just saying, this is the menu that I give to clients and you have to choose something from here. We work with the client and customize their menu. 

What are you going to do to ensure that the business status stays a success?
Each year, we have gotten busier and busier, and honestly, social media has been such a big aid in that. I never thought that would be our main source of where we get a lot of business from, but it is. We have gotten tons of inquiries, and we have a lot of really good reviews. People do notice the personable nature of us both, also the willingness to customize the menu and the ease of the process. We try to make it easy. Whether you are having a small event in your house, or a wedding, we take care of everything. I think it’s that part with us, our staff, and our knowledge of the industry that makes the perfect storm of things, and it ends up working out. There have been some crazy situations, but it has been fun, and you have to love what you do. The trajectory right now is good, and I think we are going to keep getting busier and busier. 

That’s with any career. You must have passion.
Yes. Once it’s not fun anymore and you don’t love what you are doing, that is going to reflect in your work.

You had the opportunity to cater a dinner for the Real Housewives of New York. Can you talk more about that?
I did! I was shook! Honestly, I was more nervous about that than going on Hell’s Kitchen. I watch New York and Beverly Hills mainly, so when I heard that they called us, I was like, “There’s no way.” I was freaking out. My business partner was eight-and-a-half months pregnant, and she was like, “I’m going to that event! I don’t care if I give birth there!” It was a lot of fun, and they were all very nice. Of course, they were doing their thing. Screaming, crying, it was like watching an episode of the show. It was nuts, but they were really chill and thankful.

What advice would you give to any aspiring chef?
The piece of advice that I always give, and this can go for anyone, you have to advocate for yourself. You have to be your biggest supporter because I realized that nobody else is going to advocate for you. If you want a job position and it’s open, you have to say to your boss or manager, this is why I deserve the position. Show and tell them why. Nobody is just going to hand you anything in life, and that especially goes in the kitchen. If you want to work towards something and you want to be a chef, if you want to show that you care, that you are eager, and want to take initiative, be a badass and be like, this is why. 

When I got my first sous chef position, that’s what I did. I told the chef at the time I wanted the sous chef position, and I listed the reasons why. She didn’t think I was initially interested, and she was like, yeah, let’s talk about it. We talked about it, and I had to do a menu and all this other stuff, but obviously, I got the job. So, I think you just have to be your biggest supporter. If you are unsure and think you aren’t going to get the job, you’re not going to get the job. That goes with any industry. 

What does 2022 have in store for you?
Our catering company is already booking plenty for next year, and even into 2023. I am excited about that, and hopefully, we will get our own storage space and kitchen. Right now, we use a rental kitchen that other catering companies use, which is great, but it’s time. We need our own space. 

Additionally, my husband and I are fostering another child right now. We fostered to adopt our daughter, Savannah, and we are now fostering another little girl. It’s fun, but I forgot how challenging taking care of a young baby was. She is only a couple months old, and I am very tired, but I love being a dad and I love the connection that I have with my daughter. Just watching her grow and get older is super rewarding for me. I kind of always knew prior to filming the show that I wanted to have kids. I just really love that sense of family. If we do end up adopting this little girl, I think two kids is plenty. 

Career wise, I definitely want to pursue more TV and continue to grow my YouTube channel. I hope it will be a stepping stone for a food media type job or career.

Follow Peters Bond on Instagram and YouTube to stay up-to-date with him, and visit Kitchen to Aisle’s official website for more information.

Photos Courtesy of Nicholas Peters Bond