RICHMOND, Va. -- A lot has happened to Shane Roberts-Thomas over the last 12 months.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay visited Shane at Southern Kitchen, her restaurant on 2nd Street in Richmond, in October 2019.
After Ramsay featured Southern Kitchen on his show "24 Hours to Hell and Back," business, according to Roberts-Thomas, shot through the roof.
The Ramsay show aired in February 2020.
One month later, COVID-19 closed her restaurant.
After weeks of serving curbside to-go food, Southern Kitchen has reopened with strict COVID-19 safety protocols in place.
Perhaps now, Southern Kitchen can capitalize on Roberts-Thomas' next national television appearance.
The chef/owner appears on the newest episode of "Chopped."
A kitchen experience unlike any the restaurateur has felt before.
"If you put me in a pressure cooker and you turn it dial real hard. And you turned it all the way up. That wouldn't even be able to tell you the pressure I was under for that time period. I mean, it was like, somebody placed you in something that's unreal," Roberts-Thomas said about the episode which was recorded in New York City last December. "The adrenaline was rushing from beginning to end like I never got used to it."
Roberts-Thomas, who said she is a huge Food Network fan and never missed a show, said she was shocked when she opened her basket of secret ingredients.
"What was in that basket was not the right thing to give anybody," Roberts-Thomas, who is not allowed to give specifics until the show airs, said. "This wasn't chicken. There was no chicken involved."
Roberts-Thomas's episode of "Chopped" entitled "Fries & Thighs" is scheduled to air Tuesday night on Food Network.
