By Peter Covino
Entertainment Editor

Chef Gordon Ramsey may not be there barking out orders or tossing your just-completed dish in the trash because something was “off,” but at the Hell’s Kitchen “Conquer the Kitchen” Culinary Experience at Gaylord Palms, you are doing at least some of the cooking.

This really is a fun experience, but there is at least a slight case of panic as competing teams for this very informal dining event see that large table of ingredients laid out in the dining room of the Villa de Flora restaurant, Gaylord Palm’s European-themed eatery.

Duck, grouper, artichokes, asparagus, fresh fennel, avocado, watercress, arugula, dried mushrooms, eggplant, honey, tomatoes, fresh man-go, olives and more than a dozen bowls of spices and olive oil fill up the large table. Your team has to put all or some of those ingredients together in what hopefully will be a winning combination.

Presiding over the dining experience is Jerry Comfort, senior manager of wine education for Fosters Wine Estates Sales, who has a long résumé as both a chef and a wine expert. Comfort served as both a judge and culinary guide for the apprentice chefs.

Before the novice chefs actually tackle the intimidating table of ingredients, Comfort serves up a selection from the Rosemount winery and shares some cooking basics to the group of eight individuals, particularly how to guide your sense of taste when it comes to drinking wine.

Using basics such as salt, lemon and a slice of apple, Comfort shows how just a lick of salt or a bite of an apple can completely change the taste of a glass of wine.

Comfort tries to take the worry out of selecting wine and drinking it.

“Pairings (of food and wine) should be different. We are not all going to agree on what tastes good,” he said. “Enjoy what you like.”

The novice chefs get fortified with more wine before it is time to take on the night’s challenge.

Or as Comfort aptly put it, “Let’s get dirty.”

Tanya Locke got a lot of help from the wine and less from husband Carl as the Winter Haven couple prepared a braised duck breast.

Maybe it was the wine that gave Michelle Hoang, an optometry student from California, the intensity needed to prepare both a duck dish and one made from Florida grouper. No matter what it was, as she drizzled some honey onto the duck, Hoang definitely knew her way around the kitchen.

“I cook a lot at home with my mother,” Hoang said as she drizzled on the rest of the honey.

Comfort, wine glass always at hand, really liked what he saw, as well as the idea for a Hell’s Kitchen kind of event.

“This is a great idea,” Comfort said. Comfort does dozens of wine tasting and dining and pairing events each year, but few are as hands-on as the Hell’s Kitchen Culinary Experiences created by executive chef Edwin Martinez and general manager Robert Gioia of The Villa de Flora as well as other members of the staff at the Gaylord restaurants.

In just a few minutes, the novice chefs’ creations have come out of the kitchen and it’s time for everyone to sample those culinary efforts.

The Villa de Flora chefs and Comfort agree that all of the apprentice chefs have done an excellent job, but Hoang took top honors for he seared Florida grouper. She got a bottle of Rosemount wine for her efforts.

But the evening is far from over.

Now it is the chef’s turn to show what he can do with grouper and duck breast.

A six-course meal is served up family-style using all of those same ingredients the novice chefs were using earlier in the evening. Each course is paired with a glass or more than a glass of Rosemount wine.

The chef’s selections included an avocado and mango salad, with watercress, arugula and citrus vinaigrette; grilled eggplant with aged balsamic, feta and mint; seared Florida grouper with Italian olives, tomatoes and fennel; braised duck breast with honey and five-spice rub; wild mushroom barley risotto; and for dessert, cinnamon rice pudding with an apricot compote.

It was a lot of food and wine in a dining experience that took more than three hours from start to finish.

There are two more scheduled summer dining events in the Hell’s Kitchen series at the Gaylord Palms resort.

Cooking for Friends will be Saturday, July 17, at Villa de Flora. The night’s theme changes for this dinner as guests learn how to prepare a fall-inspired menu featuring comfort foods using the culinary stylings of the cooking team at Villa de Flora.

The season finale will be at Old Hickory Steakhouse, Saturday, Aug. 7. It’s a Hell’s Kitchen-inspired dinner hosted by one of the TV series’ past guests. Each participating guest will also receive an autographed signed copy of show host Gordon Ramsey’s “Healthy Appetite.”

Seating is limited for the Hell's Kitchen dinner series. Reservations are required. Call 407-586-0701 for reservations and more information.

There are other Rosemount wine events at Gaylord throughout the summer including happy hour at Sora. The sushi menu has been paired with select Rosemount wines from 4 to 6 p.m. every Friday and Saturday.

You also can participate in The Walkabout Wine Crawl. Have your Walkabout Passport stamped at each Rosemount wine crawl location and get a commemorative T-shirt.