Holli Ugalde to Hell's Kitchen: Where's My Job?

When Holli Ugalde won "Hell's Kitchen", she thought she had just landed the job of a lifetime: head chef at Savoy Grill in London. It was, after all, the promised prize for the Season 7 winner.

It's been close to two years since Ugalde's victory in February of 2009. Ugalde spent those two years waiting - and constantly trying to contact Gordon Ramsay and his representatives.

U.K.'s Mail reports that "ITV claims it made its 'best efforts' to obtain a visa for Ugalde, and a representative for Ramsay says: 'We were sorry that Holli Ugalde can't join the team. In spite of our best efforts, we were unable to obtain a work visa for Holli. Holli elected to receive the cash prize instead.'"

But Ugalde told the mail that was left completely out in the cold, and doesn't know what, if anything, Ramsay and his team did to assure she could move. "I would have thought they would have asked me to fill in some paperwork to apply for a visa, but I've never once filled in one single piece of paper. I don't know how the immigration process works, but I'm betting there's at least a few forms to fill in. I don't know if they even applied for my visa."

Making matters more unfortunate, Ugalde is a single mom who had made plans to move to London - and promises to her six year old that are now unfulfilled. She also passed by several job opportunities, certain that Gordon Ramsay would be true to his word.

That is, until Gordon Ramsay announced this past summer that Andy Cook would be the head chef at Savoy. Ugalde was then informed she would be taking a subordinate position. Then FOX TV broke the news to her that she wouldn't be going to London after all.

To add insult to injury, Holli Ugalde hasn't heard a single word from Gordon Ramsay since she won "Hell's Kitchen". He hasn't called, hasn't checked up on the process, hasn't apologized for replacing her before she even started.

That may be the thing that angered Ugalde the most. She told The Mail, "Yes, Hell's Kitchen opened up a lot of opportunities for me. But now I'm not going to London it would at least be nice if Chef Ramsay had the decency to call and let me know what was going on. I know it was only a reality TV show, but it's my life, after all."

Rather than the job, Ugalde was given a cash prize, although she isn't at liberty to discuss the amount. She is clear, however, that she would have preferred the two years at Savoy that she was promised to begin with.

As far as her "Hell's Kitchen" experience, "It's false advertising," Ugalde told The Mail.

Daily Mail: Ramsay betrayed me, says Hell's Kitchen winner: TV contestant's fury over Savoy Grill job prize that never happened