PHOENIX - A former Tent City inmate wins $10,000 on The Food Network TV show “Chopped.”
It’s a show where the contestants are chefs and they have to get creative using uncommon kinds of food, to try to create a tasty meal and it’s all timed.
12 News spoke with chef Fernando Ruiz about the life of crime he left and the better life he’s now found in food.
Tent City is where Ruiz served jail time. Little did he know, he would end up talking about his experience on a reality TV show.
"I did my jail time in Arizona ... the infamous Joe Arpaio at the tents," said Fernando Ruiz on The Food Network television show “Chopped.”
"Wear stripes and pink underwear," he explained.
Over Facebook messenger from New Mexico, Ruiz told us why he was locked up.
"For trafficking methamphetamines, stolen firearms," he said, among other things.
"It's rough," said Ruiz.
And believe it or not, "that's where I got to learn how to use my knives for the most part was in Tent City," he said.
Ruiz spent two years there, working in the kitchens.
It was a much different experience from his days working in fast-food joints.
"They have knives there for us that are chained to the tables that we're working on," he said. “We cooked for like 700 people, breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Ruiz said most of the food was donated and some of it was expired, so he cooked up whatever they got for the inmates and the staff as well.
"Once I did get out of jail, I went to culinary school," he said. "I left the cars, the gold, the drugs, the women."
It's now been more than a dozen years since Ruiz was in jail and he currently works as the executive chef at a restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico called Santacafe.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio congratulated Ruiz on his success with a post on Facebook.
Ruiz says he doesn't feel like he was rehabilitated during his time in Tent City, but that's where he happened to be when he realized he wanted to make a better life for himself.
"It's totally up to the person if they want to do it or not," said Ruiz.
His skills and his story caught the attention of producers at "Chopped" and next thing he knew, he won $10,000.
"I'm going to save most of it,” he said. “I'm fixing a couple things I have on my credit and within a year, I'm going to purchase myself and my wife and kids a nice beautiful home and a piece of property."
From here, Ruiz says he plans to continue doing what he loves in Santa Fe: Cooking at Santacafe. He also has a few other things in store, some things he can’t talk publicly about just yet.