Only an hour's drive apart on the tree-lined Merritt Parkway, Cheshire and Darien offer very different charms. One is surrounded by rolling hills, country stores, and acres of farmland; the other dazzles visitors with stunning multimillion-dollar homes and great views of the Long Island Sound. 

But each Connecticut destination, where Jordan Caterers runs its event-planning and food-service business, is far cry from Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" in Los Angeles. 

"Hell's Kitchen" fans may remember season 6 runner-up Kevin Cottle, 37, for his New England seriousness, bald head and dark eyebrows. But it's his passion for the burgeoning "farm-to-table" culinary movement that made him the perfect match for 31-year-old, family-run Jordan Caterers, said Jeffrey Rapoport, who launched the catering service with his wife, Debra, in 1979. 

"When I heard of him and his scucess in the show, I contacted him a year ago when he was working at the Country Club of Farmington [Conn.] and I didn't perceive he was willing to make a change at that time," Jeffrey Rapoport recalled. "But he actually came to us this year when we had an opening and I thought it was a great fit for us. We were looking for someone young, energetic, in touch with current trends. The farm-to-table movement is important to me, personally, and I've been trying to make it important to our culinary staff too."

In 2005, Jeffrey Rapoport adopted town-owned farm in Cheshire as a personal cause. The town had just taken ownership of the 140-odd-acre parcel and was letting it go to weeds. Today, Friends of Boulder Knoll—a nonprofit organization that Rapoport helped to found—runs about two acres, where one farmer and 55 community-supported agriculture members grow vegetables and fruits.

Cottle, a native of Cape Cod who took his post as Jordan's executive chef in mid-September, brought along his wingman and "Hell's Kitchen" fan favorite Van Hurd. The 28-year-old fish cook from Dallas finished sixth in the season and was Cottle's first choice for his team in the finals. 

"I have not been able to sway chefs that have been in charge here to buy from local farms too much," Jeffrey Rapoport explained. "They haven't been willing until Kevin and Van come on board." 

To the outside observer, Cottle and Hurd seem as different as Connecticut and Los Angeles. Cottle is talkative, serious and articulate with a dry wit and what appears to be a slight ego. Meanwhile, the quieter Hurd—with his slight Southern drawl, laid-back demeanor, and easygoing smile—seems a little out-of-place in the all-too-serious Northeast.

But inside Jordan Caterers' Cheshire-based kitchen, their bond is almost brotherly.

"I'm New England, I'm thick-headed," said Cottle. "Put your nose to the ground and go forward.' Van's like 'larger than life' personality, but when you gel us both together—the Texas southern boy and the New England guy—it just works. His ideas are so different than mine, but—and I'm getting goosebumps just talking about it—when you start smashing them together, they just seem to work."

Hurd said the guys clicked almost immediately when they became roommates on the show. 

"I just had a daughter, and she was three months old," Hurd said. "And he had a son, who was 7. We were the family guys." 

A lot of other chefs on the show weren't family oriented, said Cottle. "We didn't want to get locked up in the shenanigans—in the extracurricular activities, if you will." 

And so the two chefs "would stay up and strategize the whole night," Hurd recalls. 

Before Hurd was eliminated, the two guys thought they would go head-to-head in the Season 6 finals because "everyone else was just a bunch of donkeys," said Cottle, imitating one of Ramsay's most notorious on-air insults. 

So it was a nice change of pace when, six months after the show finished taping in February 2009, Cottle convinced Hurd to trade Dallas for the Farmington Country Club, where Cottle had worked since 2007. Since then, the two star chefs have worked together, perfecting recipes and seasonal dishes. 

Today, Cottle, Hurd and the Rapoports share equal passion for the farm-to-table culinary movement and everything it encompasses. The movement is rooted in the idea that chefs and consumers should source as much food as possible, from eggplant to lamb, from local farms. Doing this ensures that food doesn't have to travel far from its source to destination—it's environmentally friendly and food retains more nutrition. 

But there's much more to the movement for diehard farm-to-table chefs like Cottle.

Farm-to-table foodies favor the use of organic, seasonal ingredients, such as tomatoes and strawberries in the summer and butternut squash in the fall, whenever possible. Food scraps should be composted whenever possible. And natural foods such as honey are favored over processed ingredients like refined sugar. 

Cottle also espouses the use of non-select cuts of meat and tries to steer clear of non-sustainable fish, like Chilean sea bass. 

Jordan Caterers' event menus, which Kevin hopes to put his stamp on in the coming months, incorporate many of these ideals. Because the Rapoports have great relationships with farmers in Cheshire and other nearby towns, they are able is able to offer more and more locally grown Connecticut-farmed food and dairy to the growing number of clients who are interested in it. 

"Non-mass production requires more commitment of time so it's more expensive," says Cottle. "But you're getting a better-yielded product with more minerals and more nutrients that's actually better for you, so you have to adjust your costs accordingly. If people want actual tomatoes that are full of nutrients and taste like a tomato you might have to pay a little bit more instead of having a watered-down piece of wax that's mass-produced in Texas or Guatemala."

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to offer local fare. 

"If you want 500 pounds of prime tenderloin, you're not gonna be able to get that from a local farmer, or else you'll virtually deplete them," Debra Rapoport explains. 

That's why helping the caterer—which was recently named "Best Caterer" by the editors of Connecticut magazine—execute its vision is a work in progress for the new chefs. 

But it's a lot easier than working in the hottest kitchen in all of America. 

From Day One, host Gordon Ramsay regularly lambastes chefs who don't cook his dishes perfectly. A common scene is red-faced Ramsay fondling a chunk of beef and shouting "this meat is raw" before throwing it on the ground and stomping on it. Contestants are often referred to as "donkeys" or humiliated in front of customers when dinner service drags. 

And that's just stuff you see on TV.

"I went in there naive, like 'oh, I got this," Hurd recalls. "There's so much stuff you don't see, the sabotage. They play with your crab, they play with your [oven] pilot. You have it on 500, and you go to check it and it's on 200."

But though the drama will be a few notches lower in Connecticut, there are still the challenges of keeping up with the high standards of an award-winning caterer whose client preferences and menu offerings change week to week. 

"At a restaurant, it's the same four walls. Here, it's some place different everyday," says Hurd. "But you better bring your 'A' game. You better not forget everything.

Correction: The original version of this article stated that two acres of a town-owned farm in Cheshire were being operated by Jordan Caterers. In fact, they are overseen by Friends of Boulder Knoll, a non-profit which Jeffrey Rapoport helped found. Patch regrets the error.