A 2016 graduate of St. Joseph High School is the winner of America’s Test Kitchen Next Generation Season 2.

Alex Heugel graduated from the Kendall School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management after graduating from St. Joseph. You can watch him compete on the cooking show on Amazon now.

Because he came out on top out of eleven contestants, Alex gets his own cook book and $100,000.

St. Joseph High School culinary arts teacher Lauri Berry remembers Alex well. She tells us she’s “incredibly proud of him but not at all surprised.” Berry says Alex is “the perfect fit for America’s Test Kitchen with his combination of creativity, expert skill level, and love of ingredient science.” He was in her Foods and Nutrition class as a freshman and in Culinary Arts as a sophomore because he always knew he wanted to be a culinary worker.

Berry says as a senior, Alex wrote an article for the high school newspaper about the skills necessary to be successful in the food service industry, and her students still read and use the article in class. She adds the kids have been watching clips from the Amazon show all week.

Alex now works as a chef at The Chopping Block in Chicago.