One 'hell' of a cook

Rahman "Rock" Harper has a simple philosophy when it comes to cooking.

Put love into your work and have a good time, said the 33-year-old Harper.

An Alexandria native and season 3 winner of the popular reality show "Hell's Kitchen," Harper is now serving up these nuggets of wisdom to culinary students at Stratford Uni-versity's Woodbridge and Falls Church campuses.

Harper was hired last month as an adjunct professor after stints as head chef at Terra Verde at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas and Washington's Ben's Next Door on U Street.

Despite Harper's notoriety and impressive resume, which includes a degree from Johnson & Wales University, it's difficult to detect even a hint of arrogance.

As a chef and now teacher, Harper preaches of setting goals, no matter how small, and always being pro-fessional no matter how good you think you are. That means wearing a suit to an interview for even the most menial of kitchen jobs and writing thank you notes before you even go to the interview, said Harper.

Fresh out of culinary school in 1996, the then-20-year-old applied for head chef at the new California Pizza Kitchen in Alexandria. While he was vastly underqualified for the position, his professionalism and confi-dence went a long way with the interviewer.

"[He said] 'If you had the skills, I would hire you today,'" Rahman recalled.

So Harper started from the ground up, working at a bagel joint before taking a job as a line cook making $7 an hour at the Planet Hollywood chain. A few years later, he worked his way up to executive chef at Wash-ington restaurant B. Smith's where he spent a total of nine years perfecting his craft.

Along with his teaching gig, Harper is also in the process of writing two books, hopes to create a reality show and is exploring the idea of opening a Southern-style restaurant in Woodbridge, where he now re-sides.

"Hell's Kitchen" made Harper a household name and it was a perfect scenario to put his head down and do what he'd been doing since he was 10 years old.

It was a reality show that was actually realistic, Harper said, and the foul-mouthed British host Gordon Ramsay was every bit as intimidating as he appeared on television.

"I didn't know what to expect," Harper said. "He's a hard ass and that's an understatement."

By the end of Season 3, Ramsay's tirades against the contestants turned to compliments in Harper's case, though. Harper's deep-fried lobster tail was just one of the many things that wowed Ramsay.

"Rock deserved to win Hell's Kitchen," said Ramsay during the Season 3 finale. "He's a very confident cook, and he has become a very good leader. He can motivate staff, he can create. All those qualities are not easy to find in one, Chef Rock has all of them."

Two years removed from the show, the married father of two children and one on the way is as happy as ever and sees himself teaching long-term.

As they say in France, Harper appears to have his 'mise en place' or everything in place.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.