Current post: Sous chef at Centro Latin Kitchen & Refreshment Palace in Boulder, Colo.
Pedigree: Earned her culinary degree at Baltimore International College.
The dish: You know Melissa’s in the kitchen when you hear laughing, says Centro general manager Taige Smith. She’s also pretty eager to please: “I have guests who want gluten-free, dairy-limited, half butter on one side, half salt on the other, and I’ll come up to her when she’s 20 tickets in the weeds and say, ‘This is what we have to do to make this person happy,’ and she just slams it out,” says Smith. “So I think that she does well under pressure.”
Life loves: The outdoors. Harrison loves skiing and fly-fishing as well as camping, hiking and pretty much anything that can be done in the “serious mountains” that can be found just a 15-minute drive from where she works.
The verdict: Harrison gets along with everybody, says Smith. “She relates well with the amigos in the back, and she has a good time with the front-of-house staff as well,” he says. “She never loses her temper and she always resolves any problem she has the day that they occur,” he adds. So, could Harrison’s friend-focused attitude be a handicap in the I’m-not-here-to-make-any-pals mentality of the reality TV world? “I don’t think that she would have been a strategic player in that way, but you never know.”
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