How I met my partner: Cork Hell's Kitchen winner Ryan used pizza to make proposal to Jen

WHEN Jennifer Maffeo adopted a dog named Ramsay, she had no idea that years later she’d end up married to the winner of Gordon Ramsay’s reality show Hell’s Kitchen.

Chef Ryan O’Sullivan, originally from Gurranabraher and later residing in Douglas, was living in Florida when he met his wife.

Jen explained that she was bartending in Palm Beach, at a place where “all the visa kids used to go in to play pool, drink beers and hang out".

“At the end of the night he came up to pay his tab and asked for my number, but I was kind of awkward so I slid the paper back, said no and walked away.” 

Ryan added that Jen got asked for her number all the time working there and didn’t like to give it out to customers, but she later regretted her decision.

“I knew the people he was hanging out with. I followed them on Instagram, so I went onto their profiles, looked at their followers and found him,” she laughed.

Jen followed Ryan and he immediately messaged her, not wanting to waste any more time, and the pair had their first date at a Christmas pop up bar. That was six years ago, and they have now been married for four years.

Ryan said: “I told my mum that I wanted to marry her, and she had only met Jen over the phone. So when I told her I was going to propose she insisted I had to wait and flew out immediately.

“She stayed over for a week, and she never liked anybody I was dating before, they were never good enough for her son. But she met Jen and fell in love with her immediately.” 

His mum helped him pick a ring, and then it was time to plan the proposal, which Jen knew was coming. Ryan had his eye on a beautiful rooftop cocktail bar, but explained “Jen is not an ‘all eyes on me’ person, she had said to me ‘don’t do it in public, I don’t want to be the centre of attention’.” 

So Ryan came up with a new plan, explaining that they both loved pizza and get angry if one of us has it without the other.

“There’s very few places to get really good pizza in Florida but there’s this place we go to a lot. So I went to the guys there and said ‘I know this is going to sound cliché but I want to write will you marry me on a pizza’.

“The guys told me they had been open for 40 years and never had anybody do this. They let me come behind the counter and help make the pizza to make it more special.

“I wrote ‘will you marry me’ in pepperoni and took it home. I asked her to get a couple of glasses, then when she came out I had the pizza box open, a bottle of champagne out and the ring in my hand.” 

She said yes, and they described the proposal as “just perfect”, because it was just the two of them there.

They have yet to have a ceremony, getting married at the start of covid in the courthouse where they could only bring one person each and had to stand six feet apart.

“The very next day, they shut down the courthouse,” Jen said, with Ryan adding that this was all done within two weeks of him telling his mum he wanted to propose.

They explained that they are planning somewhere in Italy, where Jen’s family are from, with Jen saying: “Everyone can go away for a holiday and we’ll just also be getting married.” 

Jen is still bartending while she studies graphic design. Ryan is working at a country club, and the pair also have a side hustle selling t-shirts with some of Ryan’s best-loved sayings from the show.

"We’re both busy people, so we’re just riding the wave, taking it day by day," said Ryan. 

On the possibility of moving to Ireland, Jen said her biggest concern would be leaving their aptly named dog Ramsay, while Ryan said the hospitality scene in Ireland has a few issues at the moment.

“But never say never,” he said, adding, “I’d love to have a little flagship back in Cork.” 

In the meantime, his family come to visit them in Florida, and Jen has lots of family close by.

 “The Irish and the Italian are very similar - it’s great to have the support of two fantastic families," said Ryan.