Jayaun Smith grew up watching cooking shows and teaching himself as much as he could from them and it certainly paid off because he’s now one of the most well-known professional chefs in Kansas City.

Since he was 16 years old, he competed in state and nationwide cooking competitions. Now, in one of his biggest cooking competitions yet, Smith will be featured on Hell’s Kitchen Season 20: Young Guns.

The series centered around young and up-and-coming chefs, was filmed two years ago in Las Vegas when Smith was 23 years old. The show features 17 other contestants who are all 23 years old or younger. It will premiere May 31 at 7 p.m. on FOX.

Smith, who is on the Blue Team in the show, said being on the show was one of the craziest experiences he ever had.

“Being a kid from Kansas City, I’m just grateful, blessed and super excited for the world to meet Chef Jay,” said Smith on Twitter.

Smith began his cooking career at Ruby Jean’s Kitchen and Juicery where he became executive chef and created their first menu after attending Johnson County Community College for the Chef Apprenticeship program. He then became a private chef for a number of celebrities including Floyd Mayweather, DC Young Fly, wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens and former Kansas City Chiefs player Sammy Watkins and Draya Michele.

Smith is also the youngest winner in history to win The Pitch’s Best Chef of Kansas City in 2018 and opened Sauced, a lunch counter in the Crossroads Arts District that launched last year.

Sauced is open 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday and 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.