Scooter Telford, the aspiring baker from Hotel Hell’s Cambridge Hotel, only ended up finishing two years of college after the show aired.
If you are a longtime Gordon Ramsay fan, you likely know that this notoriously outspoken Scottish chef is not always as mean and boisterous as he appears to be on his ever-popular reality television series.
In fact, Hotel Hell fans may remember a somewhat unexpected moment from the “Cambridge Hotel” episode from the first season in which Ramsay offered to pay for the young prep cook, Scooter Telford, to finish culinary school.
However, now that it has been more than a decade since this episode first aired in 2012, many fans have wondered what happened to Scooter after this episode, where he was moved to tears at the sight of a well-crafted piece of pie.
Scooter’s journey after appearing on Hotel Hell
And while many Hotel Hell stars drop off the map after their episodes air, Scooter’s now-wife, Amber Lee, has provided some much-needed updates about exactly what went down after the Hotel Hell cameras stopped rolling.
Amber Lee revealed in a TikTok video (which was posted on her page on 26 March 2023) that a miscommunication with Ramsay’s team meant that Scooter only ended up completing two out of the four years of college.
As a result, this aspiring young baker also never quite made it to the point of opening his own bakery.
What happened to the Cambridge Hotel?
Although Ramsay was at least able to help Scooter with two years of his education, the same cannot be said for the Cambridge Hotel and its owners.
This historic New York-based hotel closed its doors permanently in 2012, due to a foreclosure, which happened before the episode even aired for the first time.
So, while we were all watching this touching episode for the first time, The Cambridge Hotel had already been vacated. This somewhat roundabout timeline of events can be summarized as follows:
| Date | Event |
| January 2012 | Gordon Ramsay and his Hotel Hell crew arrive to film the “Cambridge Hotel” episode. |
| June 2012 | The Cambridge Hotel falls $486,000 behind on its mortgage and is placed under foreclosure. |
| August 2012 | The “Cambridge Hotel” Hotel Hell episode premieres |
Why did Scooter not finish college?
Obviously, the news that a “little miscommunication” prevented this fan-favorite chef from living his dream of going to culinary school ruffled some feathers and Amber Lee had to post a follow-up video explaining exactly what happened after one commenter suggested that Scooter “only took 2” of the four years offered to him.
In this video, Amber Lee clarifies that the actual issue came about when Scooter wanted to transfer from a school with a two-year program to a college with a four-year program.
It seems that when Scooter started considering this transfer, the communication with Ramsay’s team broke down, and they were no longer able to pay for his tuition, which is why he ultimately did not end up completing the course.
Have Scooter and Gordon Ramsay kept in touch?
Finding out that Scooter’s funding was cut because of a simple miscommunication is certainly disheartening. But it seems like Scooter and Amber Lee are not harboring any ill feelings about this misunderstanding.
Amber Lee did confirm that Scooter has not actually spoken to Ramsay since the filming of this episode wrapped, but he remains extremely grateful for Ramsay’s contribution and he still respects him as a chef.
Actually, it turns out that Amber Lee and Scooter are both still Gordon Ramsay fans, and they have been tuning in to watch one of his newer reality cooking competition shows called Next Level Chef.
What Scooter is doing now
Over 11 years have now passed since Scooter and Ramsay were first introduced to each other at the Cambridge Hotel and not surprisingly, Scooter has changed a lot in that time.
By all appearances, he has settled down in his personal life with his wife, Amber Lee, and this seemingly happy couple recently welcomed two children.
However, while Scooter’s journey through college may not exactly have been what we all envisioned when we first tuned in to watch this episode, it was not without its benefits.
According to Amber Lee, those first two years of culinary school taught Scooter that he much preferred the creativity of cooking to baking, and if he ever were to open a business of his own – it would probably be a food truck or a restaurant, and not a bakery.
In the meantime, however, Scooter is on a new career path as an HVAC technician, where he works regular shifts and gets to spends more time with his growing family.
