TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey chef once featured on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares has committed suicide.
Joseph Cerniglia was found floating in the Hudson River on Friday after jumping to his death from the George Washington Bridge, the Associated Press reports.
The 39-year-old Cerniglia, who owned the debt-ridden restaurant Campania in Fair Lawn, N.J., was featured on Ramsay’s show in 2007.
"I’m financially in trouble – the debt of the restaurant alone is overwhelming. My personal debt – wife, kids mortgage – that’s a lot of debt," Cerniglia told Ramsay on the reality series. "I owe my purveyors about $80,000 right now in cold, hard cash … I can’t see us going on another year."
Cerniglia is the second former contestant on a Ramsay show to commit suicide. Rachel Brown, 41, shot herself in her family’s Dallas home in 2007, a year after she appeared on Hell’s Kitchen.
