‘Food Stars’ Winner Jess Druey Reveals Exactly Where Her Marketing Savvy Came From

The second winner of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars has been chosen, and this time, it’s a member of Lisa Vanderpump’s team: Jess Druey.

Throughout the season, Jess championed her Whiny Baby wine brand, which aims to introduce wine drinking to Gen Z-ers, while rising to the many challenges the judges put them through — from creating a new brand from scratch to selling simple kitchen supplies to a live audience to running a kitchen — and she was consistently poised and professional.

TV Insider caught up with her to find out how she managed to pull off such a convincing win.

What did it mean for you that Lisa wanted to take a chance on you with your initial pitch?

Jess Druey: I mean, I have grown up watching Lisa. I am like a Bravo [superfan]. And I love the Real Housewives. I love Vanderpump Rules. My mom, growing up, would be like, “Why do you watch reality TV?” And I’d be like, “I think that it’s like a social experiment. I think some of the smartest people watch reality TV because we’re watching real people.” I mean, I seriously remember being super young and watching Lisa … and just being a longtime fan of hers. And so when I found out she was on the show, it just was an absolute game changer. And of course, I’ve also, you know, been a longtime fan of Gordon, but he’s strong in the food section, of course. And Lisa is — I think we’re kind of kindred spirits. She’s a self-proclaimed maximalist. As am I. So I think that she got me from the beginning, and then the rest of the season, I’m trying to prove myself to Gordon, which hopefully I did do.

One thing that seemed to impress him was your marketing savvy. Where did you get your sense of composure and salesmanship?

Well, thank you so much. Yeah. I mean, I’m a college dropout. I couldn’t study business, but I think we all have different tools in our tool belt, from different life experiences. And I was just saying, I think in this age of Tiktok and social media, a lot of people see these entrepreneur success stories, and it gives you this — I felt that my whole life — and that’s, I think, why I’ve been fortunate enough to have success at such a young age. I woke up being like, “I gotta hurry, I gotta figure it out.” But I wish I could go back and tell myself, “You don’t need to rush because every single life experience is only gonna help you be a better entrepreneur one day.”

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And so before I made my Whiny Baby, I worked at Red Bull, and I definitely credit my time at Red Bull to beverage marketing insight, and they’ve done it like no one else. They’ve created a lifestyle around an energy drink. And I’ve always said that if the wine industry could take just a little bit of that Red Bull marketing mindset, the industry as a whole would come better off in getting these new consumers.

Every single challenge in some way or another put you on the spot. Were there any challenges where you felt like, “Oh no, they got me?” Or did you always just have that confidence? 

Of course, the trade show cutting of the finger comes to mind. I would say that was the most [difficult]. I was shaking in my boots and felt so honestly, I felt out of control and out of my element. But as you said, I think that was my strategy in the competition, was looking at each challenge and going, “Okay, this challenge may not be in favor of my natural skills, but what way can I uniquely shine in this as an entrepreneur, and what you know skills can I offer to this challenge?” Definitely, what you’d see is real. I was freaking out that challenge, and I felt like I was letting my team down, too, which is never a good feeling.

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What’s it like to watch yourself back?

It’s so funny, nothing prepared you for this. And I think I just as a human being, every time you watch yourself, you kind of like, “Cringe!” and you’re nitpicking every detail of your looks and whatever. If I’m being honest, all of us who made it this far into the competition were messaging today going, “I can see the 15 pounds that I gained in London.” But I’ve been proud of how I’ve handled it. I think that I realized super early on in starting a business, there’s going to people be people who like you, who don’t like you, people who get your business, people who don’t.

What I’ve always just returned back to is I go on these college town tours where I do wine tastings, and  I’ve met so many people who were in the same position as I was. Where they went, “I had no clue where to start on my wine-drinking journey,” or “I didn’t think I liked red wine until I tried this wine.” And so I think if you’re able to always go back to the mission of why you’re doing what you’re doing. It makes it all worth it, but putting yourself on a reality show was not in my bingo card for this year, but it was the best experience in my life, and truly it made me a better entrepreneur in person, and I’m so thankful for the experience.

With your Sip Strips brand, I thought it was a really good idea — not wanting to leave your drink with someone, that’s especially useful for college-aged women. Are you pursuing that?

Yeah, that is the dream. Thank you so much. I don’t know how that’s gonna be perceived, because I think that, from what I remember, I didn’t go the route of picking an existing packaging. I came up with a packaging that didn’t exist, and when that came the risk of — it needed a lot of product development. And so I’m happy to hear that you saw the vision, even though it needs a bit of work.

Yes, I want to bring it to market 100%… We’ll see what the future holds. That’s obviously the dream, but you nailed it. I, as an entrepreneur, every idea I’ve had and everything I do draws from real-life experience, because I feel like if I’m experiencing this, other people are. And in the very little bit of downtime that we had in London, we actually did go to kind of a day event one day where we were drinking, me and the other castmates, and I kept remembering when we were given the challenge to create something new, I’m thinking from my own life experiences, I kept remembering a couple of weekends prior in London, where I kept handing my castmates my drink while I went to the bathroom, and you nailed it. That’s exactly where the inspiration came from.

What does this money and Lisa’s on-the-show mentorship mean for the future of your company?

So the cash prize, obviously, I mean, it’s a game changer. And going into filming, you know, Whiny Baby’s available nationwide on our website. But you know, wine, obviously, the success comes from being on major grocery store shelves. And so I’ve been fortunate enough to be on Target, Venmo, Total Wine, and Go Pop store shelves in four states. And now, as the season’s aired, I’m so excited to share that we’re adding an additional 20 states to that and hopefully it just grows from there.

For me, the mission is to get Whiny Baby to be a household name and be available on every major store shelf in every state. When it comes to Lisa, although this wasn’t an investment or a partnership per se, you know, I really do view her and Gordon as lifelong mentors to me and even Whiny Baby. And I think one of my big takeaways from Lisa is as an entrepreneur, and even with Whiny Baby, I’m really passionate about hospitality and creating in real-life experiences. So the hope is that I am able to maybe start entering into that hospitality space as well.

Gordon Ramsay is known as an intimidating, fierce figure of reality television, and in this show, he has a softer side. And then Lisa is obviously larger than life as well. From your perspective, what was it like to work with them?

I mean, they are exactly how they seem, except 10 times more lovely. And what I can say is, when you meet them, you go, “Oh, this is why you’re so successful and a superstar!” Just how they make the room and their brilliance like it’s the real deal. I just took away from them being true to yourself. They’re not afraid to be honest. But at the same time, they’re not afraid to be silly, they have humor. They’re definitely tough cookies, but at the same time, they encouraged me throughout, and that’s probably my biggest takeaway — that you can be authentically yourself and be an incredible business person. I like to say — and I think it shows on the show —  I am silly. And sometimes, I think it comes across like I’m not maybe taking things seriously. But I think you can not take yourself so seriously, but be a seriously incredible entrepreneur. And they just were the absolute best to work with.

Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, Seasons 1 & 2, streaming, Hulu