NSB cops: FOX reality TV show Hell's Kitchen winner Danny Veltri arrested on DUI charge

Danny Veltri, the Hell's Kitchen winner three years ago, was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail early Saturday on drunken driving charges as shown in his mugshot at left. A happy Danny Veltri as shown here from a photo on his Facebook page. Veltri returned to New Smyrna Beach a year or or so after his Hell's Kitchen fame to help launch the Gnarly Surf Bar & Grill, 114 Flagler Ave.

By HENRY FREDERICK
Headline Surfer

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Danny Veltri, 27, who rose to national fame as the top chef on the FOX television reality show "Hell's Kitchen" nearly three years ago, was arrested over the weekend at a gas station on State Road 44 on a charge of driving under the influence, according to a New Smyrna Beach police report.

Veltri blew a .120 in a breathalyzer, slightly more than the .08 legal threshold for driving under the influence, according to New Smyrna Beach police. 

Police responded to a 9-1-1 call at Murphy's gas station, at 4:16 a.m. Saturday to a report of an intoxicated driver. Officer Brandon Mechtel said in his preliminary report that upon arrival he "made contact with the offender who was found to be intoxicated and in control of a motor vehicle."

Veltri was subsequently charged with driving under the influence and transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail where he later bonded out. Veltri's 2005 Dodge Neon was impounded.