The Deyhles met when Michelle worked for Scott at Eat-A-Burger in Holladay. He fired her when she reportedly was rude to a customer.
"I hated him," she recalls.
Michelle's friends and co-workers pressured Scott into hiring her back. The two fell in love and married in 1999, and now are the parents of three children.
Survivor Michelle and her sister, Bre Fisher, were crowned the champions of the TV show "Farm Fear Factor," which aired on NBC in September.
The application process was long and arduous. The sisters had to submit a video tape, a mountain of paperwork and, months later, have a video interview. When they were finally accepted for the show, there were contracts galore. The sisters say they basically ³signed their lives away.²
Later, they flew to Los Angeles for three days of filming; the contest pitted them against three other two-person teams in farm-themed events.
The first was the Pigsty Transfer. Teams were locked in a pigsty where they had to crawl on their hands and knees and push past 10 pigs to reach a trough of slop, where they bobbed for pig tongues and feet and carried them in their mouths to a bucket on the other side of the sty. Deyhle and Fisher scored the fastest time in this event.
The second event was Chicken Rotisserie in a Basket. Both members of each team were strapped back to back on a board that rotated end over end through a tank of animal lard. While under the lard, they tried to grab frozen chickens and toss them into a basket when they resurfaced.
Fisher was the only contestant to score in this event. She netted two chickens, and the sister act won another round. They were awarded a $10,000 flight credit from Orbitz and a seven-day trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, for their trouble.
Finally, the two competed in the Tractor Drag. One team member was handcuffed in a tank as it filled with rotten milk. The other member was shackled by the ankles and dragged behind a tractor while being sprayed with fertilizer. That person had to roll continuously to unscrew the shackles to get free, and then run to the milk tank and unlock the partner¹s handcuffs. Deyhle and Fisher again scored the best time. They won all three events to claim the "Farm Fear Factor" crown and the $50,000 grand prize.
Before the competition began, the siblings decided they would not back down from any challenge even if it involved spiders (Deyhle's worst fear) or eating something weird (Fisher's top terror). The duo wanted to show "what real women could do."
³The days were long, but it was awesome," Deyhle says. "We¹d do it again in a minute.²
Scott Deyhle's survivor story began in 1989, when he and his dad, Ken, bought an Eat-A-Burger franchise. Of the 17 that opened in the West, including 11 in Utah, only one remains. That is Scott's outlet at 4735 S. Highland Drive.
He currently employs 12 people who he considers family, which may explain why the fast-food diner has such a low employee-turnover rate. Rather than ruling by setting lots of rules, Scott decrees that he wants his workers to have fun. He even empowers his managers to buy lunch on occasion for unsuspecting customers.
Marion Beagley has worked for Deyhle for 15 years. He says he stays because "Scott takes good care of me.² Betsy Stevens likes her Eat-A-Burger job because it is a fun and friendly place to work. For her part, Jessica Stoker enjoys the people and getting to know the customers.
Scott's customers, many of them longtime regulars, cover a broad spectrum. Richard Nemelka, for instance, has been popping in since 1989.
"They have the best french fries in town," says Nemelka, who has a law office nearby.
Adds Joey Garrard, another regular: ³The food is great and the customer service is second to none. It¹s like family here.²
Eat-A-Burger's menu includes hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and shakes, among other things. But the Utah products that Scott uses in the fast food are not so typical. The sauce on the apricot-chicken sandwich, for instance, is made in Wanship. Scott says his business is booming.
