William Penn teacher/chef on 'Guy’s Grocery Games'
It takes culinary skills, creativity and a competitive spirit to appear on a TV cooking show.
In recent months, Delaware chefs have proven their mettle.
Robbie Jester, executive chef at the Stone Balloon Ale House in Newark, received widespread recognition after his three recent appearances on the Food Network supermarket/cooking game show “Guy’s Grocery Games.”
Then, in July, he got even bigger kudos for besting celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a shrimp scampi cookoff on Flay’s popular Food Network show, “Beat Bobby Flay.”
On Friday at 8 p.m., viewers can watch chef Andrew Pearce of New Castle go head to head with notoriously ill-tempered Gordon Ramsay on the FOX TV show “Hell’s Kitchen.”
Pearce, who works at a steakhouse in Philadelphia, told The News Journal that Ramsay is “a guy who knows what he wants, and what he expects. And if you don’t meet those expectations, he tells you about it. He was very straightforward.”
And now we’ll find out how well Kip Poole, culinary arts instructor at William Penn High School near New Castle, shop and cooks as a contestant on “Guy’s Grocery Games.”
According to the Food Network, Poole is one of four contestants on a Halloween-themed episode, airing at 8 p.m. Oct. 2, called “Halloween Spook-Tacular.”
“Guy’s Grocery Games” challenges four contestants to shop for and then cook ingredients found in a made-for-TV grocery store called Flavortown Market. The program, created and hosted by spiky-haired chef Fieri, tests a cook’s ability to think, move, shop and cook as fast and creatively as possible.
The dishes are tasted by judges and the cook making the least tasty dish is eliminated. The judges for the program featuring Poole include journalist and food critic Troy Johnson, “Food Network Star” winner Damaris Phillips and TV host and producer Marc Summers.
The pre-taped episode with Poole sounds like both a trick and a treat. According to the Food Network, the first challenge calls for the chefs to use tiny jack-o’-lanterns to grab all the ingredients in the market. Then, they have to wear blindfolds to find a key item to create a “dinner to die for.”
Finally, the chefs can only use their bare hands to shop for a “mummified dish” (whatever that means), all while contending with a “frightening” trick-or-treater.
Poole can’t talk about the outcome, so stay tuned. But this Saturday, Sept. 24, you can see him at a pop-up event for the Crop Foundation, an organization that raises scholarship funds for students to continue education in the culinary and hospitality industries after graduation.
The “Farm 101” pop-up will take place from 4 to 9 p.m. at New Castle’s Historic Penn Farm at 807 Frenchtown Road. Visit www.thecrop.org for more information.
Where are the letters?
No worries. Reader Mail will return soon. I’m still hunting down answers to a pile of email I’ve received in recent weeks. In the meantime, I always welcome more queries.
Got a dining/food/beverage question? Send an email to me at ptalorico@delawareonline.com.
‘Barefoot’ coming back to airwaves
It seems like forever since there have been new episodes of Ina Garten’s Food Network TV series, “Barefoot Contessa.” But fear not. Garten returns to the Food Network at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 16.
The series will focus on “Cooking for Jeffrey.” Faithful fans know, of course, Jeffrey is Ina’s husband for the past 48 years. The series is tied to Garten’s new book, “Cooking for Jeffrey” (Clarkson Potter, 2016), which is filled with the recipes Jeffrey and the Gartens’ friends request most often.
The book, which Ina calls her “most personal cookbook yet,” will be released on Oct. 25.
Jeffrey frequently appears on her TV shows. Still, Garten once told me people often stop her on the street to ask if Jeffrey is her “real” husband.
“Isn’t that a riot? Like I’m Meryl Streep?” Garten said.
Jeffrey is not a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild, but has been a longtime Yale professor in the Practice of International Trade, Finance and Business. He was dean of the school from 1995 to 2005. Before that he was undersecretary of commerce for international trade, where he focused on trade and investment negotiations and policy toward big emerging markets – particularly China, India and Brazil.
The season premiere episode of “Barefoot Contessa” on Oct. 16 focuses on an Italian-themed birthday dinner for Jeffrey. Ina will be making bruschetta with sauteed chard and Aperol spritzers; roasted Italian meatballs; and an arugula, radicchio and Parmesan salad.
If you want to see Garten in person, she has an upcoming on-stage interview at the Peter Jay Sharp Building in Brooklyn New York at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 with comedian/writer Tina Fey. The former Saturday Night Live performer and writer is a huge Garten fan. Garten was mentioned and appeared Fey’s TV series, “30 Rock.”
Visit barefootcontessa.com for more information.
Beers, burgers and bocce in Baltimore
Charm City gets a look-see on the Oct. 28 episode of “Burgers, Brew & ‘Que,” a Food Network series hosted by chef Michael Symon. It airs at 10 p.m.
Actor and proud Baltimore native Josh Charles (“Dead Poets Society,” “The Good Wife”) meets up with Symon at his favorite Baltimore place for crab cakes in a town. Where is that? You’ll have to tune in and see.
After a round of bocce ball in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood, Symon then introduces Charles to some of Baltimore’s spots for burgers, desserts and craft brews.
The News Journal/delawareonline.com reserves the right to edit letters for clarity, length and accuracy. Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.comand on Twitter@pattytalorico