July 3 - 9, 2016
Page 9
Tasty TV
Chefs take it outside in wine country in 'Chopped Grill Masters Napa' BY GEORGE DICKIE Northern California’s Napa Valley is known for its scenic beauty, vineyards and, of course, wine, and this week it serves as the backdrop to a competition series debuting on Food Network. In the five-part “Chopped Grill Masters Napa,” premiering Tuesday, July 5, 16 professional grillers from around the country face off over the course of three rounds in their pursuit of a $50,000 grand prize. Evaluating the final products are rotating guest judges Michael Chiarello, Amanda Freitag, Marc Murphy, John Koch and Geoffrey Zakarian. Ted Allen is the host. The twist here is the chefs will be preparing their meals in outdoor kitchens on the grounds of Beringer Vineyards in Mt. Helena, Calif., outfitted only with grills and smokers. So if a chef’s mystery basket dictates the use of an oven, the contestant will have to do a little improvisation. “That gets really interesting, especially when it comes to dessert,” Freitag says. “You have to make an oven.
You have to turn your grill into an oven if you want to bake something. I think it’s actually really cool to see these chefs who know how to cook very well but then become super resourceful. You know, you might come up with an idea but that idea might require an oven or a gas burner or something that you don’t have on site. So it’s challenging.” Another challenge for the chefs is the outdoor setting. Temperatures during shooting ranged from 40 degrees in the morning to 90 in the afternoon, with wind and rain also factors. And then, of course, there were interlopers of the tiny flying and crawling kind. “There were some bees, for sure,” Freitag says with a laugh. “I mean, there’s a lot of beautiful flowers and things that need to be pollinated on Beringer Vineyards, so there’s lots of bees and bugs and what not. So the chefs even had to combat insects as well, so it was a little bit rough and that’s just what made it even more interesting – to see who could really deal with all of those challenges.” What book are you currently reading? “Well, that’s a good question since I’m traveling right now. I took along Eric Ripert’s new book called ‘32 Yolks.’ Plane reading.”
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What did you have for dinner last night? “Last night, I was dining with a friend in Oakland, so we cooked at home because we had been out in a food tour so we decided to have a homecooked meal. And we made skirt-steak tacos. Delicious. It was really, really good. We had some beautiful California produce and turned it into tacos and it was yummy. I made strawberry cilantro margaritas and (laughs) I helped chop all the vegetables.” What is your next project? “I am working on a fine/casual clean food concept. I’m looking to possibly start out in Nashville, Tenn. It’s still
very much in the works but that’s what’s happening. I saw a lot of great concepts here in San Francisco. I love what’s going on. So people want access to really good food, they want to have it all the time and they want to have it fast, so I like eating that way myself. I’m excited to make that my next project.” When was the last vacation you took, where and why? “This is it. (laughs) I haven’t been on vacation in a really long time. I travel a lot for work. I mean, this has a little work involved but I would say that this is officially a vacation – San Fran and now San Diego.”
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