Day 1 - 08/05/2026

How did I get here & holy f****** groceries

It was about 4 pm two days prior to arriving in Juneau, Alaska, when I received a DM asking if I would like to work on a yacht. The details were minimal, other than it was a big boat, I was the only chef, I had to cook for 11 people, and it was 17 days long. After a little negotiation and some more information I said why the hell not. They booked my flight for the next day at 7 pm. So, I spent the next 8 hours researching how to cook on a yacht lol. I started building a provisions list with no clue what to look for or how to provision for a 2-week trip for this many people. That is precisely the kind of thing I like to say yes to lol. I think that’s why I found success on 100 Cooks. I say yes to cool things, then I go and actually do them. Whether it goes good or bad, I learn a hell of a lot, and most importantly, I learn how to adapt. You need to be flexible for this kind of thing, and if you’re not, you learn to be quick.

I flew into Juneau at about 11 pm. They booked a hotel for me, and I was in bed by midnight which was nice. The next morning, I was at Auke Bay Harbor at 8am looking for a big yacht called the Serengeti. She was pretty easy to spot lol. Once I got to the boat, I met the captain and one of the stewardesses. I got a small tour of the boat, but it was pretty hectic as they were getting ready for the guests and only had 2 days to clean the boat. After a meeting and pretty much no advice on provisions I did my own inventory of everything on the boat. Thankfully there’s two fridges, 2 chest freezers and a decent sized kitchen to work with. I did as much as I could, but I was on a time crunch, and the captain dragged me straight into town. I had to get a drug test which I didn’t know about, passing was not an issue haha. Afterwards, I was given the keys to the car, a credit card, and an endless budget. I spent hours and hours in Costco, I tell ya what.

I had a rough provisions sheet that I made before I flew out, and I cross referenced that with the inventory on hand. Well, there was a lot of stuff hidden and I guess the other chefs who had previously worked here did not care too much about organization lol. So, I bought a few things twice or even “thrice”. I had two flatbed carts and two normal grocery carts fully stocked at Costco. This was my first stop too; I still had a Fred Meyers stop lol. I loaded this car to the absolute brim, if I had more car space I probably would’ve bought more, so it’s probably good that I didn’t. When I got back to the boat, we had to haul carts and carts of stuff from the car to the boat and then up the ladder, it was a pain in the ass. I mean hell, I had 30 dozen eggs! It was about 6 pm by the time everything was in the boat. I then spent the next three hours organizing and putting shit away. I did not have as much room as I thought, man what a long process. So much random extra stuff and then also all the stuff I just bought.

After that ordeal was finished, I went for some bar grub with the crew. I called it early as the guests were arriving tomorrow and I wanted to be on my game. I found out that this yacht was built for Johnny Carson which is pretty cool. There is a lot of history here. Don’t hate me but I had to google who Johnny Carson was.

Day 2 - 08/06/2026

I woke up at around 7:30 am. The guests aren’t arriving until the afternoon, and I only have to cook breakfast for them. The crew gets lunch and dinner; the guests get all three. Believe it or not I had to go back to the grocery store to buy more stuff lol. I finished up shopping then started doing my prep for lunch. The guests were not going to arrive until 4 pm so I just had to make the crew food. I whipped up some Asian lettuce wraps that were a big hit. I think the previous chef must’ve done a pretty bang-up job because they were quite impressed with lettuce wraps. I love it, I love when people like food. I then cleaned the whole kitchen and started on my dinner/canape prep. I made brioche crostini and topped it with some prime beef tenderloin tartare for when the guests arrived. There are two couples in their 70s. They are awfully nice people who aren’t picky and don’t like foo foo food. It couldn’t be better for me haha.

For dinner I did mushroom-asparagus risotto with seared Alaskan scallops, basil oil, and aged parmesan. I also served them a salad first; it was a fennel and baby lettuce salad with lemon vinaigrette. Risotto is honestly great for service because you can par cook it, then finish it right at the end and add your parmesan. I also like to blanch my asparagus and cook my mushrooms separately, so they have good color and aren’t just mushy. The guests were really happy with the food and loved it when I explained to them what arborio rice was. They put down some serious food. I really like serving food to people who like to eat. Unfortunately, my first day was such a grind and I had so much going on I couldn’t make them dessert. I served them ice cream, which was kind of lame, oh well. After dinner I cleaned the whole kitchen and watched some whales which was fun. I also had to do more planning, inventory, and provisional stuff on my computer. I did not go to bed until 11 pm. It was a long day.

Day 3 - 08/07/2026

I woke up at 5:45, showered and got ready. I was in the kitchen by 6am and went straight into cutting fruit for my fruit platter. I had a loose plan for breakfast when the captain, Will, came in and told me the guests were going fishing this morning. So instead, I had to make 4 breakfast burritos and 2 breakfast sandwiches on the fly. Sounds like this might be a regular occurrence haha. I had their food ready by the time they were out the door and then I reset the whole kitchen.

I knew what I was making for lunch but I wasn’t sure about dinner yet. They said they wanted to eat their catch of the day. I got going on lunch which was blackened halibut tacos, roasted red salsa, and creamy cabbage slaw. I whipped out the sous vide machine thinking it would be better for all the halibut filets. It was not, at all. It took up so much space and time. It might have cooked them perfectly but I needed to get that blackened sear on them. They were falling apart as I pulled them out of the bag. I felt like such an idiot. I tried to make it easy on myself and now it was 3x harder. I tried to keep at least 12 filets in good shape so the guests could each have three pretty tacos. I seared off the crew’s filets first and it was a bit of a train wreck. I wont even lie haha. I realized quickly that it wasn’t enough so I quickly thawed a salmon filet and fired it off for the crew. The salmon cooked beautifully, it was exactly how I should have done the halibut. I am glad I practiced on the crew’s filets because while they may not have looked pretty, they tasted fantastic and when I seared the guests’ filets they were spot on. I was cussing at myself a good amount while that darn fish was falling apart coming out of the bag, but it worked out in the end, thank goodness.

I reset the kitchen and it was about 1 pm at this point. I had been going nonstop since 6 am. I had myself a cold diet coke and figured out my plan for dinner. They were happy to have me make whatever I wanted. Having checked fish off the list already, I was happy to make some beef! I grabbed some pork belly and ground beef and got to work on an orecchiette bolognese. I got my soffritto rolling in that pork fat then added my beef and tomato paste. Once I had some good color I deglazed with red wine, added my whole peeled tomatoes and let that puppy simmerrrrr. So much flavor with so little work. You do all the heavy lifting in the beginning and in the end all you do is mix your bolognese with your pasta, easy money. I had some good time to work on a dessert, another appetizer, and the crew’s dinner. For the appetizer I painted a puff pastry square with Dijon, added prosciutto, brie cheese, and asparagus. I tucked it all in. I let that chill in the fridge then made my dessert right quick.

I made petit pot a la creme chocolat which is a French dessert. It’s like a chocolate ganache soft custard. It is very easy and very tasty. It also went into the fridge to chill and set. For the crew I made them sheet pan chicken thighs with potatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, and red onions. I tossed everything with a mix of gochujang, bachans BBQ, rice vinegar, and honey. It was an easy one pan meal. I also made a creamy miso yogurt sauce. The dinner service was a breeze and seemed less chaotic than the night before. I had ample time to make a nice kale salad. I even roasted walnuts with some maple syrup and zaatar. I finished the salad with a honey mustard Dijon vinaigrette and goat cheese. I topped the bolognese with whipped ricotta and some drizzled basil oil. I explained to the guests how to make bolognese and told them what soffritto and mire poix were. They enjoyed it and I told them I had some dessert on the way. They ate all of it. Even though Beth (stewardess) was hating on my Pyrex plating choice for the creme chocolat. She was right it looked like shit, my bad, first time on a yacht. I finished up the day at 8 pm which is a success compared to yesterday, hopefully we can cut that number down tomorrow. Cheers, time for bed. P.S. my screen time is literally less than an hour lol.

Day 4 - 08/08/2026

Got up at 5:45am, that seems to be my golden time zone. Gives me 15 minutes to shower and get ready, then I start my day. The guests are unsure most mornings whether they will have a to-go meal or eat buffet style. It all depends on if they go fishing, So I usually cut fruit and the rest is kind of on the fly. This morning I was feeling good and made ham and cheese croissants. I used prosciutto and smoked cheddar to make it extra special. I also cheated and used puff pastry dough. Ain’t no way I’m making yeasted dough and proofing it twice for real croissants haha. I did, however, whip up some blueberry and almond financiers. They were a massive hit with everybody. Rightfully so, they might be the easiest and best French pastry to make. They were pretty darn good.

I cleaned and reset the kitchen and then hammered out lunch. I did chicken mediterranean bowls for both the crew and guests. I also did some dinner prep I wanted to do pavlova for dinner which seemed easy enough, I don’t know what the hell was going on but my French meringue failed 3 times in a row. I was so pissed. I finally made a Swiss meringue and it was money. That whole ordeal cost me an hour which put me behind about an hour for lunch. Thankfully there were orcas, so the guests were distracted and it bought me some time. Also, I got to watch orcas which was firrreee. I mixed all the ingredients together that I made the mediterranean bowls with, for the crew, they loved it. It was so fun being able to grill outside on the deck as well. Top 2 grilling spots of all time, and it aint number 2. I took about a 30-minute break for lunch and did my provisioning and inventory. I jumped straight into dinner, I thought it was going to be pretty chill but there were some hiccups. My pavlova was great and chilling in the oven. I made a ceviche tostada with a wasabi aioli, and it was also really good, that was their appetizer. I think I was still an hour behind from the pavlova from hell, so I felt rushed the whole time. Also, I planned on doing a halibut dish, but the guests wanted to eat their Coho (silver) salmon they caught. So I had to wait for the crew to filet it and bring it down to the galley. Then I had to pin bone each fillet which if you’ve ever done, it takes hella time. The guest wanted to walk into the galley during this time and watch me, so I had to explain to him what I was doing and stop for a bit and chat. All of these small hang ups add up in the end haha. I decided to do a miso beurre blanc salmon, crispy salmon skin, and chimichurri roasted potatoes. I also did a shaved brussel sprout salad. The salmon was easy to cook and then kept in the oven to keep warm. My beurre blanc would not stop breaking so I had keep dealing with that. Then my potatoes had to be double fried. All in all, it came together. The guests loved it and were bummed I didn’t come out to explain it, but I was busy plating dessert. Which was my painstaking pavlova creation with some fresh guava, Chantilly, and a guava gelee.

I came out after and talked to them for a long time. They found out I was on Food Network and had a lot of questions about 100 Cooks, specifically Terry Crews lol. We had a good chat, and I got to tell them a bit about myself which is part of the fun. Private cheffing is an experience for the guests. I made the crew Japanese curry mince, and they were stoked on it. Captain Will had nothing but good things to say today. The whole crew knows I won the show which is funny. Sounds like they want to keep me around but man this is not an easy life haha. I’d like to get some more practice and experience serving large format groups like hotel catering and what not. Because wow, I am only cooking for 4 guests and 7 crew. The last charter had 12 guests and 7 crew. I would be so f*****, excuse my French, anyways that’s all for tonight, tomorrows Sunday so I am going to do a roast. I need some sleep; it was another 15-hour day… Rip to me.

Day 4 - 08/08/2026

I made the guests some chocolate chip pancakes and an American style breakfast. It was Sunday morning, so it felt right. I had some salmon roe as well that I mixed into the scrambled eggs. It was freaking delightful. Claire (deckhand) and Will (captain) were taking the guest out fishing so I packed them each a burrito and put salmon roe in them as well. They were super stoked on it which was cool.

After breakfast I cleaned and went almost immediately into lunch prep. I was biting off a big task. I wanted to fry up some home chips to go along with my beer battered cod sandwich. The problem is that I hate deep frying. I don’t have a deep fryer, so I have to use a pot with oil and the strain and funnel it back and blah blah blah. It spatters, it gets hot, it makes a mess, I really just despise it, unfortunately it makes food really crispy and good though. So, whatever I’m using it. I got all of my home chips on ice water to remove the starch. Then I prepped some dinner stuff. I wanted to do a Sunday roast like the one I had at Roe when I was in London. Having vac packed and prepped my leg of lamb the night before all I had to do was put it in the sous vide for 6 hours. I then chopped up some carrots and par boiled my potatoes. That was dinner for now. I went back to lunch stuff. I made a quick remoulade which was actually delightful with that whole grain mustard. I decided I was only going to deep fry the cod sandwiches for the guest and bake some halibut for the crews. My goodness I’ve never cooked so much damn fish in my entire life haha. It all came out pretty good and it was definitely a heavy dish but man the guest still pounded it. They can freaking eat and I love it. After I cleaned up the deep fry mess I worked on the starter.

The guests had caught a pink salmon and insisted on eating it because of the novelty. I can’t blame them; I did the same thing 2 years ago. For all of you who don’t know, king salmon (chinook) is the best, then silvers (coho), then reds (sockeye), then chum (dog), then pinks (humpies). Pinks are dog food or cat food, nobody in Alaska eats them. A big reason is that once they get to fresh water to spawn, they start to deteriorate and their flesh gets very soft and unappetizing. They also look grayish when cooked like a dull trout, not a bright red. I’ll admit it, if you dress it up it’s not bad. See the people in Alaska are just pretentious because they have 5 options. Us lower 48 folk are happy with any salmon. However, we’re in Alaska and we have options, so I didn’t really want to cook pinks but here I am. So, I made some Korean pink salmon cakes with panko and kimchi folded in. I also made a gochujang crema and slaw to go on top. The guest loved them and honestly, they were tasty. I just would rather eat coho lol.

The dinner came together nicely as well. My lamb had cooked a bit more than I wished while I warmed it in the oven but everyone else loved it how it was. I served it with chimichurri and Sunday gravy; it was so good. I also fired off some Yorkshire puddings; it was my first time making them and they came out awesome. Felt like I was back in London ahah. The guests also loved the Sunday roast dinner vibe and liked the Yorkshire pudding a lot.

Beth (lead stewardess) told me she had a bunch of peaches going bad so she asked if I could do a dessert with them. I decided to do a cake inspired by the French frasier but using peaches instead of strawberries. I made a genoise sponge and creme mousseline, then made a peach compote as well. I added nutmeg and it gave it a spiced cake vibe. I used a cookie cutter to pop out nice rounds for each cake. I painted each cake with Italian Averno, piped on the creme mousseline, added the compote and repeated. They came out wonderfully and the guests were enthralled. Holy cow though I am freaking TIRED. These days are catching up haha.

Day 5 - 08-09-2026

Up and at em at 5:45 you know the drill. By far my most tired morning. Contemplated coffee but not yet. I like to hold off on caffeine unless I absolutely need it. Makes me jittery. I fired out a fruit platter and then baked a quiche as well; I dolloped some guacamole on the center of the quiche too. After breakfast I started on some easy prep for the poke bowls. I also thawed out a whole beef rib roast the night before, so I had to process that too. I did 2 big steaks for a 5-course meal I plan on doing. 4 smaller steaks for a steak night dinner. 1 rib roast for Sunday prime rib. And the trim I’ll make Philly cheese steaks. It’s all frozen again and I even pre- sous vided the six steaks. Solid prep beforehand which is going to be clutch. The guest went for a hike, so they weren’t going to be back until 2:00 pm which meant I don’t have to make lunch until then. Which is awesome. I banged out some prep so I could go for a little solo adventure. I was making poke bowls with king salmon (chinook) that they caught a couple days ago. I had the freeze it to kill the parasites. I marinated the salmon cubes in a poke mix and made my sushi rice. I also chopped up some veg for the bowls like my sunomono pickles. After everything was prepped, I finally left the boat for the first time haha. I took a kayak out and brought a fishing rod along with me. I went to a spot I could see out of my window where I watched salmon jump all day. I had 45 minutes and I used every bit of it. It was so nice to be outside. I hooked into a couple fish and then I actually broke a fish off and snapped my lure off lol. I tightened my drag which was a mistake because the salmon was a lot bigger than I thought. I should have let em run. I had to pedal back to the boat as the guest were on their way back.

They brought me back two 1-gallon bags of salmon berries. I have never heard or seen these before, so it was pretty dang cool. I’m excited to make them into something nice.

For lunch I made some king salmon belly maki and beef tenderloin nigiri. Then I fixed up the poke bowls. I served the crew the salmon cakes from the day prior and they were happy with them. Kohler (2nd mate) was not a big fan of them though haha. I had a gap between dinner because they ate a late lunch, so I knew it was going to be a long night. I started to prep and Beth (lead stewardess) told me they just wanted canapés and hand food and not a full dinner. Fuck ya. I had ample time now. I cleaned up the kitchen nice and then prepped a little bit and then you wouldn’t believe it, I took a nap! It was incredible, a quick 30-minute nap to bring me back to life. After, I built a big charcuterie board and decided to fry up some wonton shrimp and made a sweet and sour sauce with them. I cleaned again and boom, done at 8:23 pm. That’s a record.

The day kept getting better when Maikelly (engineer) asked if I wanted to sneak away and go fish, uhhhh duh! We took off on the little boat and fished a spot where the salmon were jumping up stream. Maikelly caught a sockeye and Claire (deckhand) caught a pink. I hooked into six probably and reeked in three, but they all got off. Tough day for the kid. We rode back to the Serengeti and the stars were just starting to pop out. I laid out on the bow and looked up at the sky and saw the Big Dipper barely starting to show itself. What a beautiful day, what a beautiful life. All of the hard work and saying yes to the stuff that seems so uncomfortable or demanding is paid off in these moments. These are key moments where everything feels like what it should and I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. Not all days are like this and that’s okay but today was and it’s important to recognize that. Anyways I’m off to bed, no more rambling about nonsense.

P.S. I made the crew lo mein with ground beef for dinner, forgot to write that down. Also chatted with guests for a long time today and they’re so awesome.

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It’s finally here. The biggest moment of my life on national tv for the whole world to see. Doug vs. myself for the grand prize of $215,000. I could hardly believe it. After we made it through lunch, they allowed us to leave the kitchen for a break while they reset everything. Before we walked off Terry gave us the news, we no longer are using the mixers, we had free range to make whatever we want, oh boy. We went into the holding room where there used to be 100 chairs, now there were only 2, #39 and #66. Doug and I couldn’t believe we were the only two left sitting in that big hallway, but we still had one more battle to win.

Before I flew to LA, culinary producers had sent an email of every ingredient and piece of equipment available in the 100 Cooks kitchen. It was extremely extensive. I sifted through everything over and over trying to think of what was missing. They told us each competitor was allowed to request a minimum of five ingredients, if they weren’t on the list. I thought it over for a few days and ultimately chose Oaxaca cheese, Anaheim peppers, huckleberries, taro root, and elk tenderloin. The first two are extremely versatile in Mexican cooking and I knew I could utilize them a lot. The huckleberries seemed like a great nod to my roots and the elk for my tradition of hunting. I tried taro root fries in Vietnam in October of 2025 and I was hooked. They were lighter than a potato but just as crispy and delicious. I had only made them once, but I thought it’d be pretty cool to try and make on tv.

Throughout the show I never found a good opportunity to use the huckleberries, taro root, or elk meat. Every time I thought of a challenge or dish where they would do great, I was never called down for it. I also didn’t want to force it into a challenge if it didn’t feel right. The lead culinary director, Ali, came up to me after a few days of filming and was like, “Hey we finally got your elk tenderloin in, you better use it”. Then the night before the finale she told me, “We have huckleberries, they were not an easy thing to find in March”. Pretty much they went through a lot of trouble and were like, why the hell haven’t used this stuff haha. So, as I sat waiting to go back to the kitchen I thought about what my dinner would be. It hit me right away.

I was going to use the last three ingredients I had requested. The hard part was figuring out how to tie each one together. I decided I was going to pan fry the elk tenderloin and let it speak for itself. I was going to recreate the same taro root frites I had in Vietnam, and I was going to make a huckleberry reduction sauce. I knew I wanted one more component to my dish. While I was thinking about it, I noticed that each of these ingredients represented me and my life in a significant way. The elk was a reminder of hunting with my dad and how important conservation is to me. Also, elk is a massive part of my diet. The huckleberries played into my roots of growing up in Montana. The taro root was a direct relation to how crucial and important traveling the world has helped me to become the man I am today. For my last component I wanted to pay homage to my mom and grandma, who are both from Chihuahua, Mexico. I couldn’t think of a staple dish that fit my flavor profiles, but I had a core memory of seeing my grandma and mom flip corn on a grill with their bare hands. I decided I was going to make a smoky corn puree. So that was my dish, the story of my life, on a plate.

Doug and I didn’t speak too much while we strategized. We were called back into the kitchen and what came next was completely unexpected. They had filled the entire stands with almost 100 random people for a live audience. The entire set went up in applause and cheer, it was absolutely incredible. Then 10 or so former competitors filled the bottom section of the stands. It was a beautiful moment to greet all of my friends and have them there to cheer us on. I was in complete awe and speechless. Not only did Terry tell us this was the most important meal of our lives, but we also had 100 people watching us cook the entire time. The pressure was felt.

The cooking started fast and we had 45 minutes to make our best dish of our choice. I blocked out the crowd instantly and had incredible tunnel vision. I knew the taro roots had to soak first to remove all of the gumminess and starch. I was hammering on them first and I must have made the producers in the control room nervous because halfway through mandolin-ing my taro roots someone slid me a guard lol. I didn’t use it which they also probably didn’t like haha. Once my frites were in their ice bath I tackled the puree next. I had my corn grilling and my onions sauteed already so I combined everything into a blender with beef stock and then simmered it. The funny part about all of this was that I had never made a huckleberry sauce or corn puree in my life. I was making it up as I went. I mean I’ve done other purees and sauces so I figured it couldn’t be much different. While my corn was simmering I added my frozen huckleberries to a sauce pot with sugar, apple cider vinegar, lemon zest, mint, and some water. I let that simmer and meld together for a bit as well. I would love to know where they sourced huckleberries in March haha. Next was the elk tenderloin. It obviously was not wild elk meat and unfortunately they had precut the tenderloin into very thin medallions. I knew they would cook fast so I salt brined them and set them aside for later. I fried off my taro fries and they were crisp and perfect.

I won’t lie I had so much going on. Even Nick was like dude I have never seen you have so many bowls, blenders, and tools going all at once haha. I was spread pretty thin working all of these components at the same time. I initially planned on making my puree “esquites” style but I didn’t have the time or a good plan for it; I tossed a whole sauté pan of onions, peppers, and jalapeno away. When I was happy with all of my components that were working I cooked up my elk. Of all the ingredients this should have been my ace in the hole. I seared it like I always do and butter basted the heck out of it to add some fatty flavor to this lean cut. I made a mistake in all the madness. To finish cooking the elk steaks I tossed them in the oven to rest. There they sat these thin little medallions, on a ripping hot pan, in a 350-degree oven. You can only guess how much more they continued to cook. Son of a gun. I nailed the taro root frites for my second time. My first time with the corn puree and huckleberry sauce was tremendous. Hell, I even nailed a lamb burger and tiramisu crepe in this competition. When I cut into that elk I knew right away, it was overcooked. Thankfully it wasn’t completely grey, but it was on the latter side of medium well. I was extremely disappointed in myself. There was no more time or elk to fix this.

I decided to plate the most perfect slices and omitted some end pieces that were well done. I had no idea how I was going to plate this and couldn’t think clearly with the clock winding down and my elk mistake bothering me. I decided to spoon out the sauces, lay the steak down, and put the frites next to everything. Looking back I should’ve topped the steak with the huckleberry sauce and frites to hide my poor cooking. Oh well. They sent Doug and I back outside while they reset the kitchen. We sat outside in some plastic chairs where the set crew ate lunch. At this point it had to be about 10 pm, it was dark out and we had been cooking all day. I told Doug about my dish and what I called it. I also told him I overcooked my elk and said I had no idea what was going to happen. He told me he loved my dish idea and the name. He said he also over cooked his pork. We both had some protein issues. He told me that he wanted me to win and that I deserved it, what an incredibly kind thing to say. Everyone on the show embodied these similar qualities of wanting each other to succeed, it was beautiful.

It was time. We were both called back in for the final judging of 100 Cooks. I was first and I described my dish as the story of my life. Nick loved the name and after I described why I called it that he said it was his favorite named dish of the whole competition. He also had high praise of the taro root frites. They both made comments about how much stuff I had going on at the same time haha. I couldn’t read Alex as much, but she really liked my huckleberries. They both said my elk was overcooked and Nick said the gradient of the cook was bad. I knew all of this and was ready for it. I was happy with everything they touched on and I knew I missed the mark on my elk. Doug was next and his dish looked really good. He got dinged for an overcooked protein as well, beyond that I couldn’t remember much, I just stood there in a complete daze. After we were both judged we waited for them to make their decision. We were exhausted, anxious, and just ready to know haha. We both agreed we would be happy if either of us won it all. Of course I still wanted to win though lol. I’m not sure how long we sat there waiting to find out the winner, but Terry finally said words I’ll never forget, “The winner of season 1 of 100 Cooks is… cook #39! Bryce Stubbs!!”.

It was such a beautiful and surreal moment I couldn’t believe it. Every emotion hit me at once and all of my friends from the crowd rushed down to celebrate with me. There was confetti and lights and all sorts of stuff going on. I thanked the crowd, and then hugged Terry, Alex, and Nick. We all said a few words and then they took photos of me in front of the board. They had two numbers on it, 001 and $225,000. Absolutely incredible. I introduced myself to Bryan Lando who owned the company that made this whole show possible. I said “Hey I’m Bryce”, to which he replied, “Yeah no shit I know who you are”. One of my favorite moments haha. Terry told me he wanted me to cook for him which were words I thought I’d never even hear in my lifetime. The first thing Alex told me was, “Next time strain your corn puree so there’s no kernel skins in it”. She started with that before any congratulations or good job. Honestly that meant so much more to me. She saw how hard I worked and how eager I was to learn and get better, so that’s what she was doing, teaching me. I felt honored. The producers wanted solo pictures of me in front of the board and that was probably one of the most awkward things, standing in front of everybody, I didn’t know what to do with my hands lol.

After the celebration I had to do interviews for about 3 hours, it was a long haul. I didn’t get offset until midnight. Doug and I rode in a van together back to the hotel. The driver asked us who won and it was so funny we were just sitting there and Doug was like, “Bryce did” and I was like, “Yeah”. We were so tired and just happy to be heading back. Doug lives in LA so he drove us out to a bar to meet up with some of the producers we were close with and other contestants. That truly shows how much we viewed each other as friends. I just beat him and he was happy to take us to the bar so we could all hangout. Doug you are an absolute legend with a kind soul. It was one of the best nights of my life. We all talked about things that had happened on the show and it was honestly such a beautiful moment. I will never forget that night. One of the producers there told me that he would always take my food after the beauty shots and eat it which was so funny. I also had Matt meet us there to celebrate. Again I will never forget that moment and I am extremely thankful for the friends I made on that show, that alone was worth the ride.

The next day I was already gearing up to fly home. They did not waste any time. I had my flight booked and they actually booked it while I was eating lunch on set haha. It was so weird to walk into that Burbank airport. I had just spent two intensive weeks cooking competitively with some incredible people. I had just won $215,000, was hugging Terry Crews, and drinking a beer with my new best friend Matt. Now I am about to board a plane and can’t tell anybody about this experience for months. Shit my foreman from the oilfields called me on my layover and asked when I was ready to start working next. That was when it hit me. I have to go back to reality like everyone else. I had my moment, it was beautiful, and now it was time to continue building the life that got me here in the first place. I went back to the oilfields for another month of work, and then I was off to Agde, France. A new journey, with new challenges, faces, and experience. 100 Cooks had become the greatest steppingstone I could ever have imagined. It put me right where I needed to be. It gave me the validation I have always wanted. Now it was up to me to continue on this journey. Thank you everyone, especially the people reading this, you make this all possible. #39 out.

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Ingredients

Elk tenderloin

• 1 whole Elk tenderloin

• 3 tbsp butter

• 4 garlic cloves

• Sprigs of thyme

Huckleberry sauce

• 2 cups of frozen or fresh huckleberries (sub blueberries)

• ¾ cup of sugar

• Huckleberry Jam (if using blueberries)

• 1 tbsp Apple cider vinegar

• Zest of ½ a lemon

• Salt to taste

• 6 large mint leaves

Corn puree

• 4 ears of corn

• ½ white onion

• 8 cloves garlic

• ½ cup beef stock

• ¼ cup cream

• 2 tbsp butter

• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar

• 2 tsp smoked paprika

• Salt to taste

Taro root frites

• 4 taro roots

• Salt

• Frying oil

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Ingredients

Ceviche mix

• 2lb raw shrimp

• 2 roma tomatoes

• 1 jalapeno

• ½ red onion

• ½ cup cilantro

• Juice of 5 limes

• ½ tbsp jugo maggi

• Salt

• Pepper

Jalapeno Aioli

• 2 egg yolks

• 2 cloves garlic

• ½ charred jalapeno

• Juice of 1 lime

• 1 cup neutral oil

• Salt

Tostada

• 10 corn tortillas

• Chipotle powder

• Crema

• Cotija cheese

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After lunch we went back into the kitchen to make our own lunch challenge. The twist was that we had to highlight either a jalapeno or an apple in our challenge. I immediately started to grin when I heard this. Terry asked me what I was going to use and I said, “Come on Terry, look at me”. He laughed and was like “Jalapeno for Bryce!”. I decided I wanted to do a shrimp tostada and highlight the jalapeno four different ways. My mom used to make shrimp tostadas for lunch, especially in the summertime. I remember I used to pick the shrimp out of the bowl, and she would get mad because I wouldn’t eat anything else but the shrimp haha. She would use the precooked frozen shrimp from Costco and toss it with a pico de gallo. She’d fry up corn tortillas, spread mayo on them, and then lay this on top. A couple dots of Tapatio and its pure nostalgia for me. Of course, precooked shrimp and plain mayo isn’t going to take me to the finale, I got to upscale this thing.

To make the ceviche that much better I deveined and peeled fresh raw shrimp. I put it in a bunch of lime juice to “cook” it with the acidity. Ceviche is a great method for cooking fresh white fish, shrimp, or scallops. Next, I needed to figure out how to make the jalapeno my star. My first way was in the pico de gallo base, it would be mixed in raw. Then I decided to turn my mom’s mayo into a charred jalapeno aioli. I built it the same way I do any other aioli, except I added half a charred jalapeno. It tasted great but it was pretty damn spicy I won’t lie. The third was in the form of chipotle powder. Chipotles are actually just dried jalapeno. I dusted the tostadas with a little powder. My final incorporation was with crispy fried jalapeno rings. I’m not kidding, I had like three minutes to spare so I said screw it, what’s one more way to make this thing 100% jalapeno? I tossed them in a little cornstarch, and they actually fried off nicely.

I fried up two different styles of corn tortillas so I could find the perfect one. Alex walked by and said shrimp tostadas were one of her favorite dishes, hell yeah. I was feeling very confident about my dish when I started to construct it. That is until I tasted my ceviche. I cut my shrimp too large and did not have sufficient time to let the lime juice cook it all the way through. The outside was opaque, but the inside had not been penetrated by acid yet, it was gummy. I tried to put the smallest pieces on there, but my heart literally sank after that first bite. I felt absolutely defeated. At this point we were all mic’d up and had 100’s of cameras on us at all times. I knew if I let on or said anything about the doneness of my shrimp, the producers would catch wind and mention it to the judges. Less is more in this situation, and I was keeping my mouth shut. All five of us sat in the hallway as they cleaned everything up. I sat and stared at the floor; I made no facial expressions and talked to nobody. I thought I was going home, I thought I was the biggest idiot of all time. Maxine even walked over to me and said, “Oh my god Bryce are you okay? You look like you just saw somebody get run over”. I told her, “I’m just tired that’s all”. I was dead inside. If the judges had any clue that I knew about my own error, they would shred me apart.

I went first again and to start they said they really loved my plating. They also said that normally using “blank” in a “blank” number of ways is very cheffy and can sometimes bite you in the ass. However, for me it paid off, they liked the jalapeno four different ways. Then the moment came, Nick my shrimp was 45 seconds away from being finished. He also showed me the gray parts on the shrimp that needed more time. I know Nick, I know. Then he surprised me. He said because it’s ceviche I get a pass. The exterior had been cooked by the lime juice, and it was safe to eat, it was just a textural preference and told me if I’m going to make ceviche in a short time I should poach my shrimp first. He said if the shrimp was cooked any other way and had the grayness he showed me, I would be walking out of there. Alex and Nick, both then gave me some poaching tips and ceviche advice. They were almost like coaching me. It was awesome. I think they could genuinely tell that I wanted to learn and get better, and they liked that.

Well turns out everyone else had a rough time in this challenge as well. We were graded pretty hard and I think the fact that I utilized my ingredients and highlighted better than everyone else saved my ass. Even with my technical error I followed the challenge the best. I was safe, and I was going straight to the finale. Chris, Holley, and Maxine were all eliminated. It was Doug and I. The final two, in the finale. Holy freaking cow is all I could think.

Ingredients

Crepe batter

• 1 cup flour

• 1.5 cup flour

• 3 eggs

• Salt

• 1 shot espresso

• Cacao powder

Cream filling

• 1 cup heavy cream

• ½ cup mascarpone

• ¼ maple syrup

• 2 tsp vanilla paste

Cherry compote

• 3 cups pitted cherries

• ½ cup sugar

• ½ cup water

• Juice of half a lemon

• Lemon zest from half a lemon

• Tbsp chopped mint

• Salt

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The final eight, the elite eight, the hateful eight, whatever you want to call it, that is all that is left. 10 days of filming, 15 days in LA, all leading up to this moment. Chris, Holley, Johnnie, Maxine, Kim, Doug, Jeezil, and I are all in the finale. After episode 8 concluded we were all pulled aside by the producers and the culinary team. For the first on the whole show, we got insight into what the next episode will consist of. We were told that we would have to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It wasn’t that straight forward either, they said we would have twists with each challenge and told us to be ready for anything. They asked us to request any ingredients we could think of that they might not have on set. A few people chimed in with stuff like Shaoxing wine and sea bass. I asked the culinary producer Ali if there was enough elk tenderloin. Everyone started laughing and were like “Don’t worry Bryce were not touching that sh*t”. I just wanted to make sure it was still good to eat because it’d been in the fridge for a week haha. After we got the pep talk and got info we were cut loose.

That night I jotted down 2-3 ideas for each category, with room to change stuff up depending on the challenge. For breakfast I had…

Our first breakfast curve ball was that it had to be “stacked or stuffed”. I actually had a tough time here. I knew I had a good recipe for chilaquiles, and they would be considered stacked. However, the sauce was similar to the one I made for my pizza, the toppings were all pretty much identical to my pizza, and it would be another Mexican heavy dish. I needed to show the judges some range. My chicken fried steak wasn’t going to work for this challenge either. That’s when I thought of the crepe. There is a place in my hometown in Bozeman called Stuffed Crepes & Waffles. I’ve never actually eaten there but if they can name a restaurant after it then surely a crepe constitutes the stuffed aspect.

I finally made my decision that I was going to do a crepe. It was also going to show the judges that I had range because it was the first non-savory dish I would be making, and I was doing it voluntarily. It couldn’t be any normal crepe though; this was the finale. Before I left Montana for the competition I tried my sister in-law’s tiramisu and it was delightful. I always avoided making tiramisu because making meringues and baking scared me before I went to pastry school. She told me that instead of doing it the traditional way you can just whip heavy cream and fold in mascarpone. I thought that was a great idea, and it tasted excellent. I wrote that down in my journal in case I needed it for a challenge. Now I’m going to stuff my crepe with that mixture. All that is left is the espresso factor. I had the idea to paint the crepes individually with espresso, much like you would dip a lady finger in it. There wasn’t any espresso on sight or in the fridge though. I went up to one of the culinary directors and said, “I know for a fact Terry or Nick have an espresso machine in their trailer, I need 2 shots of it very bad”. About 5 minutes into the challenge one of the producers slid me a fresh cup of espresso haha.

I had all of my components in my head and ready to rock, but I felt like there was one thing missing. I needed acid, or fruit, or color. Funny enough the day before when I was watching the first challenge I was sitting by Doug and we chatted the whole time. It was the first time we really had time to talk, and it was mostly about food of course. He was telling me about a book called the flavor matrix. Essentially, it’s about the science of flavors and their chemical basis and how common foods pair together. Foods that you wouldn’t necessarily think go together but do. Doug told me one he thought was interesting was coffee and cherries. As I stood there thinking of a fruit, I was heavily contemplating using huckleberries and I was excited to finally use them as it was one of my requested ingredients. Then I remembered my conversation with Doug, and it was automatic; cherries and coffee baby. I was going to make a cherry compote to top it off.

I made my crepe batter first and put it in the fridge to chill. Then I started working on my compote by pitting and chopping some fresh cherries. I also whipped my cream and folded in the mascarpone. While I was folding in my mascarpone Alex told me to get going on my crepes and I said I would soon. When she came back, I still hadn’t started on my crepes, and she yelled at me and told me to quit f*cking around lol. I started my crepes that second. There’s a saying that you always throw away your first crepe because it’s usually bad. I understood why Alex told me to get going, my first four crepes were trash. I couldn’t get the heat right. Finally, I got it dialed and was pumping them out. I just needed three perfect ones.

Right before the challenge Johnnie came up to me and asked if I could show him how to roll a burrito. I grabbed a kitchen towel, and I was trying to show him with that. Alex came over asked if I was making a burrito. I told her I was helping Johnnie and showing him how to roll a burrito, she had a good laugh. Well mid-way through cooking Johnnie actually came up to me and asked if I could help him, sadly I barely had enough time for my stuff and said I couldn’t. Building the crepes was easy, I just painted each one with espresso, piped the filling, rolled them, and dusted cacao powder on top. My hang up was the stupid cherry compote. I somehow made the mistake of mixing a cherry compote recipe with a cherry BBQ sauce recipe in my head. So, in the initial construction I put a sh*t ton of red wine vinegar. All a compote really needs is sugar, fruit, lemon zest, maybe a little water, and time to thicken. My cherries were so acidic I was adding heaps of sugar to try and correct it. Last minute I added syrup from Fabbri Amarena cherries. While this finally cut through the acid, it almost gave cough syrup vibes. I really wanted this component on my dish though; it made it pop with color. I tasted it so many times and convinced myself it wasn’t “that bad”. I dolloped some on top of each crepe.

Judgement time. I went first in the lineup. Alex called my plating sexy and said it was the best plating I had done the whole show. Nick went into me pretty hard about the cherries. He said they were terrible and said I pretty much pickled cherries on top of the crepe. Couldn’t agree with him more lmao. I knew they were not the best, but they were most definitely still edible. Nick said it was an easy 9.5/10 if not for the cherries. I was pretty nervous, damn cherries man. I survived though, at this point there was no best or worst dish, just survival. Unfortunately, Jeezil was sent home right away due to undercooked sausage. They also cut Kim and Johnnie. Poor Johnnie man, his burrito sounded delicious. I saw his steak and plantains and they were cooked perfectly. He just didn’t warm the tortillas up enough, so they kept ripping when he was rolling them up. Alex even pointed at me while she was judging him and said, “I saw Bryce trying to show you how to roll one right before the challenge, what happened”. Unfortunately, he took a risk, and it didn’t pay off. Rip.

We broke for lunch before our next challenge, which was lunch. It was pretty quiet there, especially with only five of us left. I tried my best to enjoy the last catered meal which was chimichurri steak. It felt like squid games in there, like they gave us the best lunch right before we slaughtered each other in the kitchen. Stay tuned to see how the next challenge goes. Spoiler: I am an idiot.

Ingredients

Toppings

• 600 g of premade pizza dough

• 3 cups shredded Oaxaca cheese

• 2 chorizo link sausages

• ½ lb ground chorizo

• ½ red onion

• 2 poblanos

• 1 jalapeno

• Cilantro leaves

• Cilantro oil

• Cotija cheese

• Crema

Salsa roja sauce

• 2 roma tomatoes

• ¼ white onion

• 2 cloves garlic

• ¼ cup water

• ½ chicken bouillon cube

• ½ chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

• 1 tsp cumin powder

• Neutral oil

• Salt to taste

Cilantro oil

• 1 bunch of cilantro

• 1 cup neutral oil

• Juice of half a lime

• Salt to taste

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Got to sleep in until about 7:15 which was electric. I was going into episode 8 in the top 14 which was pretty cool. The vibes in the break room were definitely changing. You could hear a pin drop. It was so quiet. I spent my morning journaling, eating my bacon and eggs, and drinking my black tea. The first challenge was upon us quick; it was a “fancy dinner” challenge. Five cooks were called down; I was not amongst them. Keloni sadly got cut. He made a lobster tail with ube pomme puree which looked really good. I was honestly very surprised he got cut, I felt like he got robbed. Apparently, his lobster was undercooked which is unfortunate. Michele, my partner from the last round, was also cut. Nupe Dawg actually won the round with his lamb chops which was so cool. At this point in the competition, we would all stand at the bottom of the bleachers and hangout while we watched the others compete. The camaraderie was awesome. It also meant that we could share some of what we made, I got the pleasure of trying Nupe’s winning lamb chop. I won’t lie, that was the best bite of lamb I have ever had, he had the perfect cook on it.

Nupe was offered 35k from the money mixer. Funny enough, the day before Nupe told me he had weighted averages for everybody’s worth in the competition haha. He said at that point my opportunity cost was more than 25k based on the wins I had and his was anything more than 10k. I have to give it to him; he did the math and had all of the statistics calculated in his head. I told him that we all had an equal chance of winning, to which he replied, “Respectfully Bryce, shut up, I am not beating you, I will be taking any money I get”. While we never got to compete against one another, he did take that money, and I was very happy for him.

The next challenge was announced, and it was “best pizza”. Not good. Not good at all. As soon as Terry said it, I knew instantly I did not want to be in that challenge. I don’t own a pizza oven and I never make pizza. Also, in my head all I could think of was generic pizzas, I was blanking creatively. I most certainly did not want this challenge. It is funny how the universe works sometimes, because my number was drawn first. F*ck. That is the only word and words I could think of. To make this even sweeter it’s also a 1v1 challenge lol. Oh, and guess who I’m going up against, CONNOR. The script writers really cooked with this one. Now I know I’m really in for it. Walking down the bleachers all I could do was think about how I could make my pizza stand out. I knew I wanted to make a Mexican style pizza, but I didn’t know how yet. When Connor was called down, I really locked in and came up with the chile relleno inspired pizza.

I worked at a restaurant in college for like maybe 2 months and they had this chile relleno salsa roja sauce that was incredible. Before I quit, I took a picture of the recipe to save. The sauce is tomato based and I just knew it’d make a banging pizza sauce. Also, my grandma who is from Chihuahua, Mexico taught me how to make chile rellenos from scratch. I decided to use components from her dish in my pizza as well. Earlier I wrote about cooking at Matt’s and collabing on a chile relleno video. That is also where I tried to make an herb oil for the first time. Almost all of the components of the collab we did were going into this pizza. It could not have been more clutch. I could time everything out in my head and remembered all of the order of operations. Connor and I were allowed to use the restroom before the start and we both chatted outside. We pretty much said that we knew we would have to compete against each other at some point and if we were to lose to anyone, we were happy it was one of us. Also, he emphasized how little he made pizza, which was good, I was in the same boat.

When the challenge started, I immediately focused on everything but the pizza dough. I built my cilantro oil and let it strain. Then I constructed the salsa roja. While the sauce was working, I did all of my mise en place for the toppings, so the pizza build was quick. I couldn’t avoid it forever, so I finally started rolling my pizza dough out. I was pretty nervous to use the pizza oven; I have seen so many videos of people pulling their pizza out of the oven and all the toppings sliding off or it is getting stuck to the bottom. That’s when I decided I was just going to throw it straight onto the grill. That way I could see it cooking and know when it was finished. I rolled out one and tossed it on. It immediately started puffing up and I was so hyped, it was actually going to work lol. Nick came by and said, “What’re you doing?”. Almost as if he was concerned haha. I told him I felt more comfortable using the grill. He then said his favorite pizza is from a spot in Rhode Island called Al Forno- and they grill all of their pizzas. What a boost of confidence. He did tell me to roll another piece of dough out and to go thinner, so my pizza wasn’t undercooked. Alex came by and told me to chill my sauce down and that hot pizza sauce is not good when I go to build it.

To build my pizza I put sauce on the grilled dough, added toppings like jalapeno, poblanos, red onion, chorizo slices, ground chorizo, and Oaxaca cheese. I put it in the oven and just had to pray it worked out. I built two pizzas even though we only needed one. The first one I pulled out was my serving one. I garnished it with my cilantro oil, crema, cotija cheese, and even picked some cilantro leaves. I won’t lie, it looked pretty incredible, especially since it was all made up on the fly. I fired my backup pizza just in case and I was actually really excited to try it because I couldn’t eat my other one. A lot of times on the show I wouldn’t get to taste my final dish. I tried every component multiple times and then put them together with just enough time to serve it. Rarely did I make one for myself, but I had this pizza coming. That was until I slid my peel to grab it and it fell off the pizza stone and went everywhere in the oven. Straight onto the heating elements and everything. I felt terrible, the poor culinary team had to clean such a mess up. What an asshole I was for that haha. Also, I never got to taste it.

Before judging I peeped Connor’s pizza and it looked pretty solid, I wasn’t surprised, I knew this was going to be a battle. We had a quick break outside, and we dapped each other up and knew it was anyone’s game. We both balled out. My pizza was judged first. The judges said visually my pizza was absolutely stunning. They also loved the flavor and smokiness. Nick mentioned again how he liked that I grilled it. However, he also said my dough was undercooked… shitttt. Connor was next and they were really digging his pizza. Nick was a huge fan of it, especially the caramelized onions. Turns out Connor undercooked his dough as well. That cancelled out my 1 flaw and put us on an even playing field. I also noticed while they were judging Connor, Alex would grab pieces of chorizo and toppings off my pizza and eat it. How cool is that haha, she liked it a lot. In the end, Mexico > France. Connor’s French onion soup pizza put up a great fight, but my chile relleno pizza was tough to beat. I survived my second 1v1 challenge and was moving straight to the finale!!!

After the judging we broke for lunch, and it was pretty somber. Connor was our friend and I had eliminated him and also won my 5th challenge. Everyone else definitely gave off the vibe that they knew I was the one to beat. It felt pretty cutthroat that lunch, especially since I was the only one safe and everyone else had to cook after. I was pretty isolated. Johnnie definitely acted like I just killed his best friend. The last challenge before the finale was a summer BBQ cookout. Everyone was called down (except me) and it was a team-ish challenge. The captains were Zo, Chris, and Alexia, they got to pick their teams. I won’t lie, it felt pretty cool sitting up in the stands all by myself and watching everyone else compete. Alex and Nick actually came and sat by me for like 15 minutes. Nick reminded me how close mine and Connor’s battle was and that I was lucky. I think he wanted Connor to win. I go to ask Alex some questions about pizza making and cooking; it was such a cool experience. At this point I was kinda like who cares if I win, I got to spend time chatting with both judges one on one while everyone else cooked. Nobody got to experience anything like this on the show, I was so lucky. Then it got even better.

For each challenge we have to make three dishes. Two for the judges and one called the “beauty plate”. Which were the food pictures/videos you see when I describe my dish on TV. Now exactly what happened to the beauty plates after producers got their pictures/videos was anyone’s guess. For my chile relleno pizza I got to know exactly what happened. Terry came up to me in the stands while everyone was cooking to chat. One of the ways Terry Crews keeps his insane physique is by fasting until 2pm every day. So, a lot of the times people tried to give him food on the show, but he couldn’t break his fast. There were a few times he tried stuff after 2pm which was really cool because he did not have to, he was hosting not judging. While we talked, he proceeded to tell me that during lunch he went to the beauty plate room and took the pizza and put it in his fridge to save for later. He told me he ate it all and said it was one of the best pizzas he’s ever had. Not only did he not have to even try my food, but he also went out of his way to nab it from the producers, save it until his fast was done, and then come tell me how much he enjoyed it. That alone was worth everything of being on 100 Cooks. One of the best compliments I have ever received.

I might’ve been on cloud nine after all of my interactions in the stands but that came to a crashing halt. Zo and Alexia were eliminated on the last challenge. Seeing Zo get cut was so crushing. He had done so well, and we also had become good friends, especially off set. The reality set in hard for me and all the emotions kind of hit me at once. I did not feel good about beating Connor and I had some really bad imposter syndrome. I felt like I deserved and earned nothing. After filming every day we would walk to the wardrobe, change into our home clothes, pack our stuff up and head out for the night. I was late to leave that night because I had to catch up on two interviews. I was walking in the lunchroom and passed one of the producers, Tony. He was a super nice guy on set, and we chatted a good amount throughout the show. He asked me how I was doing, to which I responded, “fine”. For some reason I stopped, and I was like “Actually I’m not fine, like at all”. He told me to take a seat. We chatted for a long time, and I pretty much expressed how bad I felt about everything. When I beat Connor, he was clearly very emotional and as soon as he walked off set all the lights would go off and Terry would yell “Let’s take a look at the board!” and “Congratulations Bryce!”. It felt almost dystopian. I felt weird about it and then seeing Zo and Keloni leave set me over the edge. Tony was really supportive and told me I earned every cook and to give myself some credit. It was a much-needed pep talk.

I felt a lot better after talking it out and when I got back to the hotel, I was so happy to see all of my friends at the bar. Connor, Zo, Johnnie, Justin, and Marcus were all having drinks and having a ball. They were also all very happy for me which felt good, there was no resentment. Also, Justin has got to be one of the funniest individuals I have ever met man. I was sad knowing I would probably not see any of them for a long time after this. However, I had a finale to prepare for, I couldn’t stay out and party.

Unbelievable day from start to finish. Now it’s time for the real deal. See you in the finale, what a life!

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It is episode 7 and the competition has definitely slimmed down. Funny enough one of the best benefits of people getting eliminated is being able to sleep in more. See, coordinating 100 cooks to get them on set, feed them, go through wardrobe, and lead us around like an angry mob, takes time. As the group got smaller these processes went more smoothly and faster. Which in turn meant we didn’t need to be on set at 7am. It’s the little things. At this point in the competition, I had a pretty strict routine. After the weekend and Matt’s elimination it was no longer as whimsical. I wasn’t staying out late going to Korea town every night. For me being this far into the competition, it was no longer a vacation or just happy to be on TV. Now it had become reality that I could potentially win. I was also aware that I could potentially lose and go home with nothing. My whole reason for working in the oilfields was to save money to go to pastry school. If I was screwing around in LA and spending a bunch of money, then I was deviating from my goals. Especially if I got eliminated.

We were allotted $50 per diem per day for dinner and laundry services. They served us breakfast and lunch on set. So back to my routine and with this mentality, I would go to breakfast, eat some food and then steal a premade breakfast burrito. I would then hide it in the drink fridge for the whole day. After filming I would get out late usually due to interviews. So, I would go back to the hotel, hit the gym quickly, eat my breakfast burrito for dinner, and pocket that $50. I was saving time by not eating out and also saving money by not doordashing. It was a win win. Some of my favorite times in LA were hunched over my desk in the hotel room scarfing down a cold burrito and researching recipes before bed. It’s the simple things.

Now back into the competition, we started the morning off with a duo challenge. Five contestants were called down and told they had to cook their best “duo dish”. Food combinations like fish & chips, steak & potatoes, etc. I wasn’t called down but I had two ideas off the rip that I was happy to make. The first was a play on fish & chips. I wanted to do a bluefin tuna tartare with shoe string taro root fries on top. The other was elk tataki with a fried potato medallion. I could finally use one of my requested ingredients, the taro root or elk meat. It was not my challenge though. Before the cook started, Terry made another announcement, each cook was allowed to pick a partner from the stands. Now this was interesting. Kim went first and chose Zo. Keloni was next and I thought he was going to pick me. Instead he chose Justin which also made sense because they sit right next to each other and were the last two to cook in the competition. Next was Michele, and she chose me. Part of me was surprised because I think I only interacted with Michele once prior to this. The other part of me was not surprised because I had also won the most challenges and was on a hot streak. Not to sound cocky but I probably would’ve chosen me too haha. Chris chose Doug and finally Connor chose Marcus.

I was extremely flattered to be chosen. Also I saw Michele’s first dish and it was very pretty, I felt good with us together. Then everything went downhill. Terry gave each team three minutes to discuss ideas. Michele told me her idea, she wanted to make a beet soup and asked if I had a good salad recipe, our duo would be soup and salad. I couldn’t believe it. She asked what I thought, I told her my two ideas for the elk or tuna, she said she didn’t want to do either because she didn’t feel comfortable doing them. Totally valid, which is exactly how I felt about a damn salad. She went back to her soup again. Now this is a time in many competition shows where things can go really well or really unwell. I could either argue and force us to do one of my dishes and micromanage the whole thing. Or I could run with Michele’s idea and everything I can to supplement and succeed. Be a team player or bet on myself entirely (and look like a douchebag). I chose to be a team player

I’m not even going to lie, I was not happy about the salad and I was not going to do that. In my head I was like no way this lady just called me down here to send me to my grave. A salad at this point in the competition is crazy work. We spent those whole 3 minutes arguing about what to do. While I was being a team player I was also not going to make a salad. I told her I could make a good soup if she wanted to make a salad, but she insisted on doing the beet soup. Her next idea was soup and sandwich; I would do the sandwich. I wasn’t exactly on board with this either, I had already made a sandwich in the competition. Also, what the hell kind of sandwich makes the best duo with a cold beet soup haha. You can’t make this shit up, I was in a tough spot. Not to mention the whole time other teams were scheming, they were also walking around the pantry and kitchen looking for ingredients. Michele and I didn’t even have a concept. By the grace of God I decided I’d do this spicy-hot kofta sandwich to compliment her cold soup. I figured it was mediterranean-y or middle eastern-y to match the colors she would have. Realistically I don’t think any sandwich pairs with a cold beet soup haha. I had my idea and I was going to run with it.

Because we took all the time discussing it, I had to conceptualize and shop for ingredients on the fly, which was a rush. Normally I’d lock in a dish by the time I was at the bottom of the bleachers after being called for a challenge. This was new territory. Thankfully I knew exactly what I wanted to make and how I wanted it to look. I knew Michele’s soup was going to be vibrant so I had to match that energy. Full disclosure, I decided in my head that I was going to make the best possible sandwich of my life and if I didn’t follow the challenge or the judges didn’t like her soup, I would go home with my head high. So that is exactly what I did. For the next 35 minutes I focused on my dish and my dish only. Michele was confident in her soup and I trusted her, I needed to do my part.

During the cook I made sure I developed flavor every step of the way, I toasted all of my spices and even fried off mini lamb patties to test for salt and seasonings. Nick was actually really surprised when he saw I had a test patty going which was cool. When Alex walked by she saw me building my fennel salad and told me it looked extremely inviting, hell yeah. When I toasted my naan I double toasted each side to make sure it wouldn’t get soggy with the labneh and salad. Coincidentally I developed the most beautiful cross marks from the grill without even trying or thinking about it. I also remembered Nick complaining about when a burger has a bun that’s a lot bigger than the patty and I couldn’t agree more. So I used a cookie cutter to punch out the prettiest piece to fit my sandwich. When I was finished, I was really happy with it and sat it next to Michele’s soup. I couldn’t believe it, they actually looked like a duo, they belonged, it was incredible. Her soup was stunning and bright. My sandwich was rustic but had a pop of color from the salad and they really looked like a complete dish, so insane.

When judging started Zo and Kim and Keloni and Justin immediately got the axe for undercooked shrimp and uncooked waffle batter. Doug and Chris were in the top 2. Then it was us next. If you watched the show at all you might think “Oh Alex and Nick love everything Bryce makes”. They edited out so much discourse during judging which makes sense, but they left almost entirely good comments for my dishes. This was not the case; I got dinged multiple times on everything I made. However, this sandwich was the only thing I made in the whole competition where they had no words. Nick said it was dynamite and Alex raved about the salad. They had some issues with Michele’s soup, but in my head I was content. I did exactly what I wanted, if I was going home, it was out of my control at this point. They judged us against Marcus and Connor. We beat them and then Terry told me something I couldn’t believe, we beat everyone! Our dish won the whole freaking round haha. What started as calamity turned into celebration. It also meant I got my first chance to spin the money mixer!

The mixer rolled out a ball with $10,000 on it. I already knew where I stood, especially after the conversation I had with my brother. I needed more. Michele also turned away the money. That is where the show cut things, but there’s more to the story. Michele and I were sent to our seats as we were safe. The weirdest thing happened though, Terry called us both back down. He said the producers could give us each 10k or, one of us could walk away with 20k, but only one of us. I said ladies first and Michele said she didn’t want it and told me she wanted me to have it. Now this was seriously tough. I wasn’t having a hard time with 10k like they showed on TV, I was waffling on 20 grand. Only 5k away from the number my brother and I agreed, also it paid for pastry school and more. I seriously almost took it and even Nick was like dude take the money. Not Alex though, right before I was going to take it she said “I wouldn’t take it”. That was my answer. I threw it back. Right after she told me, “You do realize you’d have to win 2 episodes of Chopped for that kind of money right?”. Bruh what, she switched up on me haha, psychological warfare. I then told her “I guess I’ll have to go on Chopped twice”. It sounded badass at the time but I also realized tomorrow I could be the idiot going home with no money.

After episode 7 we lost Justin, Marcus, and Amy which was sad. Connor felt bad because he called Marcus down to cook so he felt responsible, but I think Marcus was happy to compete. He was definitely wishing he took that 25k lol. During the last challenge I was in an interview and missed Johnnie turning down 40k which is absolutely nutters lol. Mad respect for wanting to compete though. Episode 7 was definitely my proudest dish that felt flawless and like something I was confident in serving. If I didn’t already feel competent in the 100 Cooks kitchen I sure did now. Episode 8 tomorrow and there are only 14 of us left, freaking crazy. Definitely excited to eat my cold burrito after that day.

Ingredients

Orange gochujang sauce

• 1 cup honey

• ¼ cup gochujang

• ½ cup rice vinegar

• ¼ cup tamari or soy sauce

• ¼ cup orange juice

• 1 tbsp minced ginger

• 1 tbsp minced garlic

• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

• 1 tbsp cornstarch

• ¼ cup water

Wings

• 24 chicken wings (drums/flats)

• 1 cup cornstarch

• ½ tbsp white pepper

• ½ tbsp gochugaru

• ½ tbsp ginger powder

• Salt

• Neutral oil

Kimchi Aioli

• 2 egg yolks

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1 tbsp yuzu or lemon juice

• ¼ cup kimchi

• 1 cup neutral oil (avocado)

Instructions

Wings

1. For the sauce, combine all ingredients except cornstarch and water in a sauce pot. Bring mixture to a simmer.

2. Whisk together cornstarch and water to create a slurry, once the sauce pot mixture is simmering, add the slurry.

3. Cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until slightly thickened. Thin out with more orange juice if needed

4. Oil and rub wings with salt

5. Mix together all dry batter ingredients

6. Coat chicken wings in cornstarch batter

7. Deep fry at 375 degrees fahrenheit until golden brown and cooked to an internal temp of 165 degrees fahrenheit (you can bake or air fry as well)

8. Toss fresh wings in orange sauce, top with scallions or sesame seeds

Kimchi aioli

1. Use a hand mixer to blend egg yolks, kimchi, lemon juice and garlic cloves until smooth. Use a tall cylindrical container to help with the emulsion.

2. While emulsifying the mixture slowly add in a neutral oil, like avocado. The aioli will thicken as you add more oil.

3. Adjust for salt to taste

4. Dip wings into this and enjoy

If you’re wondering why it went from episode 2 to episode 6, then just know I was asking the same question. I had back-to-back action, then didn’t see the kitchen for three long days. As far as competitions go, you’d think that’s a good thing. That’s three more episodes I’ll be on TV. However, if you’re truly a competitor (I like to think I am), then you don’t want to “scrape” by. Getting immunity is nice and maybe one episode off is not so bad. Three was too much. I can’t complain too much however, my good friends Justin (@grubwithjus) and Keloni (@kelonikamalani) had to wait 5 consecutive episodes before they even cooked, that is brutal. It is TV and the first season, so I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes. We all collectively agreed that we’d rather just cook and get sent home then sit there and do nothing, so it was cool to see everyone else had that competitive edge as well.

Before we dive into episode 6, let’s recap 3-5, as some important stuff went down. Episode 3 was the first baking challenge. After cooking two episodes in a row I thought I’d be safe but also it kind of felt like they were out to get me haha. I was still on the edge of my seat waiting for my number to get called. Thankfully, it did not. My first observation of Connor happened in this challenge. I would take a mental note of judging and try to build a bracket in my head of people’s skills on the show. Either I’m extremely judgmental or I just really want to see where I stand. In Connor’s case, I knew I had some competition. The show was filmed before I ever went to pastry school, so seeing Connor make a tarte and say words like frangipane and sable, I was enthralled- and nervous. He of course advanced. My neighbor Asa Glass, who I mentioned earlier, finally got to cook. I enjoyed our conversations and looked forward to seeing him down there. He made a beautiful fried chicken sandwich and home fries. I for sure thought he was safe and bang just like that, eliminated. It was sad to see him go. I managed to get through episode 3 without cooking and I did feel good about getting a break.

One of my earliest days was episode 4. I was up at 5:45am and the night before I was in Korea town eating k-BBQ with Matt. We then went to his crib and chopped it up with his roommate for a bit. Needless to say, I stayed up late and did not sleep much haha. Meeting people and making connections will always take precedence over good sleep though. Terry announced that everybody would be competing today. Episode 4 was shot on a Thursday (our Friday) and the next two days we had off (our weekend). Personally, I really wanted to make it to the weekend, it was a lot warmer in LA than North Dakota in late January. So, all I could think about was surviving the day so I could enjoy the weekend and come back for episode 5. The first challenge was Sunday breakfast. My boy Matt was called down finally. I could tell he was hyped to actually cook. Sadly, he didn’t make the cut. I was pretty bummed. His first time down was with seven other cooks and they decided to only keep one of the seven which was ridiculous odds. Turns out they kept the top three and made second and third place and had a scallop cook off to stay in the competition. Unfortunately, Matt was in the bottom four and had no redemption opportunity. The last challenge was the remaining 19 cooks who had not yet cooked. I had to say goodbye to my friends Alexandria, Andrea, Christine, and Alex… RIP. It really is cutthroat, but hey I made it to the weekend, and I was happy for that.

That night I had some bevs to celebrate my survival. It felt nice to hang out with everybody off set in a fun environment and get to know them. Tom (@mealssheeats) and I stayed up pretty late at the bar chatting about everything under the sun. Needless to say, it was not an easy wake up the next morning haha. I spent the day with Johnnie (@johnnievassar3), Justin, Marcus (@iamahomecook_), Connor (@_connorbloch), and Zo (@eatwitzo). We went to Venice Beach and got some late-night appetizers and drinks at a rooftop spot; Matt met us there as well. The hostess showed us where we could be seated and it was kind of in a corner and not the best spot. However, it was 6pm, golden hour, a rooftop bar, at Venice beach, with an ocean view, so I was just happy to get a spot. I decided to use the restroom really quick and when I came back to go to the spot, nobody was there. I was looking around like where the hell is Justin and Johnnie. Then I see them all the way in the front in the best spot, overlooking Venice Beach. The waiter is pouring them wine or champagne and giving them free sparkling water. I walk over and it turns out Justin told them we were Food Network VIP stars that were filming a big tv show and needed a nice spot for the night lmao. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. Everybody else showed up and it was an absolute riot. I kind of felt bad because the waiters were giving us their 100% attention and we were definitely the loudest and most underdressed individuals there. I won’t lie though, it felt pretty cool getting that kind of service and feeling exclusive for the night.

Matt let me crash at his crib that night because the next day we were going surfing with Keloni (@kelonikamalani). Probably not wise to go surfing while I am actively in the biggest and most important competition of my life. However, Keloni is a beast of a surfer, and I was not going to pass up the opportunity to do that with him. Again, just like sleep, doing cool shit with new friends takes precedence over worrying about safety. Ironically one of the main producers told me on the way out of the door after episode 4 to “not do anything stupid this weekend”. I did happen to think about those words when I got sent through the washing machine by some waves. It was funny seeing Matt try and surf for the first time too. After surfing we went to Matt’s roommate’s fish & chips popup and got some grub. That night Matt took me back to his crib and we filmed a video collab. I showed him how to make a Chile relleno just like my grandma showed me. He also whipped me to the grocery store so I could practice a couple techniques which was insanely clutch. I mean shoot, if I have a kitchen, I’d be kind of dumb not to practice a little before tomorrow. I tried to make a simplified and fast Basque cheesecake, some different sauces, and an herb oil for the first time. All in all, it was super cool Matt let me trash his kitchen and practice some things. It was an awesome weekend and definitely top 10, but it was also time to lock back in.

I got up at 6am and I was absolutely wrecked. Between surfing and cooking until 1 am I knew I was going to be a zombie. I drank coffee and did not care whether I had jitters or not, I just wanted to be awake. Terry announced that there was a new twist and that it was our reward for surviving the first week. They introduced the money mixer. Essentially the same concept as the other mixers but now if you won best dish, you didn’t get immunity, you got a chance to spin the mixer and win anywhere from $1000-$50000. Sounds pretty cool to me. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though. If you decide to take the money, you have to exit the competition early. If you don’t take the money, it goes right back into the pot. Meaning the pot can now grow to be up to $250,000. Now that is interesting. Some psychological warfare from the script writers. I actually called my brother Nik that night and had a conversation about how much would be worth taking and leaving the show for. We came up with the number, it was 25k, and that was where I drew my hard line.

The first challenge was a one-of-a-kind burger challenge. We lost Eddie, Priya and Jordan on this one. I was pretty surprised by Priya’s exit. She was definitely high on my list of tough-to-beat competitors. It’s so weird, I should be happy when people get eliminated, but I mean, I liked them, they were my friends now haha. Like Eddie was the one who started calling me “granny slayer”. Now he’s gone and who knows when I will ever see him again, it is kind of a bummer. Next, we had an equipment guessing challenge that day as well which was cut from the show, I’m guessing for timing purposes. The final challenge was a holiday sweets challenge. I won’t lie, I was very happy to not compete in that one, even though I was scraping by, I didn’t want to bake haha. Keloni won and had a chance to take 5k but turned it down, respect. Holley also won 10k and turned it down as well. Another safe episode, I can’t complain too much about not cooking forever, as it does beat being in North Dakota.

Episode 6 baby it’s here. I finally caught up on all my sleep and was feeling well rested and ready to rock. I really want to cook again. There were 32 of us left at this point and Terry announced that all of us would be coming down to cook. Yes! He also said that 16 of us would be going home… no :/. The first challenge was game day food. There were four categories, wings, dips, sliders, and nachos. My gears started turning and I knew I wanted either dips or sliders. I also knew I did NOT want wings. I just thought they’re too one dimensional and I can’t do enough with them. What do you know? I get called down to make chicken wings lol. Sometimes that is just life. Each group had 4 cooks and only 2 from each group were moving forward. My group was Tom, Keloni, and Ana (@anatovarnelson). Of course, I was friends with all three of them so that sucked. However, I did not want to go home. I decided to make orange gochujang wings. It’s like a play on orange chicken with some Korean fusion. I tried tacos from a restaurant in Bozeman called Sky Shed that had Korean fried chicken tacos with this sauce on the chicken. It was fire.

The challenge was 35 minutes long which was plenty of time to make chicken wings. I used the time to experiment with my wings and fry them off a couple different ways. I also made a kimchi aioli from scratch to compliment my wings. Who doesn’t like to dip their wings in a sauce? I even sliced scallions super thin and soaked them in ice water for a garnish. Needless to say, I was doing the most. When the challenge was done, I went over to Ana to congratulate her. She gave me one of her mole chicken wings which was pretty dang good. I also caught a glimpse of Keloni’s wings; they looked like the most perfect chicken wings I had ever seen. This was not going to be a layup for me. Alex compared my sauce to Panda Express, called it addicting, and said she wanted to sit in a dark corner in an airport and eat 30 of these. Nick liked the wing but said the kimchi aioli was unnecessary. I am convinced he hates sauces on the side of anything lmao or at least mine. Sadly, Tom and Ana were eliminated. Keloni and I survived. Alex told Keloni that he won best dish. We went back to our seats and then the strangest thing happened. The producers called us back down and Alex said she made a mistake. She told me mine was actually the winning dish. I got put in the top 4 of the groups now and had a chance to spin the money mixer (potentially). I honestly didn’t care, I was just glad Keloni and I survived. Marcus won the round with his nachos anyways and ended up turning down 25k. I would have taken that bread for sure.

There are only 18 cooks left now and I am currently the winningest cook on the show. Three best dishes in three challenges. At this point I am honestly just feeling super grateful to still be on the show. I met a new best friend and a whole bunch of other homies. It is already an experience of a lifetime with so much to take away from. To think it is only the beginning, and I have five more cooks to go before I am crowned is unreal.

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You would think having all lunch to think about what to make was great, but it was honestly worse for me. I was overthinking; and my competitors had that extra time think of their own dish. I was pretty stuck on making a chimichurri steak sandwich. I thought I could cook super thin pounded skirt steak in the toaster oven, and I knew a chimichurri would come together quickly. I waffled back and forth on this concept the whole time and only ate 2 shrimp for lunch because I was so nervous. I bounced these ideas off Matt who told me to do whatever I felt comfortable doing in that time span. Literally seconds before we got called back to set, I went to Matt with a new idea. I told him I am going to forget about the toaster oven, I bet that everyone is going to use that and it’s going be their hangup, I’m eliminating it entirely. My new idea was a cold chicken salad sandwich. The first time I volunteered at the Fork & Spoon, a local pay-as-you-can restaurant that uses food bank donations to make food for the less fortunate; I served a curry chicken salad sandwich. It was simple and delicious. That was exactly what I was going to do.

Matt liked the idea better and told me to go for it. All I needed to know was if the pantry had canned chicken, because I definitely was not cooking any. On the way back to our seats, I took the long way back and caught a glimpse of my glorious, canned chicken. I knew then that I was going to lock this in and started going over the ingredients in my head. The challenge started and I did all of my knife work first, making sure everything was similar sizes. I grabbed a croissant for my vessel as well. Looking back, I think the sandwich lacked a “fatty” element which is why I adjusted this recipe to include mayo. So, at the time it tasted good, but I just did not have enough time to adjust to make it perfect, 15 minutes was crazy work. I swear I used every tasting spoon available for this haha. They commented on having my sauce on the side on the last dish, so I decided to sweeten up the leftover curry in the blender with some maple syrup and pour it into a ramekin and serve it with the sandwich. I cut the sandwich in half and that was that. The clock flew by and next up was the judging.

Terry was really impressed and hyped me up after the challenge was over, the judging however was pretty cutthroat. Nick did not like the bowl of sauce on the side, even though he wanted a dipping bowl in the first one lol. However, he did say he was a fan of the sandwich. Alex on the other hand did not like the sandwich. She first said, “Boy, can you cook, like really cook”. She followed it up with “I like you, I don’t like this sandwich at all”. Ouch, but… Thanks? The others got judged next and looking around I liked my odds. Jordan said his chicken was raw so he used deli meat, Nick couldn’t get his cheese melted for his tuna melt, and Chris had no bread. Like I predicted, that damn toaster oven was junk.

Well, I did it again. I won my second challenge and got immunity for the rest of the episode. I was so hyped. There was one more 1v1 challenge and I honestly think Charles would’ve chosen me lol. He picked Jordan which made no sense at all. It was quite the spectacle watching the two of them cook. Anyways, there’s 64 of us left now and at least 30 contestants probably haven’t cooked. Matt and I did our usual gym time and then went and got some Armenian food which was so fire. Matt is definitely ready to cook and I don’t blame him, sitting in those stands all day is miserable, especially with no action. I felt bad for all of the contestants who have had to wait so long to get down to the kitchen. Onto the next.

• Ingredients

• ½ can coconut milk

• 24 oz canned chicken

• ½ cup mayonnaise

• 1 tbsp yellow curry paste

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• ½ lime (juice)

• 2 ribs celery

• ½ cup walnuts

• ¼ cup cranberries

• 1 red bell pepper

• ½ shallot

• ½ tbsp curry powder

• 4 croissant

• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Instructions

1. Blend coconut milk, curry paste, fish sauce, and lime juice

2. Chop up cranberries and walnuts, dice celery and bell peppers, thinly slice shallot (soak shallot in cold water)

3. Combine chicken with all ingredients in a bowl, fold in mayo and curry powder

4. Fill up croissant

5. Salt and pepper to taste

Now back to January 13th, they finally tell me I made it and they are ready to book my flights to LA, and my hotel is ready for me. They also tell me I’m leaving in seven days lol. Thank goodness my boss in the oil fields was chill with it because I was supposed to start my next work hitch on the 14th. So, I spent the next seven days cooking from morning to midnight in my kitchen. I was experimenting with dishes that take anywhere from 15-60 minutes long and then trying to cut those ones in half. I was practicing and timing myself with technical stuff like chopping onions, opening oysters, and searing scallops, so I knew where I stood. My friends were definitely loving the free food, and I was happy to practice.

After a week of doing as much as I could, I flew to Los Angeles with nothing but excitement. For me, this felt like a paid vacation. See it was -40 Fahrenheit in North Dakota, which is where I was supposed to be working. Instead I have a king sized bed at a Marriott, catered breakfast, lunch, and a $50 per diem for dinner. I was living large and I also had never been to LA. It couldn’t have been better.

Our first day on set was a media day, where we essentially did a bunch of interviews about ourselves and why we were there. Then we had the rest of the day off. At this point I hadn’t met anyone so I Ubered to Venice beach to do some exploring. We had the following Saturday off as well, so I stayed out pretty late trying food spots I had always wanted.

The first day of competition was Sunday. Because there were 100 of us, they had to shuttle us out in groups every morning. So each morning, depending on my group, I would meet about 15-20 people. The first day was such a whirlwind. There was a lot of hurry up and wait and introductions. I forgot a lot of names. We then all got shuttled to set where we waited even longer. Finally we met our host, Terry Crews. Which was completely unexpected and I was honestly starstruck I won’t lie. Then we also met our judges, Alex Guarnaschelli and Nick DiGiovanni. As someone who grew up watching Alex on Chopped, and admired Nick since 2020 when all the Covid creators came onto Instagram, I was mesmerized. I couldn’t believe I was actually there.

The first challenge was a noodle dish challenge. I was like “oh shit, this is the real thing”. People actually got called down and then started cooking, it was wild. Also, seven people just got eliminated and are being sent home. I felt like just an audience member, not a competitor. Ironically, after the challenge I turned to my recently made friend, Asa Glass and said “How crazy would it be if they did a 1v1 challenge”. He said “Yea right, but it’d be cool if we went up against each other”. I shit you not Terry announces that it’ll be a rotisserie remix challenge with two cooks. Like bruh, I called it. Of course, sitting in the stands with 92 other people I thought, there is no way it going to be me. First ball that drops… #39. Just my luck. All I wanted to do was survive the first episode and hangout in LA for a little bit. Now I’m about to fight for my spot 1v1 in front of 92 other people. Like damn.

So, I walk down the stands and all I can think of is everybody is probably in the stands like “Who is this punk with a backwards hat and camo shirt” or “Where the hell is Montana”. As I stand in there, (still in awe of Terry) he calls the next contestant, “Cook #2!”. It’s Antoinette, the sweet old lady who just cooked and survived the noodle dish challenge. Everyone in the crowd is clearly in shock. This poor lady has to cook again? So now I stand there, competing against somebody with experience in the kitchen and is already a crowd favorite, now wondering if I will be back to work sooner than I imagined.

We get the rules explained to us and 5 minutes to walk the pantry and see our stations. At this point I decided I was going to make a creamy salsa verde chicken flauta. Honestly, I would make this with rotisserie chicken in my air fryer at home, and I thought hey why not just make something I would want to eat. Once we started cooking I pretty much blacked out and muscle memory just took over. Between Terry, Alex, and Nick walking up to ask me questions and the bazillion cameras in my face it was pretty tough to stay focused. That’s what I mean when I say I felt like I blacked out, I remember nothing, just cooking. My flauta seemed like a good idea until I realized I needed to deep fry it and the only flour tortillas they had were massive. My first mistake was not cooling my mixture down enough when I placed it into the tortilla. It was seeping out the sides as I rolled it so it definitely would not fry. Not to mention these big tortillas didn’t even fit in the fryer haha. It was too late to switch up so I decided to shallow pan fry them in some oil. After, I cut them on a bias to make them look a little, nicer and smaller. They still gave off chimichanga/burrito vibes.

Last minute I decided to make chipotle crema. It’s something I make quite often that’s usually Greek yogurt, honey, lime, cilantro, chipotles, and a good amount of salt. Because health is not in the question, I used Mexican crema instead, which is far tastier but obviously not as good for you. I couldn’t find honey in the pantry, and I was running around like a maniac, so I used agave instead which honestly made more sense for a Mexican dish anyways. While I was cooking, I heard my friend Matt Han (@wannabechefmatt) yell at me to flip my flautas and not let them burn. I literally met him that morning and he was such a homie for that because they were on the border of being burned for sure.

I finished the flautas by drizzling the sauce on top and garnishing with some cilantro. I was honestly pretty happy with how they looked but also bummed because it was not my vision. Not to mention the crowd was cheering on Antoinette and had catch phrases for her already. She was even dancing and hugging Terry and I felt like I was fighting for my life haha. So, when we went to get judged I felt I was already the underdog. I went first and boy was that nerve racking. They cleaned it up on the show, but I was definitely a stuttering fool. Also, there was a lot more discourse between the judges and I on every dish, there obviously just wasn’t enough time to keep everything.

Nick said this was a dish he could see himself actually making. He called it a, “whatever I have in the fridge or pantry” dish. I took that as a compliment. Nick finished by saying the dish as a whole lacked acid and salt. I totally knew it too. I remember seasoning the salsa verde but forgot to adjust after I added the cheese, cream cheese, and chicken stock- which totally watered it down. My crema was well seasoned though and Nick said he loved the addition of it. Alex said I shouldn’t have put beans in the flauta because everything else was already soft inside. I like the beans, I will continue putting beans, sorry Alex. She then gave me the best compliment I have ever received, “I know there is more from you, I watched you cook, I want to see it”. Heck ya. They both agreed it was messy to eat and wished the crema was put on the side to dip into.

Antoinette was next up and Nick already made a joke that he was happy she toasted her bread (she didn’t in the first challenge). I also realized that all three of them were Italian and Antoinette made them an Italian wedding soup, like c’mon now. Nick said it brought him back to his childhood and I for sure thought that was the dagger for me. However, they started arguing about the challenge itself and using the chicken in a different way. All she had done with it was shred it and set it on top. She even made meatballs from scratch using pork. She did not follow the challenge very well and didn’t back down from judges; arguing with them that this was traditional soup and that’s how it’s made. In turn the discourse sparked a glimmer of hope for me.

The final judgement was… ME… #39. I honestly was pretty shocked; it definitely could have gone both ways. Of course I was absolutely elated, but the entire crowd went “ooooooo” in a sad, surprised way. I couldn’t even celebrate, nobody cheered, they were sad for Antoinette. I understood why, so I did my best to keep composed and be thankful for my win, even if the other cooks did not want it to go that way haha. I will say, after this first challenge, everybody knew who I was on set.

Episode one was shot over two days. Because I received immunity for the whole episode, I got to chill the entire next day. It was great because with interviews and everything, day one was 15 hours long for me. I only had time for a quick gym workout, journal, then bed. Funny enough I would “steal” a breakfast burrito from the catered breakfast on site and save it for dinner, so I didn’t have to spend my $50 per diem lol. The second day of shooting was incredible. I had a coffee on set (wasn’t worried about the jitters) and everybody was treating me like a celebrity and shaking my hand. I did get the nickname “granny slayer” which was pretty crazy, and it spread fast haha. It was a long day sitting in the stands, but it felt good to be safe. I found out that Matt and I had a crazy mutual friend connection and we hit it off during lunch after that. That night after another full set day Matt and I lifted together and then he took me to a sushi place. Turns out he lives in LA, so he had his car at the hotel. We had some great conversations, and I could tell from the get-go, we were going to be good friends.

At this point I was extremely grateful to be in LA with all of these amazing like-minded people. I realized I needed to enjoy every second of the high of winning that 1v1, but I also needed to lock in if I wanted to stay here, and boy did I want to stay.

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Flauta

• ½ rotisserie chicken

• 10 small flour tortillas

• 1 can cannellini beans

• 10oz shredded oaxaca cheese

• 2 whole poblanos

• 8oz cream cheese

• ½ chicken bouillon cube

• 1 tbsp Cumin

• 1 tbsp Mexican oregano

Salsa Verde

• ½ white onion

• 3 medium tomatillos

• ½ jalapeno

• 3 cloves garlic

• 2 anaheim peppers

• Lime juice TT

• Cilantro

• Salt TT

Chipotle crema

• 1 chipotle in adobo

• 8 oz mexican crema

• Cilantro

• 1 tbsp honey or agave

• Lime juice TT

• Salt

Instructions

1. Shred rotisserie chicken

2. Build salsa verde, blend all ingredients (optional charring)

3. In a saucepan add neutral oil and heat up, pour salsa in pan to “fry” it

4. Dice poblanos

5. Add bouillon and stir until its dissolved

6. Add beans, poblanos chicken, cream cheese, and seasonings

7. Finish with half shredded cheese, reserved the other half, cool down mixture

8. Add creamy chicken to a tortilla with reserved cheese and roll up

9. Stab a toothpick through the side to hold it together

10. Fry at 375 fahrenheit in oil, air fry, or bake in the oven

11. Blend all crema ingredients, adjust seasoning TT

12. Dip flautas in crema and enjoy