Elgin Community College graduate Zach Laidlaw made it through the audition round of Fox TV’s “Next Level Chef” Thursday night, and is headed to the “draft” portion of the reality food competition show.
Teams will be created from three groups of chefs, with Laidlaw part of the professional chefs lineup competing against home chefs and social media chefs.
Laidlaw, 34, hails from Burlington, studied at ECC and now works as an executive chef at Hua Momona Farms on Maui, where he also runs a greenhouse and oversees a microgreen program.
In Thursday night’s show, he was one of eight professional chefs who competed against each other in three levels of kitchens, starting with a substandard basement level and vying to move up to the quality kitchen middle level and then the dream kitchen top level. One chef is eliminated at each level after being given 20 minutes to complete a dish using ingredients they grab on the fly.
On the next episode, which airs at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, there will be a “draft” in which the shows three hosts — Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais — choose their teams from among the remaining five pro, five home cook and five social media/internet influencer finalists.
In Thursday night’s first elimination challenge, Laidlaw and the other chefs not only had to prepare dishes in a basement level with low-level ingredients, they did so with a short power outage.
Despite the limitations, Laidlaw produced a chuck steak that Ramsay said tasted like a filet.
For the second level challenge, the contestants were directed to make fast-casual meals. Laidlaw pan-seared a sea bass that he served with a dill and sweet potato puree. All three celebrity chefs agreed Laidlaw’s creation was delicious.
In the top level challenge, the chefs made gourmet dishes. Laidlaw prepared a filet with a bleu cheese foam that Ramsay said was beautifully cooked.
During the broadcast, Ramsay and Blais said they would be considering Laidlaw as one of their top draft choices.
“Next Level Chef” was recorded in Ireland last fall. The winning chef will receive a $250,000 prize and a yearlong mentorship with the three celebrity chefs.
All episodes initially air on Fox and then can be streamed on Hulu.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
