Wichita chef continues national TV streak with turn on a popular Food Network show
Another Wichita chef is getting a chance to shop her way to victory on the Food Network show “Guy’s Grocery Games.”
Natasha Gandhi-Rue, the chef and owner of The Kitchen at 725 E. Douglas, will appear as a contestant on an episode of the show, hosted by celebrity chef Guy Fieri, that’s set to air at 8 p.m. on April 15 followed by a repeat at 11 p.m. on April 16.
The show pits chefs against each other to create meals by shopping in an on-set grocery store Fieri has dubbed, of course, “Flavortown Market.” The winner gets a grocery store shopping spree worth up to $20,000.
The episode Gandhi-Rue will appear in is titled “Clearance Wars,” and the description says that four chefs will be given a list of grocery store clearance items they must use to make a high-end dinner. The chefs who make it to the second round will have to use clearance items to prepare a “spicy seafood feast.”
The winner will be determined by a panel of celebrity food judges made up of Christian Petroni, Michael Voltaggio and Maneet Chauhan.
Gandhi-Rue said she traveled to a suburb of San Francisco to film the episode in October. She is, of course, not allowed to talk about how she did in the competition, but a photo provided by Food Network shows her dressed in red, appearing to put together some type of salad with sliced pears. Seared sea scallops are resting on a plate in the background. (Could they be part of a final round spicy seafood feast?)
“If you asked me, I would always tell you I’m not a competitive person, but I loved it,” she said on Wednesday. “I love how you have to think outside the box. You have to think in a hurry because you have no idea what Guy’s going to throw at you.”
This is not Gandhi-Rue’s first time chef-ing on national television. The morning before Thanksgiving Day last year, she appeared on “Today” on NBC and represented Kansas in a segment called “The United Plates of America.”
She follows in the footsteps of local chef and regular cooking show contestant Jason Febres, who in November 2013 appeared on the first season of “Guy’s Grocery Games” but was the second chef eliminated.
Gandhi-Rue is in the process of figuring out how to host a virtual watch party with friends, fans and customers. When she does, she’ll post the plan on her professional Facebook page, Chef Natasha Gandhi-Rue.
“I had a ball and Guy is such a nice person,” she said. “He’s not fake. He doesn’t have a two-part character. He’s such a genuine, nice person.”
Food Network is on Channel 40 on Cox in Wichita.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 1:06 PM.
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