Next week, Beat Bobby Flay winner and Next Food Network Star runner-up Jay Ducote will face off against fellow local chef Danny Wilson for $10,000, a beloved knife of the loser and bragging rights in season two of Food Network’s Superchef Grudge Match. The episode airs at 8 p.m. on Dec. 26 with a viewing party at Brickyard South.
But, Baton Rouge is no stranger to Food Network, with many chefs and home cooks representing Louisiana’s cuisine on various cooking competition shows.
225 caught up with previous Food Network show winners to ask about the experience—and where it’s taken them since.
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Emily Roche, winner on Chopped Jr.
Then 11 years old, current LSU sophomore Emily Roche was the youngest contestant on her episode of Chopped Jr. But that didn’t stop her from winning a coveted Chopped Jr. chef jacket. She impressed the judges by whipping up dishes like seared quail with pesto-stuffed bagel buns. “To this day, my friends will ask about it. … I’ll watch the episode, and I’m like, ‘There’s no way I did that,’” she says.
Roche jokingly applied for the show after picking up a flyer at Mandeville’s Culinary Kids, where her grandma gifted her lessons. After multiple days of filming—edited to look like one—the judges, including Modern Family’s Rico Rodriguez, named Roche a Chopped Jr. champion.
After her episode aired, she started instructing classes at Culinary Kids to teach students that big accomplishments are possible at any age. While Roche, now 19, doesn’t plan on working in the restaurant industry, her small screen appearance still shaped her career goals as a broadcast journalism student and producer at LSU’s Tiger TV. “I think I have a good on-camera presence,” she says, “because I was exposed to a huge national television set (at a young age).”
Katie Sample, winner on Big Bad Budget Battle
Katie Sample grew up cooking with her mom in their Cajun household, and her love of the kitchen grew in college at LSU. In 2018, she was cooking for a friend’s bachelorette party when an attendee encouraged her to start posting her dishes on her Instagram, now titled @KatiesCajunKitchen. A few years later, a friend sent her a casting call post for home cooks, and she sent in her application. “I had no clue what I was even trying out for,” she says. “I just saw ‘home cook,’ and a friend said, ‘You need to go do it.”
She took an all-expense-paid trip to Guy Fieri’s Guy’s Grocery Games set in Santa Rosa, California, where Big Bad Budget Battle was also filmed. Her challenges included cooking multiple meals with $20 and utilizing leftovers. “I thought that fit being Cajun really well,” she says. “It’s (using) what’s around you. Throw it in a pot, and make it taste good.”
Since winning the show, Sample has been interviewed by multiple publications, cooked for charity events and continues posting her cooking on social media.
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Eusebio Gongora II, winner on Guy’s Grocery Games and first runner-up on Chopped
Baton Rouge locals may know Eusebio Gongora II as the co-owner of Southfin Poke and culinary director for Rotolo’s Pizzeria, but he’s also competed on multiple Food Network shows in the past decade. He appeared on grilling-themed episodes of both Guy’s Grocery Games and Chopped, which he says often re-air each year on Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s always nice to know people are watching and supporting you, even people you’ve never met,” he says.
His memorable dishes include a grilled tuna sandwich on Guy’s Grocery Games and gloopy, blended mashed potatoes on Chopped, which he believes led to him being cut in the final round. To Gongora, competing felt similar to the fast-paced environment of cooking on the line in a restaurant. “It’s no different than getting an order or a request from a guest,” he says, “and then figuring out how to make it. Granted, there are a lot more weird ingredients.”