Dandan chef will try to ‘Beat Bobby Flay’ Sunday
Many have tried, and many have failed — but not all of them. Now a Milwaukee chef is trying to “Beat Bobby Flay.”
Dan Jacobs, the co-owner of Dandan restaurant in Milwaukee’s Third Ward, will compete on the Food Network show on Aug. 16, in an episode titled “You’re Masa-ing With Me.”
The show, in its 25th season, airs at 9 p.m. Central Time on the Food Network.
The format first pits two guest chefs against each other; they each prepare a dish that focuses on an ingredient dictated by the show. In the case of Jacobs and his competitor, Houston chef Tony Nguyen, it was masa, the corn dough — not an ingredient that’s in his comfort zone, Jacobs admitted.
“You have like two or three minutes to figure out what you’re doing, and the clock starts,” Jacobs said.
The chefs Jet Tila and Carla Hall picked a winner, who went on to compete against Flay, the chef, restaurateur and cookbook author who first gained fame at the Southwestern restaurant Mesa Grill in New York.
The winner and Flay both make the winner’s signature dish for their portion of the competition. A panel of judges pick the winner in a blind taste test.
“Beat Bobby Flay” is recorded in front of an audience; the episode on which Jacobs appears was recorded in May 2019, he said.
It was a full day of recording, starting at 5 a.m. and wrapping up about 12 hours later. “It’s intense,” he said, but Flay’s day didn’t end when Jacobs’ did. “He had another episode after mine.”
The cooking is in real time, Jacobs said, but the contestants take part in interviews before cooking and afterward, and have some downtime during the day to chat.
“Bobby Flay was very cool. It was like talking to another line cook,” Jacobs said. “We had a good back-andforth banter going.”
Jacobs might get to see Flay and the show’s set again someday.
“They did ask me to come back and do it again,” the chef said.
“The whole thing was kind of fascinating.”
Contact dining critic Carol Deptolla at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.