Alhambra Chef DeJuan Roy Wins Food Network’s “Dueling Dads”

In what can best be described as a “come from behind victory,” Alhambra Theatre and Dining Executive Chef DeJuan Roy emerged the winner in a special Father’s Day episode of Food Network’s “Guy Fieri’s Grocery Games.” The “Dueling Dads” episode aired June 19.
During the show Guy Fieri sends four talented chefs running through the aisles in a high-stakes, high-skills, grocery store cooking competition. The chefs are hit by real-world challenges like finding workarounds when all the essential ingredients are suddenly “out-of-stock” or having to create a masterpiece when you can only cook with “5 items or less” or on a $10 budget. In the end, the food does the talking, as the last chef standing can make some serious dough.

Chef Roy made it through to the final round, pitted one-on-one against a corporate chef from Boston. Each chef was given one main ingredient with the task of creating a Father’s Day dinner of which their family would be proud. The Boston chef was given duck breast, from which he made a classic Duck la’Orange. Chef Roy was given canned ham. An almost-defeated sounding Roy commented, “He gets duck and I get canned ham? I’ve got to be creative.” And creative he was:

Chef Roy deep fried the ham in a seasoned flour and then covered it in a Dijon Mustard moutard glaze. He accompanied it with fingerling potatoes simply seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh rosemary. He added Swiss chard sautéed with salt, pepper and garlic and deglazed with white wine and vinegar. While judges raved about the duck, it was Chef Roy who emerged the winner, with Fieri himself commenting, “DeJuan, you just made canned ham sexy.” Said a tearful, Chef Roy,  “I just wanted to show my kids that they can go on and do great things.” Chef Roy won $16,000 in cash.

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