Zach Laidlaw, an Elgin Community College-trained chef, won the international street food challenge on Thursday’s episode of “Next Level Chef,” allowing his team to move to the top-floor kitchen for next week’s show.
Laidlaw prepared a beef empanada with truffle-infused dough topped with an aioli sauce and shaved truffle.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay joked that the dish would qualify as street food on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Fellow celebrity chef Nyesha Arrington praised Laidlaw’s “amazing flaky dough” while Richard Blais, the celebrity chef serving as mentor for Laidlaw’s team, deemed the dish good enough to be on the menu at one of his restaurants.
“This is elevated,” Ramsay said of Laidlaw’s work.
Of his win, Laidlaw said, “I finally got it.”
Laidlaw’s been trying to land the top dish of the weekly competition, which airs every Thursday on ABC and streams on Hulu, since it started in February. He came close in the prior episode’s island seafood challenge, but his butter-poached lobster with chorizo and coconut was bested by a Jamaican jerk tuna prepared by professional chef Von Smith.
Thursday’s episode featured a twist. The platform delivering ingredients to each kitchen level barely paused, forcing contestants to move quickly or be left without all they needed for the challenge. On one of the passes, Laidlaw was able to nab a truffle that he estimated to be worth $500.
Laidlaw, a 34-year-old Burlington native who currently works in Maui, and his team competed from the middle-level kitchen Thursday. They will have access to the best equipment and ingredients on the top level for the next week’s challenge, which has Arrington’s team in the basement and Ramsay’s in the middle.
That’s because YouTube chef Jordan Torrey from Florida, a member of Ramsay’s team, competed head to head with Alexandra Donnadio, a home cook from New Jersey on team Arrington, in the elimination round. Despite the three celebrity chefs saying their dishes were good — “There was nothing bad in front of our eyes,” Ramsay said — Torrey’s street kabobs and Donnadias’ street steak were deemed the least impressive and resulted in the pair facing off in the final competition of the day.
To stay on the show Torrey and Donnadio had to prepare chicken wings. Torrey’s garlic Parmesan creation bested Donnadio’s take on Buffalo hot wings.
Next Thursday, the remaining chefs will face “a cut above” challenge, where those on each level will work off of a large piece of beef.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
