After winning the Oct. 10 episode of the Food Network hit Chopped, Baton Rouge’s own Chef Gavin Jobe is now set to compete against the winners of three other episodes in the finale, which airs Nov. 7.
The Baton Rouge native owns The Pelican House off Corporate Boulevard and the Italian concept Meribo in Covington. He’s competing against the other champions to win a $50,000 prize on the show.
These recent Chopped episodes are part of a tournament named “Alton’s Challenge” (after Chef Alton Brown) that focuses on gastronomic techniques. In the finale (which has already filmed—the results are kept secret until it airs), chefs have to incorporate fermentation, dehydration, molecular gastronomy and smoking into their cooking. “We had to have a pretty broad understanding of food,” Jobe says.
|
|
|
The chef started his career at Sullivan’s Steakhouse, working in the kitchen and as a server. After becoming the manager and sommelier of Sullivan’s, Jobe took jobs at Tsunami and at the Wayne Stabiler restaurant group. He joined Pelican House in 2015 before moving to Covington to open Meribo in 2016. He now splits his time between the two restaurants.
To become a candidate for Chopped, Jobe did several interviews with producers before filming an intro (what viewers see in the opening sequence). On his birthday, he found out he would be competing on the show.
Jobe says cooking for respected chefs like Alton Brown, Hugh Acheson and the finale’s surprise guest judge made filming Chopped a rewarding experience.
“Just competing is fun—getting out there and cooking against people, giving it your best, seeing other people give their best and seeing who comes out on top. It’s a lot of fun,” he says. Chefs usually compete “on a very macro level,” Jobe says, comparing their menus and techniques to others in the industry. But Chopped pits chefs against one another in a “head-to-head competition, which is different but very exciting, too.”
On TV, contestants have to start prepping a dish as soon as they unpack the mystery ingredients from a basket. But in reality, Jobe says, contestants have about three minutes to think about their dish and consider those ingredients. Contestants have 20 minutes to prepare appetizers, 30 minutes for entrees and 30 minutes for desserts.
Jobe says chefs are used to working under time crunches. “The biggest challenge was just coming up with a clear, concise plan in the short amount of time,” he says, adding that no ingredient should seem like an afterthought. “Actually trying to incorporate every ingredient into the dish, that was the biggest challenge.”
Though the competition is over, Jobe isn’t slowing down. He recently transformed Pelican House from a bar with a small food menu into a full-service restaurant. Two weeks ago, he finalized the fall and winter menus at Meribo in Covington. On Saturday, he’ll be at Baton Rouge’s first BRunchFest, dishing out his take on brunch fare. On Sunday, he’ll be competing in Slow Food Baton Rouge’s farm-to-table competition Louisiana Fall Heat.
|
|
|
On Oct. 31, Jobe will serve on a panel of restaurateurs for the LSU Ag Center’s MarketReady in Covington. The panel will help local farmers better cater to restaurant needs, he says, explaining that restaurants often order produce from larger companies.
Though Jobe plans to focus on Pelican House and Meribo for now, he’d consider opening another restaurant in Baton Rouge in the near future. “Meribo would be an ideal candidate,” he says. “But if an opportunity for another concept comes around, we’re not going to shy away from it if we think we can handle it.”
The first four parts of “Alton’s Challenge” on Chopped air Tuesday, Nov. 7, starting at 3 p.m. The finale airs at 9 p.m. Find out more here.