Former Shore Chef Britt Rescigno returned to Food Network’s “Tournament of Champions” Sunday night for the third season, and as they say, third time’s the charm.
She was pitted against Chef Chris Oh in the second episode of the cooking show’s sixth season. In the bracket-style competition, she was the No. 1 seed in her bracket; Oh was eighth.
“Big pressure coming in as No 1 seed. I’m here to push myself farther than I’ve ever pushed before. I feel so ready,” Rescigno said.
Rescigno was known at the Shore for her cooking at Delaware Avenue Oyster House & Bar in Beach Haven. Earlier this month, she and her partner, Chef Kinsey Leodler-Rescigno, opened an Italian-inspired restaurant called Fiamma in Ketchum, Idaho.
Last season on “Tournament of Champions,” Rescigno made it to the show’s final four by beating James Beard award-winning chef Jonathon Sawyer; chef, restaurateur and “Chopped” judge Marc Murphy; and James Beard award-winning chef and fellow Jersey native Amanda Freitag. She ultimately lost to Maneet Chauhan.
Rescigno, a “Chopped” champion who once bested Bobby Flay on Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” with her mother’s recipe for chicken and dumplings, also competed in the fourth season of “Tournament of Champions.”
On the show, contestants are tasked with preparing a dish from randomly assigned ingredients, equipment and cooking style. Rescigno and Oh’s dishes needed to incorporate top sirloin steak, mustard greens and cheese curds, and they had to utilize a French press and include a whipped component.
“I’m classically trained in French cuisine, and this is lending straight to my training: properly seared steak, beautifully whipped potatoes, a gorgeous steak sauce,” Rescigno said. “This is everything that you will get at a traditional French restaurant.”
She prepared coffee-crusted top sirloin with braised and fried mustard greens, coffee-infused poutine gravy and whipped potatoes.
Oh prepared Korean barbecue with kimchi fondue over kimchi fried rice.
Judge Alex Guarnaschelli enjoyed Rescigno’s tempura-fried mustard greens, and judge Jonathan Waxman liked her potatoes and coffee-infused sauce
“The cookery on the sirloin was top-notch, and I think that this flavor combination, with the mustard greens, with the demi, with the cheese curds, (is) fantastic,” judge Mei Lin said.
They awarded her dish 85 points out of 100. Oh’s received 84.
Rescigno will cook next against Chef Michael Reed.
“I’ve worked really hard to get where I am,” she said, “and I’m ready for more.”
Chef David Viana also competing on ‘TOC’
Chef David Viana of Judy’s in Asbury Park, Lita and La Otra in Aberdeen and Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge also is competing on the show.
He won a spot on “Tournament of Champions” during the qualifying rounds and will cook his first dish of the competition against Chef Tobias Dorzon on Sunday, March 23.
“Tournament of Champions” airs at 8 p.m. Sundays.
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to [email protected], follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to her weekly newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Britt Rescigno returns to Food Network
