In Thursday night’s action-packed episode of Meals Network’s Conquer Bobby Flay, Pensacola chef James Briscione proved his put in the culinary scene on countrywide television by championing a prepare dinner-off between movie star Iron chef Bobby Flay.
Briscione, initial released by the judges for his title of People’s sexiest chefs alive, was paired with one particular of Flay’s intense competition for the title of Iron Chef, chef Sue Torres out of Vero Seashore, Florida.
“I know you are each listed here to get to me, of program,” Flay told the chefs on the show. “But right before that transpires, you have to go as a result of just about every other.”
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With guava remaining the top secret component of Flay’s picking out for the very first spherical, the cooks obtained to get the job done making sweet and savory flavor pairings that would showcase the tropical fruit.
Briscione eventually triumphed around Torres and advanced to the second round with praise from the judges for his fried goat cheese salad served with guava bourbon jam and pickled guava vinaigrette, all designed within just in a 20-moment time body. As a reward, Briscione chose the dish to make from really esteemed Flay.
Briscione has earned himself a status regionally for his by-hand Italian cooking solutions at Angelena’s Ristorante Italiano, so it was no shock to Pensacola locals that Briscione selected tortellini.
“Bobby’s stepping into my planet now, and I assurance these hands have manufactured hundreds of extra hrs of pasta than he (Flay) has at any time even considered about,” Briscione reported on the demonstrate.
With 45 minutes allotted on the clock for the 2nd round, Flay selected to go with a seafood-ahead styling of the ravioli-like pasta, settling on a shrimp tortellini with a shellfish and Calabrian chili sauce with saffron and anchovy breadcrumbs and a filling of shrimp, scallops, crème fraiche, chives and tarragon.
Briscione strayed far from the regular Italian roots of the dish by bringing in the regional flair of the South. He concocted a crawfish tortellini stuffed with andouille sausage bathed in a crawfish sauce, served with charred corn and brown butter.
Even with his tricky competition, Briscione exuded self-assurance, enthusiasm and self-confidence hyping up his crowd, even doing the worm dance on the concrete studio flooring throughout filming.
“I’ve performed a million items in the culinary environment,” Briscione claimed on the show. “I’m the very first ever two-time champion on Chopped, I have written four cookbooks and as a choose on this exhibit….I know what it will take to get Bobby down.”
The two presented their vastly diverse tortellini interpretations in a blind style test before a contemporary set of judges.
However the flavors had been there for Flay, it was his formation of the noodles that failed to evaluate up to Briscione. Flay acquired criticism from the judges on the toughness of the pasta and absence of filling, whilst Briscione’s procedure shined in comparison.
The flavors stayed legitimate to the type he came in professing to have, mixing Italian cooking with the “comforting, spicy flavors of the American south.”
Briscione was not only ready to make esteem from his little ones observing at property, but also a packed viewing occasion at Angelena’s and viewers all across the country.
“My children enjoy seeing Bobby Flay,” Briscione mentioned on the demonstrate. “They consider he’s the finest man or woman ever to wander the face of the Earth. And I maintain striving to convince them their dad’s not negative both.”
The extended highway to victory
Briscione stated he fell in love with creating pasta as a teenager after enjoying all-around with a passed down pasta maker from his grandmother.
Now working as an government chef in an Italian kitchen area of his have, Briscione performs arms-on each working day, very carefully and swiftly forming the night’s entrees between his fingertips like muscle memory.
Working his way up as a teenage dishwasher in Jubilee Oyster Bar & Grille to now a head chef in Pensacola 20 a long time later on, Briscione has not dropped his insatiable hunger for self-enhancement and striving for perfection.
It was at Jubilee where by Briscione stated he fell in love with the comradery and lifestyle of the kitchen, so much so he deserted his route in sports medicine to pursue a career in the culinary arts total-time.
It was not an effortless path and necessary taking his spare time to understand each extra talent that he could soak in. He picked up large influences of Southern-style cooking doing work at some of the most dependable dining establishments in Birmingham, Alabama, coaching under cooks who advocated for his possible to go even further.
He recalls exhibiting up early in the early morning before his change to understand how to make pastries and being up late looking at borrowed textbooks from his buddies in culinary faculty right up until officially “creating it” as a head chef in New York City.
“I wanted to fully grasp everything…it’s my pure disposition,” Briscione mentioned.
Now at the peak of his profession, he is not able to sit again and observe behind the scenes, but is constantly searching for strategies to workout his creativity in the kitchen and carry new features to the menu.
Experimental pasta flavors, these as all those that appear on Angelena’s rotating pasta menu, are a way for him to go back to the drawing board and lean into inspiration.
In addition to the dishes he prepares himself at Angelena’s, he is also constantly teaching and equipping his workforce to grow to be masters of their have stations.
His crew functions like a very well-oiled equipment, a move and symmetry that he claimed is what he is most happy of given that opening Angelena’s in 2019.
“Truly, it is individuals guys back again there,” Briscione claimed, gesturing toward the Angelena’s kitchen area. “When we first started off, we did not have a cohesive group which is passionate and talented like they are now. It demonstrates in the visitor experience. The staff we’ve crafted again there, we have now developed that space.”
Even as Briscione carries on to climb the ladder of superstar chef status, Briscione explained putting roots down in Pensacola running Angelena’s and increasing his little ones along with spouse and wine director Brooke Parkhurst, is additional than sufficient.
If you skipped it, you could nevertheless capture time 9, episode 10 of Beat Bobby Flay titled “Don’t Be Nice” that includes Briscione on the Food stuff Community. If seeking to check out to duplicate a Briscione recipe by yourself, you can also abide by together on his video tutorials on the Foodstuff Community application.
Through the thirty day period of March, the restaurant’s three-training course pasta tasting menu will also attribute a unique recipe motivated by Briscione’s time on the “Defeat Bobby Flay” show. The tasting can be ordered by yourself for $49 or with wine pairings for $79.
Angelena’s is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday as a result of Saturday. Beginning March 21, the cafe will open up at 4 p.m. Reservations can also be made on the internet as a result of the Angelena’s web-site and Facebook web site.
This post initially appeared on Pensacola Information Journal: Angelena’s Chef James Briscione wins Tv set clearly show Defeat Bobby Flay
