Photo credit to Food Network. Screenshot via Instagram.
Leigh Hutchinson, chef and owner of Via Triozzi contended on the third episode of Food Network’s Chopped, season 58. The Dallas-based chef took on an Italian challenge and cooked against three other chefs in the Tuscany episode of the Battle Italiano series.
In the Battle Italiano series, chefs will compete in four Italian regions, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Puglia and Tuscany. The winner of each category will head toward the finale cooking for a chance at winning $25,000.
The culinary showdown, which aired on Tuesday, May 21, tested four chefs’ strengths on Tuscany food. In the appetizer round, the four needed to impress the judges with a super-lean meat dish.
Hutchinson, whose family is from Sicily, spent two years in Tuscany living and cooking before opening Via Triozzi at 1806 Greenville Ave. She also studied Italian gastronomy and culture at the Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, and then she studied cooking with Marcella Ansaldo.
Despite her qualifications and experience, Hutchinson was still surprised when asked to compete on the show.
Her first challenge was to make an appetizer using cockscombs, heirloom tomatoes, wild boar and cannellini beans. She made it through with wild boar and cockscomb meatballs with cannellini bean puree but was “chopped” after an overly charred steak entrée in the second round.
The next episode of Chopped Battle Italiano finale airs on Tuesday, May 28 at 7 p.m. CDT on Food Network.
