Stone Balloon chef defeats Iron Chef Flay

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am_haPaSStone Balloon Ale House Executive Chef Robbie Jester defeated celebrity chef Bobby Flay on a popular cooking show Thursday night on Food Network.

Jester won a run-off to cook against the New York chef during the show, “Beat Bobby Flay” and then went on to defeat  Flay in a one-on-one cook-off.

Flay was part of the  former Iron Chef show that pitted challengers against a handful of celebrity chefs.

Town Square Delaware reported that  Jester won with  a  dish of handmade Cavatelli pasta and shrimp  Flay’s version featured a polenta that did not fare well with judges.

Typically, Flay, who is known for his Southwestern-style cooking prowess,  defeats challengers on the show.

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Flay operates restaurants in New York City, Connecticut,  Atlantic City and Las Vegas,  and also has a small burger chain. Flay has struggled with soaring rents in Manhattan. He has been forced to close restaurants in a booming real estate market that make life tough in the low-margin world of restaurants.

Jester, who is well known in Delaware cooking circles, managed the former Stone Balloon for previous owner 16-Mile, a downstate brewery.

Jester stayed on as executive chef when the new owners – High  Five, the  franchisees for Buffalo Wild Wings in Delaware – took over the Main Street Newark dining spot.

The restaurant has gained a following with a gastropub menu and promotions such as Cheap Date Night, with a couple getting an entrée, dessert, and bottle of wine or growler of beer on Wednesday night.

He is graduate of the Culinary Institute  of America and  also served  a  stint for well-known chef-owner Dan Butler, owner of Toscana in Wilmington.

Jester is not the first Delaware chef to win a high-profile competition.

Jennifer Behm-Lazzarini won  Gordon Ramsay’s Master Chef show while  working as a real estate agent and caterer in Wilmington

Behm-Lazzarini is now a partner in a restaurant in Providence  RI  with her husband and former Wilmington restaurant owner Julio Lazzarini.

Also gaining renown on the baking scene was Dana Herbert, who finished at the top on the America’s Next Top Baker. Herbert operates a bakery that relocated to the Newark area in 2014.

 

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