Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Wirt Cook isn’t interested in stardom. Sure, he was Alex Guarnaschelli’s sous-chef on this season’s Iron Chef America, but he did that just to help his former boss. What Cook loves to do is cook in the kitchen at the Redding Roadhouse.
He and his wife Karen, sister Colleen and her husband Ted Stonebly had just bought the Roadhouse last July when Guarnaschelli reached the last round of the Next Iron Chef competition. She chose two sous chefs for the final battle. Cook was joined by Ashley Merriman, who also had cheffed at Guarnaschelli’s restaurants Butter and The Darby in New York City.
Cook says the team was shocked when they won. In the stress of creating more than five courses, each using the secret ingredient, within the one-hour limit, they’d made mistakes. They thought they hadn’t had such a great day. But Guarnaschelli won. She was the Next Iron Chef. And Cook suddenly had an extra job he didn’t have time for.
