Celebrity chefs get cooking in Santa Rosa

Musclebound TV chef Robert Irvine teamed up with local celebrity chef Guy Fieri on Thursday for a daylong cooking challenge at Sonoma Country Day School to be aired later this year on Food Network’s “Dinner: Impossible.”

Irvine, the weight-lifting Englishman who hosts the program, and Fieri, who’s got three shows of his own, were tasked with serving up an evening meal for 300 supporters and clients of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Santa Rosa.

But just what the menu might hold is being kept hush hush until the holiday-themed episode airs later this year, Food Network spokeswoman Lauren Mueller said.

Surprise obstacles and menu challenges forced upon Irvine and his guest chefs on a moment’s notice are the program’s raison d’etre.

“Robert literally doesn’t know where he’s going until he gets on the plane,” Mueller said.

The set in north Santa Rosa was closed to media, Mueller said.

Boys & Girls Club Chief Executive Mary Bates said she was bound by the shroud of silence, which made it tricky arranging for the attendance of some 350 guests, as well as several children and volunteers who were helping the chef shop and cook.

“It’s a food and fun carnival event,” Bates said by phone on Thursday afternoon.

Elizabeth Gleadall, Sonoma Country Day’s director of development, said the school’s involvement was limited to providing land for a cooking tent where the show was being taped.

“We’re just happy to be able to support the Boys & Girls Club,” Gleadall said.

Fieri, a Santa Rosa restaurateur who rose to fame in 2006 when he won Season Two of “The Next Food Network Star,” now hosts three Food Network programs: “Guy’s Big Bite,” “Ultimate Recipe Showdown” and “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.”

He faced off against Irvine on “Dinner: Impossible” shortly after his success on “The Next Food Network Star,” when their showdown took them to a sleep-away camp in New Jersey with campers for sous chefs.

Closer to home, Fieri, with partner Steve Gruber, is the brains behind Johnny Garlic’s, first opened in 1996, and Tex Wasabi’s Rock’n’Roll Sushi-BBQ in Santa Rosa, Windsor and the Sacramento area.

The Tex Wasabi’s restaurant in downtown Santa Rosa recently closed. A notice on the company’s Web site said it was shut down for remodeling until late September.