Healdsburg High grad wins Food Network's 'Cutthroat Kitchen'

An aspiring 22-year-old chef from Healdsburg crushed his more seasoned competition to dominate The Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen” Sunday night.

Cody Candelario won the epic TV battle whipping up Scotch eggs, key lime pie and a beef and broccoli dish while wielding a giant pair of chopsticks.

On the show, hosted by Alton Brown, four chefs are each given $25,000, which they may spend either on supplies or to sabotage their opponents. After each cooking challenge the chefs have 60 seconds to gather ingredients from the pantry and regroup for an auction to bid on culinary curve balls, from the exclusive use of an ingredient to the privilege of not allowing opponents to taste their dishes. After three elimination rounds the last chef standing gets to keep whatever cash is left in his or her account, creating an incentive to economize.

Candelario, who is in his last year in Niagara’s University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, walked away with $13,00.

The Healdsburg High School graduate grabbed the attention of a casting agent for the show in December after he posted a flurry of food photos on Instagram while working for an upstate New York restaurant. His culinary creations captured a big following of chefs, promoters and cooking labels, eventually catching the eye of a scout for The Food Network.

His competition included three experienced professionals, among them Kristopher Plummer, known as Chef Plum, who has been featured in multiple Food Network shows as well as ABC’s “The Taste.”

“Alton Brown was the reason I began cooking so this is an absolute honor,” Candelario posted to friends online.

He started his career working on the food truck of Healdsburg chef Mateo Granados, now of Mateo’s Cocina Latino. He also paid his dues as a busboy at Hotel Healdsburg.

It was while working as a waiter at Amangiri, an exclusive resort in Southern Utah, that he started reading cookbooks and volunteering in the kitchen. His initiative resulted in a job offer. He worked his way up the line before leaving for college in upstate New York, said his mother Elizabeth Candelario, a longtime fixture in the local food and wine scene. She is now co-director of the Demeter Association, Inc., a certifier of Biodynamic farms and products.

The winning chef is spending his summer interning at Hotel Belvedere in Bellagio, Italy on the shoes of Lake Como. On weekends he travels to places like Cinque Terre, Milan, Florence, Rome and Venice to hone his food skills.

He will spend his senior year studying at an international business school in Germany, on track to graduate with a dual major in luxury operations management and integrated and applied sciences of hospitality.

He’s got what he calls a “loose set of goals” already mapped out.

“In the next three years I want to open a food truck. Then in the next five, a restaurant,” he was quoted was saying in a release from Niagara University. “I also want to be a sommelier, a hotel owner a Food Network judge and a rock star.”

He also added, “I want to be happy.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204. On Twitter @megmcconahey.