This week on Food Network Obsessed, Antonia Lofaso chats with host Jaymee Sire about growing up in an Italian-American family in Long Island and the cultural shift she experienced moving to the West Coast at an early age. She talks about balancing being a restaurateur and mom, and her personal parenting philosophy. Antonia shares her process of conceptualizing the culture of a restaurant and her globally-influenced cooking style. She talks about how her life and businesses pivoted during the pandemic and documenting it all on video. Then she dives into the latest season filming Tournament of Champions and why it’s the hardest competition she’s ever participated in. Plus, the best and worst dishes she’s ever tasted.
This week on Food Network Obsessed, Antonia Lofaso chats with host Jaymee Sire about growing up in an Italian-American family in Long Island and the cultural shift she experienced moving to the West Coast at an early age. She talks about balancing being a restaurateur and mom, and her personal parenting philosophy. Antonia shares her process of conceptualizing the culture of a restaurant and her globally-influenced cooking style. She talks about how her life and businesses pivoted during the pandemic and documenting it all on video. Then she dives into the latest season filming Tournament of Champions and why it’s the hardest competition she’s ever participated in. Plus, the best and worst dishes she’s ever tasted.
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Find episode transcript here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/antonia-lofaso-on-bringing-restaurants-to-life-l-a-s-culinary-melting-pot
[MUSIC PLAYING] JAYMEE SIRE: Hey foodies. Welcome to another episode of Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast where we dish on all things Food Network. And I am your host Jaymee Sire, fresh off a 10-day trip to the Seattle area, capped off by a little camping trip to Fort Worden if you know the area.
I don't know about you guys, but a campfire-cooked hot dog is above all other hot dogs, in my opinion. I liked mine with extra char, lots of mustard. And I mean, that's pretty much it. Pretty simple. That is not the only thing that I ate. There was a lot of other junk food involved. As you would expect from any sort of camping trip, a lot of licorice, a lot of pizza rolls, a lot of cheese, a lot of things that hurt my belly. So I'm looking forward to maybe some vegetables and seafood this week.
But on this week's episode of the pod, we are talking to a Food Network powerhouse, and I am talking about Antonia Lofaso. I was so excited to have Antonia on the pod because-- I don't know about you guys. I was locked in to Tournament Of Champions, and that tie between her and Jet Tila was absolutely nuts. So we talk all about that, plus we dive a little bit deeper into her background and her earliest memories around food and cooking.
Of course, she is a West Coast based chef and restaurateur. You've watched her judge on Guy's Grocery Games and recently, of course, she returned to the second season of Tournament Of Champions. So let's welcome her, Antonia Lofaso.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Antonia, welcome to the pod. Thank you so much for joining us today.
ANTONIA LOFASO: It's always so good to be here. Thank you so much.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yes. So before we talk about you, your restaurants, Food Network, before we get into all of that, I have to ask one burning question on my end. So as a lifelong Bachelor franchise fan, I have to say that Antonia Lofaso making an appearance on The Bachelorette was not on my 2020 bingo card. But it was a crossover that I thoroughly enjoyed. So how did that whole thing come about?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Jaymee, I love that you-- there's been so many people that have asked me this question, and it's so funny. So when I did it, I was like, no one's even going to notice. That was legitimately what I thought.
But Ben Smith and I are actually good friends ever since he moved here. He lives in my neighborhood. And I've seen the whole process of him going through this of producers kind of DMing him trying to get him onto the show. And he was on the fence about doing. And I was like, you need to do it. So I saw the whole process, watched the whole process. And then of course it was 2020. And his parents when we came down to hometowns-- for the record, I've never watched the show.
I had never seen an episode of the show and then just happened to be on the show. So when hometowns came about-- and for those who don't know, it's when all the family members for the last four finalists come and meet the potential bachelorette to be married couple, whatever it is. And the producers called me and they were just like, his parents can't come and Ben thinks of you as a mother.
I was like, hold on a second. I'm 44 years old. Let's not tell the world that I'm even old enough to be your mother. Like I'm a friend, mentor, you train me. I truly did not even think anyone would even notice and it was really-- it was actually pretty funny.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. It was great. I was very shocked. And it's like my one guilty pleasure if you're going to call it that TV show that I've watched since college. And so I saw you pop up on there and I was like, that is so cool. That is--
ANTONIA LOFASO: The crazy part is I was watching it on the edge of my seat. I was like, I've never seen this show before, but now my friend is on it. So now I'm going to watch it. And I'm like, I obviously know what happens because I was there. You know what I mean?
But I was still like hanging on every single week like as if I didn't know what happened. But it was a definite first, and it was perfect for 2020. And how did I end up on the show? Because I live in Los Angeles and I live in Venice, and it doesn't get more like LA than that.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. No, exactly. Well, speaking of which, yes, you are living in Venice in sunny California, which is kind of a long way from Long Island where you grew up. What made you decide to move across the country and settle down on the West Coast?
ANTONIA LOFASO: I had no choice. I was 11 and my parents took me with them.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK. That's probably a pretty good reason.
ANTONIA LOFASO: They were like, we're not going to leave an 11-year-old in Long Island by herself. I was born and raised in Long Island, but my parents, we all moved out here when I was 11 and my brother was 10. And they just-- they wanted to get out of New York. My dad hates New York even though he is a-- I mean born and raised in Little Italy then moved out to Long Island.
My mom is the same thing. So they're very anti the East Coast because they got a little taste of some SoCal weather and that was it.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's fair enough. I went the opposite. I was in California for 10 years and ended up on the East Coast somehow. So we've switched places.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. I mean, I love the East Coast. I do. But there's times and-- I'll land in New York and it feels like home, and I get to put on a sweater because you don't wear sweaters in LA. And like it just I get off the plane and then two days of that if there was like rain or snow, I'm like, get me back to my flip-flops all day long.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, absolutely. I tell people all the time that Southern California is it's just not-- it's not real life as far as the weather goes anyways. You mentioned growing up in Long Island with an Italian family, but also a Jewish family. Seem like you guys really love to cook. What were some of your earliest memories just being in the kitchen or that food from childhood?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. I mean, listen, all cultures have this love and obsession with food no matter where you are. But especially New York, Jewish and Italian, I always make this joke that the cable guy would come over and my mom asked if I made him a sandwich, because that's just how ingrained cooking for everyone was and what we did.
And I would say my largest memory at that time was more sort of the understanding of how big food is because growing up in Long Island, I was in a very small community of mostly Italian families and that's really all we ate. I mean, those are my first memories of food. It was just like very Italian-American style dishes all the time.
And when we moved to Los Angeles, California, my mind was blown because I went to El Torito. My parents took me to an El Torito. And my dad said there's this great dish that comes out of the kitchen and it's still cooking on, and he was talking about fajitas. And, of course, he called them like fajitas or like some awful, like, you know, with his accent and he was just didn't know what it was. And we went to our first Mexican restaurant.
I mean, obviously now living in Los Angeles and having traveled all over the world and spent so much time in Mexico, I understand that that is a very specific style of Mexican food. But it was mind blowing. I had never seen Mexican food before. And so that memory of that sort of transition from living in Long Island and then coming to Southern California and seeing the vast variety of food.
I mean, we had Chinese food, or what the version of Chinese food was in Long Island. But I did not have an understanding of what other food cultures look like until I moved to California and visited El Torito in the San Fernando Valley. A lot of chefs like to say their first love of food and their first exploration of food was a baguette by the Sun River in France and mine was like San Fernando Valley in El Torito and like a corn pudding.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love that though, because I mean-- I grew up in Montana. And so I remember getting to San Diego in my 20s and really realizing that I had not properly had like actual Mexican food previously. And I miss it so much. I mean, there obviously is some in New York, but not to the abundance or degree that you find in Southern California.
What about some of those Italian-American recipes from your childhood? What stands out as something that if you have that dish or that flavor or that ingredient that just like immediately transports you back to your childhood?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Mine specifically is just a really simple tomato sauce. I mean, obviously in Long Island we call them a nice marinara. And I still smell it. So my mom was really big on cooking early in the morning. And when I say early in the morning, like 3, 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning.
JAYMEE SIRE: Wow.
ANTONIA LOFASO: So I would wake up to-- Yeah, she had awful insomnia and so she would cook. And so I would wake up to the smell of simmering garlic, and I knew that she was getting ready to make tomato sauce. And I could actually smell the garlic in olive oil and still to this day-- I'm like, my mouth is watering actually thinking about it. Still to this day, it's like I smell a little bit of garlic in some oil, and it fully transports me back to my childhood.
And for the record, my childhood at many different levels. My childhood as like a really nice little six-year-old and then as a teenager coming home, you know, hangover and being like, what is that smell at 5 o'clock in the morning? And I'm like, oh, it's my mom's tomato sauce. So it went through my entire childhood. But yeah, the smell of tomato sauce and the smell of garlic and olive oil, there's something about that smell.
And I always make this joke about how I want to do essential oils for the cooking world where people just walk around smelling like Parmesan cheese, or garlic and olive oil, or maybe not something that aggressive. But I think it smells good.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, listen, if you come up with that, that is an essential oil that I would actually consider buying.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. I would need to get some more information from men. I'm not dating right now. So I just feel like if I smelled like--
JAYMEE SIRE: Garlic.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Simmering garlic and olive oil, like is that more appealing to you or less appealing to you?
JAYMEE SIRE: Is that sexy?
ANTONIA LOFASO: I want to take-- I want to take that-- I want to take that poll first before I dive into this business.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. We need to do some market research before we really totally go--
ANTONIA LOFASO: I need some analytics on the sense of women in the food world before I really spend some money there.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. Well, maybe we could get you on The Bachelor. I mean, if you knew somebody then perhaps we could swing that.
ANTONIA LOFASO: That is my dream. I feel like I-- me being on maybe The Bachelorette was more like hope for women over the age of 40. That wearing sweatshirts in the morning versus their hair being done all the time, like we could be on The Bachelorette too.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's for all ages, right?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, I'm 40 and I still watch it. So I feel like it's for everybody.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Well, I'm 45 this year. So technically, I would be the oldest bachelorette ever.
JAYMEE SIRE: I'm here for it.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Thank you.
JAYMEE SIRE: I'm 100% here for it. And I think your daughter would be a very integral part of your season of Bachelorette because you do have a 21-year-old daughter, Xea.
ANTONIA LOFASO: I do.
JAYMEE SIRE: It seems like you guys are really close. Do you guys get to cook together often?
ANTONIA LOFASO: We do. And actually she didn't-- Xea's into music. She loves music like you wouldn't believe. She has an ear for it. She listens to all styles of music. She wants to produce music. So she's into food in the way that a food writer is into her food or-- she is-- I can take her anywhere in the world.
And this girl, I am so proud of like her palate and the way she eats and the way she presents herself in a restaurant. And she has a true love and understanding of it. Does she want to cook? Absolutely not. When she went to college, I was worried because I'm like, God, I'm sending you out into the world with very little cooking abilities, and then pandemic hit.
She was home with me, and she actually started cooking a lot more. And then we just recently did a Guy's Grocery Games delivery where she competed with me. She was petrified.
JAYMEE SIRE: Really?
ANTONIA LOFASO: I was like-- well, I never look at it because her and I are so close and we are-- I had her when I was 23 years old. I was a baby. And so she-- we are just so-- we're in sync with each other so well, and she loves being around me and wants to spend time with me. And she's awesome. I love spending time with her.
But she was petrified to compete with me because she was like, you're kind of a psycho when you compete, and I don't want to ruin anything for you. But she did so well. I was wildly impressed, and it gave her so much confidence.
And Guy was so sweet to her and it really like everyone-- like the judges-- everyone was so sweet to her and honestly just giving her such great feedback because she really did such a great job. So I don't think she wants to do anything professionally.
I mean, I know for sure. She doesn't want to do anything professionally. But she loves eating out with me. And if it came down to competing again with me, I would have her on my team any day. She did such a good job.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love that. I love that. Do you have any advice out there for moms trying to balance it all? I feel like you have done a good job of that, being a mom, being a restaurateur, being on TV and kind of making all those things work in conjunction with each other.
ANTONIA LOFASO: That's always such a loaded question and thank you for saying that. It looks like I've done a great job. I've tried really hard. That's been the hardest thing I think with Xea and I is-- her dad died when she was young. She was like 11 when he passed away. And that was right when I was opening one of my first restaurants. And some of the most horrendous moments, but at the same time some of the most beautiful moments between the two of us.
And Xea will tell you this. Actually, her and I just did an interview together, and I almost started crying. It was this interview for Mother's Day, and she said that I said something to her that sticks with her all the time. And she said we're in this together. I'm on your team.
We're on each other's team. Because I feel like the only advice that I would give to parents out there and what kind of got me through-- and none of it's been perfect. None of this has looked perfect. None of this has been perfect. Let me make that super clear-- is that there's sort of this unwavering I'm going to succeed at my job for a multitude of reasons to show her, A as a human being, B as a female.
You can do whatever it is that you want to do no matter what happens to you. No matter what life throws at you, you do you. And that doesn't mean that you're selfish. It just means that your priorities matter, because your priorities when they're successful, then trickle down to everyone else.
And so that's really how that worked. And I think she now sees everything that we've done and everything that we've built and sacrifices that were made, and mostly time sacrifices on her part and my part were not easy. That being said, I didn't do it alone. My father was present. My mother was present, her grandparents on her father's side.
There's been a slew of people that have helped me raise her. The biggest thing I would just tell parents is make kids really believe and really-- that you guys are on the same team. It's not us against you. It's not the parent and then the child. It's we're on the same team, and we're all going for the same thing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAYMEE SIRE: Coming up next, we talk all about Antonia's restaurants in LA, her experience on this past season of Tournament of Champions, plus she reveals the worst bite of food she's ever had while judging on Food Network.
When we talk about this balancing act that you are constantly doing and other moms across the country constantly doing, for you that means owning restaurants, multiple restaurants in California. All of them are very unique concepts as well. It seems like they all have a different vibe. Do you feel like that is a reflection of how diverse your own cooking style is?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. I mean, my cooking style is super diverse, and I love that. And I think it's also because, like I said, I grew up in Los Angeles. There is a lot of diversity in Los Angeles and in its cooking. I think that Los Angeles has been a city that hasn't really been recognized on the food map for a really long time. And over the last three or four years, it really has become a Mecca.
We had Michelin Guide come two years ago to look at us and review us. But it's-- in California, if you didn't work in San Francisco, you didn't work in restaurants. And so Los Angeles really changed that, and I think my food reflects this melting pot of California cuisine because I mean, we have the most incredible Koreatown. I mean, we've got the most incredible Mexican food.
There's so many Jamaican restaurants. There's so much and it's close. I mean, it's within seven, eight miles of each other in California or Los Angeles. There's traffic. So it maybe seven miles away, but it could take you an hour to get there. But yeah. So I just think that my food reflects the diversity I grew up with eating. Is Scopa more of a reflection of me because I am an Italian-American? Maybe. I think I have more stories behind it.
But when we opened DAMA, I was humbled and so excited to sort of share this journey of growing up in Los Angeles and being really connected to Mexican food, spending time in Spain, spending time in South America, my business partners from South America and really understanding that. And for me when I open that kind of a restaurant, I immerse myself so much into-- and I won't ever do food that I don't somehow feel genuinely connected to because I just don't think it's fair to the food.
But again, it has my style to it. So like if you were in a Black Market, Black Market goes from Mexican food to Italian food to Asian style food, all over the place. But I think the common ground is sort of you can see my personality in it. You can see the way I plate. You can see how I pick ingredients, the way I handle ingredients, the style of service, the attitude of the staff, the culture of the restaurant.
I think all of that matters. And so you can be at all three restaurants and feel the same sense I would say like me and like the culture of our restaurants and then it just happens to be different types of food. But I'm proud of the fact that there's so much sort of mixture in my restaurants and what they look like, what they feel like and what the cuisine is because all of it has been stuff that I'm obsessed with. I don't make food in any of the restaurants if I'm not completely and totally obsessed with it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you have a favorite restaurant? Or is that too hard to choose?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Shhh. It's like saying, do you have a favorite kid? You just don't say those things out loud. It's so funny. Whenever I go into each of the restaurants, like I have moments. So I'll be at Scopa and then also I'm like, God, this is my favorite.
And then I'll go into DAMA, and I'll eat something. I'm like, oh my God, no, this-- and I have those moments in all three restaurants. I walk in a Black Market, and Black market was my first baby with this restaurant group that we built. And I got teary eyed in there last year because I was like, God, this restaurant's been open for 10 years. 10 years. And the Los Angeles restaurant Scopa is going to celebrate eight years this year. DAMA is celebrating three years this year.
The fact that those numbers are alive in Los Angeles with everything that we've been through, but even before 2020, I mean that's like 105 in dog years.
JAYMEE SIRE: It totally is. I think having a restaurant open that long anywhere is something that you should be proud of.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Oh, I am.
JAYMEE SIRE: But you did mention 2020, and obviously that was a hard year for everybody, especially the restaurant industry. And I was so captivated by the documentary that you did with Guy, Maneet, Christian Petroni, Marcus Samuelsson, Restaurant Hustle 2020: All on the Line. In case anybody hasn't seen it, I highly recommend. And I kind of re-watched some of your parts today, just in preparation for this interview. And I mean, it's hard to watch. I mean, I'm sure for you even more so.
But it was such a brutal and honest account of just what you guys went through right when everything was unfolding. We didn't know what was happening. So I'm wondering, now that you have a little distance from it, it's been a little over a year later. We're starting to see the light a little bit. What is your level of optimism just about the future compared to when you were self-filming this documentary?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Oh, I mean it feels like-- it feels like 100 years ago. I know it was only a year ago, but it feels like it's that long. I compare it I think in the documentary to like a car accident, right? So when you're in that moment of shock and trauma, you're just like survive, survive, survive. And now watching it, it was actually like bringing up those emotions and I'm like, I can't even believe that we did what we did.
When Guy called me-- and he had Courtney White on the phone too and I was like, oh, great. Guy Fieri and the head of Food Network is on my phone right now. They're like, OK, we're going to send you an osmo, and I was like, absolutely not. Like you guys are crazy. This is not happening because I-- in my mind, I said this. On the phone, I was quiet. Like I'll send an email later.
Because in my mind I was like, I'm losing all three of my restaurants, I couldn't even fathom picking up an osmo and recording anything. I was in shock. I'm so happy that I did now. I mean, I look at that-- and I knew going into it. I was like, I'm either all in on this, and they're going to see every piece of it, or they're going to get something that's not real and I don't do that. I'm either all in or I don't do it.
And so my best friend since I was 12 years old is a cinematographer and picked up the osmo and just started following me around. And what came out of it-- I mean watching my team come together, watching all of the people that we were able to keep on and work, and our business shift, and moment to moment and what that looked like, I was like, I was in tears every single day.
And so the reaction that I've gotten from people having seen the documentary, especially in different areas that aren't like New York or Chicago, or people being like, if you guys are going through it, it felt like this-- it was connective. It connected all of us to every single restaurateur in the US.
People being like, wow, if they're going through it, if they're struggling, I'm in it too with them. And it kind of all felt like-- that was the biggest part of the restaurant industry. Right now, it's like we had never felt more connected because we were all just cut off at the knees together and just doing our best to survive together. And we were on group chats and emails and Whatsapps, did you hear this? And what's going on? And so the level of community that came together was unreal.
And I think I said it in the documentary. I was just like, restaurant people are strong and we will survive. And we are cut from a different cloth. We just are. We grit harder. There's just something about us. And so what it looks like now is like I can't even remember because we're just trying to move forward and the idea of anything moving backwards, I think would just-- would break my heart in a way that I don't know if I can recover at this point. I'm like, it's just been too much.
I mean, LA, I'm still like the lonely one left out. We still don't have a lot of open. Maneet's open more than I am. Marcus is open more than I am, Christian. And so I'm the only one who's still stuck, trapped in a box right now.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, I think it's very inspiring to watch it. Like I said, it is hard because you're transported back to that time and it's emotional. One thing that has come from this, I know you started a gourmet meal kit delivery service that was inspired by signature dishes at your restaurants.
And I think-- I love hearing that chefs started doing this because I think that was something I really enjoyed, and it was a way to support the restaurant, but also kind of have that experience at home like you said when parts of where you are are still not open yet. Can you tell us a little bit more about that service?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Absolutely. So, yeah. All restaurateurs were-- I mean, I was like, I will sell you my forks and knives at this point. And that's really where we all were. It's like there was no rules. And so we built a nationwide food delivery service of all of our greatest hits at Scopa, and DAMA, and Black Market, where it's kind of a do it yourself at home that-- people were sending me like, how can we help? How can we support? What can we do?
So not only have these kits gone out to just people who are ordering online and they can enjoy it, but companies have been supporting being like, we weren't able to do a holiday party, can you guys help us? And we were building Zoom dinners. I did a Zoom dinner for a company for a Christmas party that was 300 people all across the United States.
JAYMEE SIRE: Wow.
ANTONIA LOFASO: That we packed up 300 boxes, shipped them out, and we did. So these are events that we would normally be doing inside of the restaurant. Now, I make a joke because I'm always up in my private dining room and I'm like, this used to be a private dining room where 40 people would come up, and I would sometimes do a demonstration up here. And now I'm just doing it with a computer screen, and my marketing director Chani fanning me searing chicken so that the smoke alarms don't go off.
And so like, you know, we've just figured it out essentially. But the incredible thing about the box deliveries, the do it yourself at home kits from Scopa, and Black market, and DAMA is that when we had the second shutdown in November, we didn't have to lay any back of the house employees off.
And that was really heartbreaking-- I mean, obviously the first time, and you saw in the documentary I was beside myself and everyone was looking at me like, do we have a job on Friday? And I was able to say yes. You know what I mean? And so solely because we did these box deliveries.
JAYMEE SIRE: And is this something that you will continue beyond?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Oh, yeah. Pablo may not get Old Lightning back. This may just be my-- we had a small little speakeasy bar inside of Scopa that once held 25 people that I'm sitting in right now that curated cocktails. It's just now our shipping office. So I don't know. We've got a whole little-- we have our own little FedEx printout thing and stickers, and there's all those technical terms that I don't know. But yeah. Pablo is not getting his space back anytime soon.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, how much skill does that take? Because you're talking about shipping these things across the country, making sure that you really do them justice to what you would get if you were in the restaurant having them.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Oh, we did-- I mean, listen-- and that's what I was saying like restaurant people are just cut from a different cloth. It's like, yeah, we're not shipping professionals. But, you know, I was just saying like my marketing director Chani Hitt, my chef de cuisine Victor Totoris, the amount of research that they did within like less than a month-- because we anticipated stuff happening. We didn't wait until things shut down and then try to figure it out.
We were really trying to figure out what to do, and it was going on. Guy did an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. And he was like, hey, ship me a box and we're going to-- I'm going to do the rice balls and the empanadas here. And then he said you better get ready. People are going to ask you for these. And I was like, you know, we didn't even think of that.
So he kind of sparked this idea and then as soon as that aired, we were inundated with emails of people being like, can I get those empanadas in Detroit? Can I get those rice balls in Nashville? And so from that, like I've said, my marketing director and my chef de cuisine ran and started-- we were shipping-- I have family in New York. My business partners have family in New York.
So we were shipping packages and seeing what temperature they arrived at to make sure the temperature was right and how they arrived, and was everything still intact? And so it was a lot of research and development before we were able to actually build these boxes and negotiating with FedEx and doing all these other things. So yeah. It was not an easy business to build by any stretch of the imagination.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, I mean, you should feel very good about the business that you've built that will continue on beyond all this when you guys are hopefully at 100% at some point, but obviously we have to kind of turn the page and talk Tournament Of Champions.
I know people are going to want to hear about that because that is another thing that happened during the pandemic, shooting this massive production. You're back after a great run last year. What was your attitude coming back the second time around?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Well, I mean, if anyone's watched me in my entirety of my culinary competition career, they know that I take it very seriously. Like I throw up in the shower, I only eat donut diet, kind of emotional, get it ready. It drives me nuts. You have no idea. The culinary competitions at that level, I mean, I get crazy just doing like when I competed on Cutthroat Kitchen or even Guy's Grocery Games. This level though, oh my God, it's like a pressure cooker. So I get pretty crazy.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, a massive moment happened with your battle with Jet Tila because for the first time ever, we saw a tie. And it was-- and when I heard about this, I was like, oh, well, they could just take whatever category. But it was every single category, you guys had the exact same score. I mean, take us through your mind when you-- because you were the one that kind of did the quick math in your head and you were like, wait a minute.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. I'm great at math. So I'm watching Guy read out the numbers of Jet Tila and it's like 93. And I was like, oh, OK, that's weird. And then the same numbers start reading off. So I'm calculating. I'm like, 47-- I was like, wait a second. But those are the same numbers. So it took me a second to be like what's the answer? Because I'm like, both of these numbers are the same. And so it was really surreal. And then of course he's like, first time ever.
And the weird part is-- a little like behind the scenes it's like I watched all the producers. It took longer to tally the scores this time, and I was seeing people kind of race around production. I was like, something's going on. I mean, because they couldn't believe.
They were redoing the numbers and then they were talking to the judges like, are you sure you wrote these numbers down right? They really wanted to make sure this is what-- they really wanted to make sure that was true and accurate. So, I was like, what the hell is going on? And when I saw that, I was like, I got to do this again?
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, because you had to do it all over again. I mean, was that like a part of the contingency? Or do they come up with that on the spot?
ANTONIA LOFASO: They came up with it on the spot. They never thought in a million years, because you have three judges and three categories. There's always going to be a number off somewhere. You know what I mean? And so for all three judges to score exactly the same way, I don't know what the percentage of that is, but maybe we should go bad in Vegas at this point because the chances of it happening are very, very, very slim.
And so I was like, you have no idea what it takes to-- even just the lead up of going onto the show and then the preparation and production on the show, and then all of the stuff that you have to do before you even get out onto the tournament floor.
And so your mind is going through all of this insane stress, this insane pressure that's like your wheels are just turning. So it's like every time you finish a cook, you're like, oh my God, it's over. Thank God it's over. That's how I feel anyway.
And so when they were like, no, we're going to do that again, I was like, what do you mean we got to do that again?
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, is this show as hard as it looks? Because it seems like it's like kind of the ultimate of all of the competition shows, because of the randomizer and because of the blind judging, and because of the quality of chefs you're going up against. Is that fair to say?
ANTONIA LOFASO: This is the hardest show I've ever done. And I used to say that-- I mean, obviously-- and I did two seasons of Top Chef. Let's just say that. We all know what that look like. This is the hardest show I've ever done. And then when the first time I did a tournament of chopped, I was like, this is the hardest show I've ever done, because it's real. You open a basket and that's it.
This is the hardest show I've ever done because there's this wheel, there's this randomizer that just spins and it is awful. This is my superpower, right? You give me five words that don't match and somehow we create a dish with these five words that don't match.
And so it is the most insane thing, and we have no time to think about it. So it's like the wheel spins, Guy reads off the five things that the wheels spun to, the culinary puts in the protein in the refrigerator that spun and the vegetable out. You're talking about 30 seconds. And then it's go. And so if you only have 30 minutes on the clock, your mind is like, what am I making? I have no idea what I'm making.
And so-- but the other part to it, it's so much fun because I'm like, oh my God, I'm ripping my hair out. And then all of a sudden 30 minutes later, 45 minutes is over, and you see these dishes that you've made under this insane stress and you're like, how did I even think about that?
So there's this confidence that comes from it, especially when your scores are so high and you know that you put out great dishes round after round, and you're just kind of-- you either win or you're beat by a point or whatever it is. To me, I'm OK with that because I put out really good food both seasons.
And so it's always this weird sort of confidence builder where I'm like, you know what I'm really good at? You can give me five totally weird abstract words and I can make the most beautiful dish you've ever seen in less than 30 minutes. Like who has that skill?
JAYMEE SIRE: No. That's a skill.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Not many people in the world.
JAYMEE SIRE: It's like Mad Libs, but like for food.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, we've established that you're very competitive. So will you-- would you be back next year if they asked you?
ANTONIA LOFASO: OK. So this is my psychotic brain. Are you ready for this?
JAYMEE SIRE: Yes, I'm ready.
ANTONIA LOFASO: I'm like, I will never do this show. I've literally said this. I was like, I will never do this show ever again, no way. I can't physically put myself through the stress, right? I can't physically put myself through the stress. Having conversation with Guy. He was like, well, maybe you'll like-- maybe if you want to judge next year.
I was like, wait, so you don't think I'm good enough to compete next year? So this is my psychosis. Like so no. Of course, I want to compete, but I don't want to go through the stress. I hate losing, especially when you lose and you have such high numbers. That's like the worst part. Like how do you lose and you're in the 90s? And it's-- I don't know, who knows.
JAYMEE SIRE: Who knows. We'll just leave everybody hanging on that one. But if you were to come back and compete again, is there anyone in the Food Network family that you would like to go up against that you have not had a chance to face yet?
ANTONIA LOFASO: I really want to compete against Maneet. I love her so much. And our styles are so similar but so different at the same time. We cook from the heart. It's so comforting. But she has such a mastery of spices that I am-- and I spent a lot of time when her cookbook came out. I cooked through her cookbook. Her and I did a lot of Instagram Lives with her cookbook.
That part of cooking, I'm not as familiar with, especially that sort of mastery of that-- of the beautiful spices of India that she has nailed to a degree that I can only like-- it's like I would still be like measuring where she just can like throw-- like the same way I am with Italian cuisine or Latin cuisine, she just has that.
And I just want to be around her more and really kind of pick up what she has because I'm using her more of as a learning experience-- because she's-- Yeah, she's just so-- And she has this mastery of spice that I think is incredible.
JAYMEE SIRE: No, it is. It was nice to see you guys too on the documentary, just like having that camaraderie even though it was over Zoom. We've done so many things over Zoom this year as we are doing right now. But I think she would be a formidable opponent for sure, but--
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yes.
JAYMEE SIRE: I'm guessing you would learn a lot as well. On the other side of the table, you've been a judge on Guy's Grocery Games, as well as Cutthroat Kitchen and Iron Chef, including the season that I was a floor reporter. Do you prefer being a judge or a contestant?
ANTONIA LOFASO: I actually like both. I mean, obviously judging has a lot less pressure. But I really do like competing. And also it keeps you fresh. It keeps you on your toes. I don't think I'm done competing in general. What I really like, actually ready for this, is sort of the mixture of judging and competing that we do on Guy's Grocery Games because I actually learn a lot from competitors.
So when I'm judging food, I'm kind of like taking mental notes, being like, oh, I didn't realize canned potatoes did this, and all of a sudden I use canned potatoes. And so there's all these kind of cooking hacks, and there's all of these great ideas from watching other people cook and compete and judging their food. So I've learned so much as a judge. Just again, watching people create their food or listen to them talk about food.
And then I get to really test how I cook under pressure with weird things thrown at me, with like holding on to lobster hands or having to play basketball at the same time. That's just a lot of fun.
JAYMEE SIRE: What's the worst bite of food that you've ever had as a judge?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Oh my God. This is like without question, Cutthroat Kitchen had to do a century egg. I still remember this, and this was 12 years ago. A contestant did not use a century egg correctly or didn't understand what it was, and they put the entire egg inside of a chopped salad.
And I was a young judge at the time. And so I wasn't really paying attention. I was so nervous standing next to Alton Brown. And the contestant was like, yeah, I use the century egg and chopped it up and put it in the Cobb salad. And I just took a big ol' handful and put it in my mouth. And I was like-- and century egg, it's funky and sour and--
JAYMEE SIRE: All of the things.
ANTONIA LOFASO: All the words. All of the things. That people use the great, small smidgens of it just to give this fermented funk to a dish, not the entire egg. And I put about a half an egg in my mouth, so.
JAYMEE SIRE: Did you--
ANTONIA LOFASO: Let's just say it didn't stay down. Let's just say it didn't stay that well.
JAYMEE SIRE: We will not go into details on that. But safe to say that was an easy question.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Safe to say, I can pretty much digest anything, but I could not digest that.
JAYMEE SIRE: What about the best bite you've ever had judging?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Oh, one of the best bites I ever had was actually on Iron Chef America, and it was Alex Guarnaschelli. She did a rib-eye. And it was so simple. But she took the bone, and she charred the bone after it was removed and sliced. And the challenge was blue cheese.
And so she took the rib-eye-- the crunchy of all sort of that beautiful fat and leftover meat on the outside of that rib-eye bone, charred it and then rolled it in blue cheese, and then rolled it in green onion. And all of a sudden I got like a rib-eye rib. It's so simple. And that's what I love about her cooking. But it was so simple and so good. I still think about it. I still think about it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Have you ever tried to recreate it?
ANTONIA LOFASO: I 100% did try to recreate it, and I failed miserably. And I think I texted her afterwards. I'm like, super embarrassing, but I try to redo your rib and the blue cheese wouldn't stay on and yeah. So if you see it, I'm sorry.
JAYMEE SIRE: I'm sure she'll forgive you.
ANTONIA LOFASO: She was fine.
JAYMEE SIRE: We recently also saw you host Save The Leftovers. Can you tell us a little bit about that show for anybody who hasn't seen it?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. So I love the concept of the show so, so, so much. In fact, I play it at my house all the time. Like what do you do with leftover turkey sausage and kale that you braised the night before with Calabrian chili? It's like look at my frittata. It's this great concept where people are always looking into their refrigerators and they have a slew of leftovers, and how do we recreate them? How do we make them into something new and exciting?
And I joke about this all the time what chefs superpower is, which is we look at refrigerators different. We look at leftovers different. We look at ingredients, different, and it's because of years of practicing this ability to put things together that you wouldn't normally put together, or repurposing something because we don't waste any food. Chefs don't waste any food.
If you are in any restaurant, our sole purpose in life is to use every morsel down to its last bit, not just because of food costs and things like that, but because we are in this business to create food and feed people, not throw things away. So for me at its core, this show is everything that represents a great chef, which is we use every piece of everything, every piece of vegetable, every piece of protein, like nose to tail cooking.
And so it's being able to kind of showcase those exceptional qualities that chefs have. I always make a joke, my mom-- when I was a kid, you'd come home from school and you were starving. You'd open up the refrigerator and you'd be like, there's nothing to eat in here. And you're all of a sudden your mom would be like, oh, you want to see that there's nothing to eat in here? And there would be like this feast.
And again because my mom looked at food differently than I did at that time. And so my daughter does it now every once in a while. Show up in the fridge like, there's nothing to eat in this fridge. I'm like, you're 21. Bye.
JAYMEE SIRE: Bye.
ANTONIA LOFASO: That's my answer now.
JAYMEE SIRE: Bye. No, I love that. I love that. By the way, I love leftovers as well, for all of those reasons because I do hate wasting food. It's like ingrained in my head, but also-- it's like a fun challenge. It's like an episode of chopped every time you get to open the fridge and--
ANTONIA LOFASO: Absolutely--
JAYMEE SIRE: Try to create something new. I do want to do some rapid fire questions before we let you go.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Nice.
JAYMEE SIRE: So just first thing that comes to your head. Let me know what you think. First one, sweet or savory?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Savory.
JAYMEE SIRE: Savory. Me too. Favorite food city?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Oh, favorite food city. Probably right now, Boston.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh. OK.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. Favorite way to cook chicken?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Favorite way to cook chicken thighs, start them in a pan, skin side down, then put them in a really hot oven at 450 degrees, then flip them, and you've got just beautiful roasted chicken thighs, crispy skin, natural jus.
JAYMEE SIRE: Sounds perfect. I love that.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. That's something-- I might actually make that for dinner now.
JAYMEE SIRE: There you go. Maybe I'll make that tonight too. Your favorite go-to snack?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Favorite go-to snack would probably be this coconut yogurt that I just fell in love with, with granola, blueberries and a scoop of peanut butter in that so then I mix peanut butter into the coconut yogurt. I'm from LA, don't judge me.
JAYMEE SIRE: No. That sounds-- it sounds delicious. It sounds delicious and healthy and full of protein. So I'm on board. Your least favorite food of all time?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Foie gras.
JAYMEE SIRE: Really?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Don't even talk to me about it. No liver. I don't like any organ meats. Liver, kidneys, leave them back. Leave them somewhere else. Give them to someone else.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. Good to know.
ANTONIA LOFASO: People are always just like, foie gras is so great. I'm like, liar. You're a liar.
JAYMEE SIRE: You're like wrong. You're wrong. Best advice or tip you give to anyone who is just learning how to cook?
ANTONIA LOFASO: Cook all the time. There is no shortcut. People want to take a magic pill where they become not a great cook to a great cook. There is no such thing. You have to cook every day.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. I think that's it. Very good advice. And last question. This is not rapid fire. This is just the last question that we ask everybody on Food Network Obsessed before we say goodbye. So your perfect food day, what is on the menu?
You see you've got breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and there are absolutely no rules. So you can time travel, spend however much money you want, somebody can cook for you. You can cook it, whatever you want. Whatever is going to make your perfect food day, that is what we want to hear.
ANTONIA LOFASO: OK. So my perfect food day would start probably in, I would say Italy. And I would be like espresso, like a multitude of cookies and breakfast pastries. I mean they-- it's like they have bubbly with beautiful hazelnut filling kind of a thing. Like start there. Then I would actually go into breakfast. And I feel like my breakfast--
JAYMEE SIRE: That's just your breakfast appetizer.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Well, I would start there, and then I would maybe take a trip to England just for the scones and for some clotted cream. I would want to do an entire trip of just breakfast pastries. So I would start in Italy, then I would go to England and get scones with clotted cream, then I would go to France and just do the most perfect croissant you've ever had in your entire life.
And then once I did all that carb loading, for me it would be this incredible restaurant in Rome called Rosciolo, which is a small 15-seat restaurant that has like the most incredible antipasti and pasta. And I would eat that for lunch. I would eat that for lunch all day long. I'm now realizing that my entire day would just be full of carbohydrates.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, I think that's fine.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Yeah. And it would just be like every pasta I could possibly eat from this specific restaurant in Rome. And then for dinner, it would be, honestly, the first chef I ever worked for, Wolfgang Puck steakhouse. I would need a full-- I would need to close the day on a full steakhouse meal.
So I'm talking about wedge salad, shrimp cocktail, filet mignon-- don't judge me. I'm a filet mignon steakhouse girl-- creamed spinach with a sunny-side-up egg, onion rings, Bearnaise and au poivre, because I kind of like to mix them together.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. I support that.
ANTONIA LOFASO: And then for dessert, I don't even know where I would go for dessert. I would probably say dessert's harder.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, especially since you're a savory person.
ANTONIA LOFASO: I am a savory person. I mean I like desserts, but I'm not-- honestly, you know what I would do for dessert and I know this sounds crazy after all that sort of like decadence and time travel or-- not time travel, but just very expensive private Jets is a Carvel. What I loved when I was a kid was that Carvel vanilla cone that they would dip in the chocolate. It would harden right there. I forgot what they're called. But that--
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, I don't know--
ANTONIA LOFASO: That's all I would need after all of that. That's all I would need, would be the vanilla, Carvel, soft-serve, that got dipped in that hot fudge, that hardened ice cream cone.
JAYMEE SIRE: That sounds perfect. That was always our go-to treat as kids. Ours was a Dairy Queen, but yeah. The dipped cone, like the little dipped baby cone was like the perfect--
ANTONIA LOFASO: Dipped baby cone.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. No, I love that. I mean, that sounds like a fantastic food day, and this has been a fantastic conversation. So thank you so much again for taking the time. It was lovely chatting with you.
ANTONIA LOFASO: Absolutely. You too, Jaymee.
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JAYMEE SIRE: So nice to catch up with Antonia and finally find out about that bachelor crossover. My curiosity has been quenched. You can catch Antonia on the latest season of Tournament of Champions streaming now on Discovery Plus. As always, thanks so much for listening and make sure to follow us wherever you listen to your podcast so you don't miss a single thing.
And, of course, if you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to rate and review. We do love it when you do that. That's it for now. We'll catch you foodies next Friday.
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