Delaware chef wins, moves to Food Network show finale

Robbie Jester got the redemption he was seeking.

Jester, executive chef of Newark's Stone Balloon Ale House, walked away Sunday night as the winner on "Guy's Grocery Games," a Food Network culinary competition series starring celebrity chef Guy Fieri.

Jester also won $16,000 during a shopping spree. He said he used the money to take his mother on a Florida vacation.

The 30-year-old now is one of four chefs, whittled down from 16 former contestants, moving onto the program's "Redemption Tournament: Finale" airing May 1 at 8 p.m.

If the Newark resident is crowned champion, he has the chance to double his winnings.

Sunday night was Jester's second appearance on the TV show which challenges four competitors to shop and cook a dish in an allotted period of time. They also must use a variety of ingredients and kitchen tools. Three judges taste the dishes and a cook is eliminated after each round. Jester's competition included Mary Schiller, a high school culinary instructor, Jamie Gadson, a caterer and Tom Lin, chef/owner of two Szechuan restaurants.

Jester was asked to return to the series, filmed on a grocery store set in Santa Rosa, California, after an episode he appeared in aired November. He lost the competition, taped months earlier in February 2015, in the final round.

Jester said he received a phone call from a producer asking him to return to "Guy's Grocery Games," known to fans as "Triple G," while he was appearing at The Farmer & The Chef charity fundraiser this past September in Wilmington.

"They said, 'How would you feel about coming back?' I said, 'I thought you'd never ask.'"

During the November show, Jester talked about his father, Robert, a chef and restaurant owner who was fighting Stage IV cancer. Jester again mentioned his father's influence on Sunday's show.

Jester grew up working in his father's two seasonal restaurants, just outside of Chestertown, Maryland, and then later in Delaware. He began doing odd jobs in the kitchen at age 12, and was working as a line cook by age 14. A year later, he was running the line.

Jester's father, who died in early January, initially did not encourage his son's culinary career. He wanted him to be a doctor or lawyer.

"My dad didn't want me to go into this business," Jester said last week while sitting in the 138-seat dining room of the Stone Balloon Ale House on Newark's Main Street.

Jester, an ace student, scored a full scholarship to Michigan State University to study medical technology. But, he decided a week before he was supposed to leave, he did not want to attend the college.

"My dad didn't talk to me for two weeks," Jester said. Instead, Jester enrolled in a now-defunct Pike Creek school and earned a certificate in massage therapy. By the fall, he returned to the culinary arts field and began attending the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

"Once I went to the CIA, my dad got over [being angry]," he said.

Jester learned to think fast on his feet while working at his father's restaurants as well as time spent at the Hotel du Pont and the DuPont Country Club. He later spent six years working at chef/owner Dan Butler's Piccolina Toscana in Wilmington and at Butler's catering business and to-go shop.

Jester, who helped cater Ashley Biden's wedding reception at the home of her parents Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, called the experience with Butler invaluable.

"From Dan, I learned a ton about how to handle people, both inside and outside the restaurant," Jester said. "He also is very good at knowing, at the end of the cooking process, how to elevate a dish. He is very good at knowing when something needs just a little bit of olive oil or a little squeeze of lemon."

Jester says Butler also taught him finesse. "If I made something clunky for him, he would call me out on it. And he would always ask, 'Is this really a dish?'  It used to drive me crazy.  I hated that, but now I ask my cooks that question all the time."

Jester's chef's background seemed to be an asset Sunday on "Guy's Grocery's Games," a TV show he had never watched before appearing on it. Jester said he decided not to practice for the show or watch any episodes before his return, but he did learn a lesson from his earlier appearance.

"I knew the second time around, if I had an idea, I had to commit to it. The moment you get wishy washy you lose," he said.

The banter between host Fieri and Jester on Sunday's show was both playful and serious.

"If it was tackle football, I know who I’d pick," said Fieri, sizing up the burly Jester, who said he has since lost 25 pounds since filming the episode in late 2015.

Jester, returning to his Piccolina Toscana roots, cooked several Italian-inspired dishes.

The first challenge required using both radishes and tofu in a chicken dish. The competitors had only 3 minutes and 30 seconds to shop for ingredients .

"Tofu is not my homie," joked Jester who decided to make Chicken Milanese with roasted radishes and arugula salad with tofu croutons.

​"I like everything about what you just said," Fieri told the Delaware chef.

The dish impressed picky guest judge Richard Blais, a chef/restaurateur and James Beard Award nominee who has appeared on the Bravo TV series "Top Chef."

"Robbie, this dish is as elegant as the two ladies sitting next to me," Blais said, referring to the other judges who included Melissa d'Arabian, a winner of "The Next Food Network Star," and Brandi Milloy, a food writer and producer.

Blais, however, thought the dish, needed more acidity.

The second round was a game called "Budget Battle," which called for making a bowl of soup and a sandwich. The competitors had only $11 to shop for ingredients in the made-for-TV supermarket called Flavortown Market. The cooks could use "store coupons."  Jester found "a sale" on Dungeness crab and decided to make a crab salad sandwich and pair it with creamy mushroom soup.

"My inspiration is to bring together my past in Maryland, and my present in Delaware," Jester said.

The judges liked the combo, both of which are favorite Delaware dishes.  "I like the creaminess of the mushroom soup," d'Arabian said.

Blais jokingly called the combination "Surf and Earth," but thought the soup needed a little salt, and the crab more lemon.

"Blais says it needs lemon. Again," said a frustrated and red-faced Jester, who still moved onto the final round.

The last competition of the night required the remaining contestants, Mary Schiller, the cooking teacher, and Robbie, to make a "surf-and-turf" dish. But there was a weird twist.

Their dishes had to have both canned jackfruit, a bland tropical fruit, similar to breadfruit that's grown in Africa, Brazil and Southeast Asia, as well as a jar of French onion dip.

Jester chose wild boar as his turf and oysters as the surf.  He blended the French onion dip in a cream sauce with bok choy and called his grilled wild boar and fried oysters, jackfruit and mushroom saute with bok choy, a combination of "Asian-Italian-American" flavors.

Jester also earned kudos from judges after he shared garlic with Schiller, who couldn't find the cloves she needed.  "Oh, can we talk about the sportsmanship I just witnessed?" Milloy said.

Pausing to stop in competition didn't hurt Jester.

"I pretty much knew as soon as I looked down at the plate, that I won," the chef said.

After being named the winner, Jester bowed his head and appeared to have tears in his eyes. His competitor Schiller said she was impressed with Jester.  "I give Robbie an A-plus. I’m really proud of him," she said.

Jester told Fieri his thoughts were with his mother.

"Mom, you’re the rock, the reason why I’m here today," Jester said as tears streamed down his face.

For the hourlong May 1 "Redemption Tournament: Finale," Jester and three others chefs will start the competition by using the same ingredients that caused their downfall the first time.

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico