Supermarket Stakeout airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 20
Chef Judith Cage, owner of Chef Judy’s Jaguar Grill at Johnston Community College, will take the national television stage Tuesday as a contestant on Supermarket Stakeout, a brand-new reality show on Food Network.
“I had such a great time,” Chef Judy said in an interview this week. “You’ll have to watch to see what happens, but I can say it’s going to be a very exciting show.”
Chef Judy is one of four chef contestants competing for $10,000 on the second episode airing at 10 p.m. Aug. 20.
Hosted by chef Alex Guarnaschelli, Supermarket Stakeout revolves around tough competitions where chefs have to think fast and cook food using products out of bags and carts that have been brought from a supermarket.
The ingredients will be a random selection of food products even if it includes one apple, a loaf of bread or a pack of diapers. The chefs still have to prepare a unique dish for the judges, all with the clock ticking.
Each episode will kick off with a culinary trap outside a supermarket where the four competing chefs will have to approach random shoppers leaving the store to negotiate the bags right out of their hands, not knowing what is inside.
There will be three rounds and each will have a theme. The chefs have a budget of $500 and are limited to using the items they manage to wrangle out of the customer’s bags.
The rotating panel of judges determines which challenger had the most success with the dishes.
“I had to prepare a fried dish, Chinese takeout, and a dish for date night,” Chef Judy said. “This experience has been amazing. I love television, I love cooking, I love the exposure, I love the opportunity for North Carolina to look great.”
Chef Judy said show producers noticed her on Instagram and contacted her last spring about interviewing for a spot on the show. The episode was filmed in Los Angeles in May and Chef Judy said the competition challenged her to be her best.
“They asked me lots of questions about my personality, cooking style, who I admire in the kitchen, my cooking point of view, what type of food I love to prepare, how I am in the kitchen and my creativity,” she said. “I was able to convince them that I was the right woman for the show.”
“I learned to push my fear aside and give it all I’ve got in any circumstance or any situation,” she said. No one’s more nervous when it’s time to perform, but you have to show out.”
In addition to Chef Judy’s Jaguar Grill at JCC, she also owns Let Me Cater to You, a restaurant and catering business in Fort Bragg and Uptown’s Chicken and Waffles in Fayetteville.
Be sure to watch Chef Judy put her Southern comfort food culinary skills to the test at 10 p.m. Tuesday on Food Network.
