Sonoma chef competes on Food Network

Andrew Garrett was part of the first class to participate in Sonoma Valley High School’s Culinary Arts program. The recipe for his success since then has been a complicated one that includes three years in the military, 10 years cooking in high-end restaurants and 14 years sober.

But two decades after graduation, Garrett was able to sit back and enjoy seeing himself on TV on Tuesday night in a Food Network chef competition and feel very good about it all.

The Food Network program “Supermarket Stakeout” was as a high-stakes battle between chefs when it was first unveiled in 2019. Each episode begins with a grocery store “ambush” during which the four competing chefs convince unsuspecting shoppers to hand over their groceries to use as ingredients. Each chef has a budget of $500, which, along with “charm and persuasiveness,” they’ll use to convince shoppers to hand over their goods.

The twist is that the chefs aren’t allowed to peek inside the grocery bags to see what they’re getting.

Garrett described the filming, which took place earlier this winter in Las Vegas, as nerve racking.

In the first round, chefs pay shoppers for their groceries without looking in the bags. In the second round of competition, the chefs can buy ingredients from one shopper, but they can rifle through the shopping bags before paying up. In the final round, the competitors can purchase five ingredients, but there’s no limit on the number of shoppers they can negotiate with.

A panel of judges decides which chef created the most delicious dishes out of the random ingredients, handing down a cash prize to the winner.

The premise is similar to the Food Network show “Chopped,” on which Garrett appeared in 2015.

“‘Chopped’ exposed me to a whole different world, with filming in NYC and meeting chefs I’ve looked up to for years,” said Garrett.

The theme of his episode was right up his alley.

“All the baskets had some sort of ‘spicy’ ingredient and I got to argue with Chef Aaron (Sanchez) about the hottest pepper in the world.”

“You would think the hardest part about the show is the limited time, but for me I had too much time and wound up over-thinking the dishes,” he said. “So I added ingredients that really had no purpose at all on the plates.” The judges were stunned when he ended up putting beef jerky and hot sauce in a blender for one dish, quickly dubbed a #meatshake. He didn’t win but ended up being the best fish butcher on the set – breaking down a whole monkfish in just under three minutes. “The judges were very impressed with that for sure,” he said.

Garrett loved trying his hand at reality TV again this year and said he enjoyed everything about the experience of competing on “Supermarket Stakeout.” “I had such a blast filming this show and I think the audience is going to get a kick out of watching it,” he said. “It was such an awesome experience getting to meet chef Alex Guarnaschelli, she really made the whole experience a blast.”

Garrett grew up on a small farm in Sonoma and says that he developed a love for fresh food and natural flavors early. “Being from Sonoma has really helped to inspire my culinary career – growing up foraging in the hills, fishing from Sonoma Creek, and hunting on Sonoma Mountain ranches.”

Garrett attended Dunbar Elementary, Altimira Middle School and Sonoma Valley High School. He started out cooking at Marco Dano’s in Kenwood during high school and working at the Sonoma Cheese factory in the summer.

“I’m lucky enough to have been from Sonoma where the food and beverage scene is so amazing,” said Garrett.

When he took Brigitta Crews’ electives at SVHS, it was the first year that she was transitioning the curriculum from home economics to culinary arts.

“He is very dear to me and it has warmed my heart to see his success,” said Crews, who is now retired. “He is so talented.” Garrett even catered her daughter’s wedding in 2007 and returned several times over the years to do classroom demonstrations at SVHS. She said that she hopes Garrett continues to teach cooking as she feels he is a natural.

Garrett graduated from SVHS in 2000, then studied culinary arts for a few years at Santa Rosa Junior College and then did stints in the Army, in Germany and Kosovo.

After a few years back in the states, he moved to Portland, Oregon, for the food scene, a lower cost of living, access to the mountains and coast, and to get sober.

He started off as a chef at several popular Portland restaurants (Latitude Grill, 23 Hoy and Café Nell) before founding his current passion project, NW Elixirs. The line of hot sauces is made from all-natural ingredients and contain nothing artificial. The company has been featured in Forbes, GQ, SELF and the “Today” show, and the sauces are distributed all over the country.

Garrett’s family still lives in the Valley and he returns as often as he can, and always tries to stop by to say hi to Brigitta Crews.

When asked if she would be watching Garrett compete, she said, “Of course, I can’t wait!”

Up next for Garrett is another wedding, this time his own. He planned to marry his fiance Kristina later this month. The extension of the shelter in place order in Portland for at least another month has caused them to postpone, but it gives Garrett even more time to finetune the menu.

The episode, “$60 Butter,” can be watched online at foodnetwork.com/shows/supermarket-stakeout.