Chopped: Experience of a lifetime for Chef Robin Clark

By Tom Matthews, courtesy of our friends at Niche Hospitality Group

Ten years ago, if you told Robin Clark she would one day be competing as a contestant on Food Network’s hit series Chopped, she would have definitely had a couple of questions.

And that’s probably because ten years ago she was studying pre-med to become a brain surgeon. And if you know anything about how brains work you know that they love to change decisions—and that’s exactly what Robin Clark did.

“I wasn’t enjoying it. I wasn’t happy,” she said. “I was thinking if I’m going to be doing this for the rest of my life I better be happy doing it every single day.”

She did some reflecting and thought, “What about food?” The rest is history.

She enrolled at Johnson & Wales in both of their Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry Associates Degree programs. Upon completion of those degrees, she tacked on a Bachelor’s in Food Service Management to her resumé.

So, a couple years later, freshly graduated, with a diverse background in culinary, Robin was a prime candidate for hiring in a competitive industry dominated by men.

She landed her first job as a sous chef in Providence, Rhode Island at Mill’s Tavern. While at Mill’s, she worked on every station in the kitchen, in addition to training under the pastry chef.

From Providence she moved to Boston and worked at T.W. Food in Cambridge.

“I got a lot of fine dining and farm to table experience there,” said Clark. 

And then, one day, she received a tip from the mushroom delivery man while he was dropping off an order. He told Clark his friend was opening a restaurant in Worcester. Intrigued, she decided to reach out.

“I figured it can’t hurt to check it out so, I came down here (Worcester) and I met Jared and he hired me to be his sous chef on the spot.”

She now had a new job in a new city at a new restaurant called deadhorse hill on Main St. in Worcester. She would eventually work her way up to the title of chef de cuisine/pastry chef. It was while working at deadhorse that the idea of even applying to be on Chopped came up.

“I’ve always kind of had a secret dream of wanting to be on Chopped,” she said. “But never thought it would really happen.

And then she caught wind deadhorse’s butcher Erin Hockey was going to be a contestant on Chopped.

“I was like ‘Wow, I’m so jealous, that’s so cool,’” she recalled.

The film crew came to film Hockey and while doing so, she put in a good word about Chef Robin Clark. So, of course, she decided to submit an application.

The application consisted of lots of paperwork, phone interviews, FaceTime interviews, and finally, filmed interviews with producers, that are then shown to the big wigs that decide who’s in and who’s out.

The big wigs liked Chef Robin Clark.

Her angle to getting in? Savory and sweet.

“I definitely worked the pastry/savory combo,” she said. “I’ve religiously watched Chopped since I was a kid…I had always seen people totally choke on dessert…I worked that angle because I really knew that I was at a place in my career where I was as ready as I’ll ever be to do a competition at this level because I had savory experience, I had pastry experience, I had management experience. I had gotten to a point where I was really confident in my skills to the point where I knew that if I could get on, that I could do decently well and wouldn’t be in over my head. And I worked that I’m a strong female chef and we need more in the industry.”

Her next steps were to pack up and head to New York and meet her three other contestants inside a McDonald’s at 6am. She recognized the strangers by kitchen shoes and knife rolls. The crew sat together and eagerly awaited the arrival of their “stage mom.”

From McDonald’s, the contestants were escorted to the Chopped studio where they were sized for their chef coats and had their cell phones taken away. No access to the public or the judges is allowed. From there, it was more paperwork, tours and instructions. Lots to go over before the cooking starts.

Next, the contestants met the host of the show, Ted Allen. He announced the contestants’ names, they walked out, and met the judges. Maneet Chauhan, Martha Stewart and Chris Santos were to judge the contest.

And later, finally, it was time to cook. Time to compete.

With her basket open, a million thoughts circulating in her head, she zoned in on a decision and stuck with it.

“You always see people who change their ideas mid-stream and it never works. You have to just commit and make it work. That’s the whole game. Making it work.”

And then the chef took over.

“Everything just zoned in,” she said. “I didn’t even notice anything else, I didn’t hear anyone else talking, I didn’t see the million cameras in front of me, I was just like, ‘I have to put food on the plate. Failure is not an option’…the chef in me just took over.”

Clark whipped up fried shishito peppers with bastilla salsa verde as an appetizer working with an ingredient list of bastilla, shishito peppers, candied bacon, and feta watermelon salad. The appetizer received rave reviews from the judges.

Next round: a go.

For the entree round, contestants were challenged with the task of creating a dish using rabbit saddle, kettle corn, mâche, and everything bagel doughnuts. Clark executed a pan-roasted rabbit loin with everything bagel doughnut and yogurt sauce, much to the delight of the judges. 

For the dessert round, the final round, Clark made a miso ice cream with gooseberry and strawberry sauce. 

But there was a hang-up. “Too salty,” said the judges.

Earlier in the show, the judges had requested that Clark use more salt in her dishes. She overcompensated for it in her dessert and they thought it was a bit too much.

“I think I can kind of put it down to one moment,” said Clark. “I just wish that I had tasted it…I was completely blindsided by their critique because I hadn’t tasted it for myself. And maybe if I had a few things would have happened. I would have realized it was way too salty and could have fixed it or I would have been happy with it, so, when they said it’s too salty, I could have defended myself.”

The brain is a funny thing though. Sometimes you’re not going to make the right decision in the multitude of moments you are faced with on a daily basis. And after a previously sleepless night in anticipation of the show, the surge of stress and hormones constantly fluctuating throughout your body the whole day, the sheer exhaustion that comes after running around a kitchen cooking dishes (to be judged on), and a million cameras in your face and producers constantly asking, “How do you feel?”

This slight little oversight to not taste the ice cream can easily be forgiven. Who knows what would have happened if she had. The outcome may have been different or it may not have been. But the fact that Clark made it to the final round in one of television’s most challenging culinary competitions tells you that way back when, she made the right decision to pursue a career as a chef.

And fast forward to now, working as the Executive Pastry Chef for Niche Hospitality Group overseeing an entire pastry program that provides desserts and pastries to six different restaurants all by herself, she made some great decisions along the way, and is continuing to make great decisions to this day. 

And that, in itself, deserves to be applauded.