Nick Di Bona, a 28-year-old Yorktown resident who celebrated last month the grand opening of his first restaurant in Westchester, has won the title of the Food Network's 'Chopped' champion.
The Yorktown chef appeared as a contestant on the show on Oct. 15 and competed against three other chefs for the grand prize of $10,000. They competed in three rounds – appetizer, entree and dessert. For the show, they are each given a mystery basket and asked to use all of ingredients to create a meal.
The episode's theme was brunch and some of the mystery basket ingredients included caviar, champagne and araucana eggs, according to a recap on badmoonowl.com. The chefs are judged on creativity, taste and presentation.
In the appetizer round, Bi Bona prepared a warm kale salad with champagne poached quail eggs. The judges said his approach was "pure finesse," according to badmoonowl.com. In the entree round, he prepared pancake battered lobster with lobster sauce. For the dessert round, Di Bona prepared maple gelato and waffle crumble with Canadian bacon sabayon.
Di Bona, who lives less than a half mile away from Peter Pratt's Inn in Yorktown, began his culinary career as a busboy at that restaurant after he got his working papers at age 14.
The 2003 Yorktown High School graduate quickly worked his way up the ranks and became Sous Chef when he was 19. After rounding out his education at The Culinary Institute of America, he was soon promoted to Executive Chef. Within a year, Di Bona had helped Peter Pratt’s Inn earn a Zagat rating of 25, their highest rating to date.
He officially celebrated the grand opening of his New-American cuisine inspired Madison Kitchen restaurant on Sept. 25 in Larchmont.
Read more about Chef Di Bona and his restaurant by clicking here.
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