Bone Yard chef wins contest

Chef David Suarez of Bone Yard, a Mexican restaurant in Sparta, won the title as well as $500 and a trophy in the 2024 Chopped Sussex Challenge.

The cooking contest was held during Sussex County Day on Sept. 15 at the fairgrounds in Augusta. It was organized by the Sussex County Chamber of Commerce.

The contestants, who paid $250 each to enter, were Chef Chase Sanders of Mountain Creek Resort in Vernon; Chef Simon Tozzi of Bristol Glen, a continuing care retirement community in Newton; Chef Tim Casey of Complete Care at Barn Hill, a nursing home in Newton; and Suarez.

The contest had three rounds - appetizer, main dish and dessert - and one chef was “chopped” after each round.

The dishes were made from ingredients that the chefs found in a pantry and refrigerator at the contest site. For each dish, they also had a “mystery basket” of four ingredients that they were required to use to make that dish.

Their entries had to be made on time and provide just enough food for three judges and the host to taste.

Casey, who made a breakfast burrito as an appetizer, was bid adieu after the first round.

“I was only in the first round: the breakfast wrap. They said that my eggs were cooked the best, but my appetizer was too big to be an appetizer.”

He humorously blamed the loss on his Italian heritage. “I could eat the appetizer. I’m Italian so an appetizer could feed five people, but eating that, I would still be hungry for three days.”

He did make enough of an impression on the judges to maybe return next year.

“The judges would love to see me again for next year’s competition,” he said.

No formal training

Suarez, crowned the champion, was the only one of the four chefs with no formal culinary training.

His brother fostered his love for cooking.

“I started seven years ago when I left Mexico to come here. My brother taught me how to cook. My brother, Miguel Diaz, taught me how to do almost everything. He didn’t have a culinary background, but he loved to cook.”

Suarez admitted to being a bit nervous at first during the competition, especially because he had never worked with some of the mystery ingredients.

“When I’m cooking, you feel nervous looking at pieces of meat and fruit you have never seen before. It blew up in my mind at first, and I was nervous, but at the end of the competition, everything turned out OK.”

He used his previous experience as a line cook to turn the mystery fruit into a compote topping with cereal on a diner-style waffle in the first round.

“Four years ago, I was working in the diner and was working with pancakes. I made a waffle and made a jam out of the fruit and used my diner knowledge to make homemade waffles.”

In the rest of the competition, he made jalapeno poppers with mozzarella and made fried nachos in a sauce with eggs, known as chilaquiles.

To deal with his jitters, Suarez reminded himself that a kitchen is a kitchen no matter where you are.

“I felt nervous because they are very good chefs; they had better teams and better experience. But there was a moment where things fell into place and I knew what to do, basically doing my job but in a competition setting. It felt very good.”