Pam Fanjoy, also known as Erin’s “Friendly Chef,” was recently chosen to compete on the Food Network’s Chopped Canada.
The episode, titled “Shell Shocked,” will air on Feb. 20 at 9pm.
Fanjoy, who owns Friendly Chef Adventures café in Erin, called the experience “amazing.”
“It was very intense,” she said. “It was very fast-paced and you have to think quickly on your feet.”
Chopped Canada is a TV cooking competition that pits four chefs against each other using mystery ingredients to prepare an appetizer, entrée and dessert. Each round is judged then a chef competitor is “chopped” if they don’t make the cut. The winner is awarded $10,000.
Fanjoy, who already filmed her episode, cannot give away what happened – but she did say using the mystery ingredients was interesting.
“Using the mystery ingredients definitely takes a lot of creativity because they give you ingredients that are quite often unusual … the level of knowledge that you have as a chef about different kinds of ingredients can give you a bit of an edge,” she said.
She also spoke about the chopping block competitors may experience on the show.
“Being chopped on Chopped Canada is a difficult thing that anyone would have to experience, so the opportunity is learning from great chefs and getting great feedback from judges that makes you better in your own career after the show is done,” said Fanjoy. “But the hard part is always that risk of being chopped and doing it so publicly.”
Fanjoy said she is competitive by nature and took the challenge very seriously.
“I really wanted to put my best foot forward especially knowing that I was there and people were going to know that I was from a small town here in Erin,” she said.
“I felt like I was representing rural life in Ontario and the fact that someone like me who has a small restaurant can really cook with the best of them and meet the challenges of cooking at a very high level in a professional kitchen.”
Fanjoy started cooking just 10 years ago, but it has developed into a second career for her. She opened her restaurant two years ago, so she enjoyed cooking next to more seasoned chefs.
“One of the reasons why I entered the competition is because I wanted the experience of cooking with other high-calibre chefs and people who knew more than I did,” she said.
A trip to Thailand would be in the cards if Fanjoy won the $10,000.
“I would travel to Thailand and learn from the locals how to cook Thai food. It’s one of my favourite types of ethnic food,” she said.
Even if Fanjoy does not win – fans will have to wait until Feb. 20 to find out – she has already had a great year. She recently won a Headwaters Tourism award for Best Culinary Tourism Experience.
“I was so pleased … it’s really a people’s choice award, which means a tremendous amount to me,” she said.
