GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Growing up, Jenn Struik used to pretend with her friends that they were competing on the Food Network television show “Chopped,” picking random ingredients and seeing what kinds of dishes they could come up with.
A decade later, the Grand Rapids native got to experience the real deal, putting her culinary skills to the test and competing against three other chefs on the Chopped set in New York City this past fall.
Struik, a Grand Rapids Community College culinary professor, will appear on a Chopped episode that airs on the Food Network next week, GRCC recently announced.
The episode was filmed back in October and will finally debut on Tuesday, June 27.
Despite her practice back in high school, Struik said nothing could’ve prepared her for the pressure of actually competing in the reality show, known as being one of the most stressful culinary competitions on television.
“I wore a Whoop (a type of fitness band), and after we taped the episode, I went back to my hotel to look at the stats,” she recalled, in a news release from GRCC. “I can’t say too much because I can’t give away spoilers. But let’s just say that my heart rate was very, very increased at certain points in the day. It was funny to go back and look at it because it’s actually registered as a cardiovascular activity.”
In the show, four chefs compete against each other to prepare their choice of an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert on the clock. The challenge is that the show comes with random ingredients that the chefs have to incorporate into their recipes, often creating unlikely combinations.
A panel of judges selects the chef who created the yummiest, most clever dishes, and the winner walks away with $10,000.
Struik said she prepared for the competition by creating a gameplan of dishes she knew she could make in the show’s allotted timeframe.
“For me, I think when you approach shows like this, you just have to think of it like, ‘OK, I’m going to go in with a certain amount of knowledge about appetizers that I can pull off in 20 minutes, of an entrée I could do in 30 and a dessert I could do in 30,’” she said. “You start to do a lot of recon into your culinary skill set and ask yourself what you can actually accomplish in the time frame.”
This isn’t Struik’s first time competitor. She also previously was a winner (as Jennifer Fillenworth) on a Food Network show called Supermarket Stakeout in which chefs create dishes from groceries they purchase from nearby supermarket customers, according to the GRCC news release.
Struik has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in dietetics and earned certifications in culinary arts, personal chef and chef training from GRCC, where she is currently an instructor in the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education.
She recently coached a team of GRCC culinary students who were finalists in the NASA HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge, a national competition that challenges high school students to develop food for astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Struik also runs her own business, called Jenny with the Good Eats, offering weekly meal prep, including for those with chronic health conditions; private in-home dining experiences; cooking classes; restaurant consulting and more, according to GRCC.
The Food Network hasn’t released any details yet about the June 27 episode, but Struik and the three other competitors were given permission to start talking about the show this week, eight months after filming the episode.
Struik said he clicked with the three chefs he competed against and is still in contact with them.
“We had a friendly group and to this day, we still have a group chat, and we all talk, so it was a really good experience in that regard.”
Struik says her friends and family are planning watch parties for when her episode airs next week, and she’s excited to see everyone’s reactions. But mostly, she’s proud of having had the opportunity to show her skills on the show.
“Feeling proud of the journey in my career so far,” she said. “And having these opportunities and such wonderful experiences.”
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