Chef At San Diego's ARLO Competes In Food Network Beach Cook-Off

SAN DIEGO, CA — ARLO restaurant's head chef Joshua Mouzakes, of San Diego, is among contenders in an upcoming East Coast vs. West Coast, Food Network series that challenges top-notch cooks to create such summer, beach eats as lobster rolls, fish tacos, funnel cakes and elote street corn.

The six-week "Beachside Brawl" premieres at 10 p.m. June 19, hosted by Food Network fixture and celebrity chef Antonia Lofaso, owner of several Los Angeles-area eateries.

After his career start at Thomas Keller’s famed The French Laundry in Yountville, Mouzakes gained acclaim for helping put the Mission Valley restaurant on the culinary map with ARLO's eclectic menu, featuring Moroccan-inspired lamb meatballs, maple halibut, forest mushrooms/goat cheese flatbread and brunch dish, Cuban pork Benedict.

Mouzakes, who took time off from ARLO's kitchen during "Beachside Brawl" filming, was one of four chefs selected to be on Los Angeles restaurateur Brooke Williamson's West Coast team.

The foursome assembled by Williamson, a "Top Chef" winner, also includes Jessica Roy of Newport Beach and two chefs from Washington state. The West Coast gang will go head-to head against an East Coast team with New Jersey, Florida and Massachusetts cooks and headed by Boston-based chef Tiffani Faison.

And the stakes are high in this beachside showdown. One contestant will be crowned "Best of the Beach" and win a beach getaway worth up to $25,000, the network said.

For the first challenge, the two teams must create boardwalk-style dishes — that best represent their coasts — including something on a stick, something in a bun and something fried. Other challenges will include boardwalk bake sales, "seafood banquets on a budget" and "million-dollar yacht meals," TV officials said.

Lofaso, a New York native, now a Venice resident and owner of Greater L.A.'s Scopa, Black Market, The Local Peasant and DAMA, predicts viewers will enjoy rooting for their coast and fave beach bites.

“With my strong connection to both coasts — being born on the east and growing up on the west — I’m so thrilled to oversee this competition,” she said.

Joining Lofaso will be rotating guest judges to decide which chef goes home each week and to help determine the winner.

Is it "West Coast/best coast" for summer bites? Will Mouzakes emerge as "Best of the Beach"? Tune in to find out.

To find more info on Food Network's Beachside Brawl, follow this link. The show also will be streamed on discovery+.

ARLO is located at San Diego's Town and Country Resort, 500 Hotel Circle North.

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