Detroit Chef On Food Network's 'Chopped' Tuesday

DETROIT, MI — Metro Detroit chef Omar Mitchell has won a spot on the Food Network’s popular “Chopped” show, which takes chefs through three rounds of competition cooking with a mystery basket of ingredients. In each round, they must prepare a three-course meal, from appetizer to dessert.

Mitchell, who owns Great Lakes Burger Bar in Detroit and I Luv Cheese in Clinton Township, was approached by the show. He can’t say if he advanced beyond the preliminary round in an episode called “Clock Shock,” which airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday on the Food Network, and then again at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, 9 p.m. on Aug. 10 and 12 a.m. on Aug. 11.

The Food Network offers this much information“Clock Shock”:

“The chefs get some gorgeous crustaceans and a fancy pasta in the first basket, and the clock surprises them with its speed. Then, the judges hope that the competitors make the most of an expensive mushroom in round two. Finally, one of the last two chefs runs into trouble while trying to make an apple dessert.”

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Mitchell, who grew up in poverty on Detroit’s East Side, told The Detroit News that appearing before a national Food Network audience gives him a chance to showcase the city’s comeback. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

In the “Clock Shock” episodes, the chefs have preset amount of time to turn the ingredients in their baskets into winning cuisine. The atmosphere was “intense,” Mitchell told The Detroit News.

Mitchell is planning to move his I Luv Cheese Italian restaurant to Sterling Heights, and open another Great Lakes Burger Bar in the current Clinton Township space at 20828 Hall. The Detroit burger restaurant is located at 8200 W. McNichols Road.

Another Detroit chef, Crystal Smith, the pastry chef at Bayview Yacht Club, was named the Chopped Chef baking champion earlier this year, winning with her specialty bourbon bread pudding. She received a $10,000 prize.

Photo by Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images for Food Network Magazine