Iron Chef Got Her Start as 'Girl Next Door' at Lacey Township High School

Although food was a central part of life for acclaimed chef Dena Marino's Italian-American family, it was in Home Economics courses at Lacey Township High School that she realized she could aspire to a culinary career.

In January Marino competed against Masaharu Morimoto on on The Food Network's popular show, Iron Chef America. She'd previously appeared on Gordon Elliot's show, Follow that Food and Tom Colicchio's Eat, Drink, or Die, but those experiences were nothing like competing against a champion opponent and a ticking clock. 

" 'Iron Chef' was stressful," Marino said by phone from Miami, where she lives with her husband Marcus and their 3-year-old son Cash.

"We practiced for a full week in the restaurant after the restaurant closed until like 3:00 in the morning, everyday, because it is exactly how you see it. You have 60 minutes to cook and that's it. There isn't really anything behind the scenes from that," she said. 

Even so, the experience was a lot of fun, said Marino. And her parents enjoyed it too.

"The proudest moment was watching her on 'Iron Chef,' " said her step-father Rich Rutigliano, owner of Lacey Collision on Route 9. "I called everybody. ... Every customer that came in, I would say 'You gotta' watch the show,' " he bragged.

Afterwards, customers and friends called to tell him they couldn't believe his daughter didn't win.  

Marino's mother Annette Hadley attended the taping at Chelsea Piers in New York City.

"It was very, very exciting," she said. "The first five minutes I had to hold my breathe. It was really very intense."

A review of the episode on SlashFood.com gives a small taste of the pressure cooker environment of the show. 

Reviewer Michael Thomas Hastings described Marino as "the little-girl-next-door" with a "dainty little bob" going up against the "streamlined, intense stare of reigning Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto." 

"The contrast continued as the chefs got down to business: While Marino was gingerly slicing fig meats from their skins, Morimoto was crucifying an eel, driving a spike through its head and fastening it to the cutting board so he could better get at its flesh. Let's just say something told us this challenge wasn't going to be a fair fight," Hastings wrote before deciding that he may have judged Marino too hastily.

"When Marino loosened up and showed us her kitchen know-how, we got a glimpse of what must make her rustic Italian fare at Aspen, Colorado's Ellina so special. The woman can cut up and roll gnocchi like nobody's business. So when the five courses of each chef were presented, they fell into those categories so common to cooking shows: Hearty regional food that looks like stuff you might actually eat (Marino) versus complicated, architectural displays of culinary bravura (Morimoto). To gauge the judges' comments, the match was closer than we might have thought," he concluded.

Marino said she was invited to be on Iron Chef by Bruce Seidel,  a senior vice president at The Food Network who she got to know in Aspen. 

"I guess they had some space and were looking for new people and he gave me a call and asked if I wanted to do it," she said.

She developed friendships with a number of celebrity chefs during her 13 years living and working in Aspen, especially through the annual Food & Wine Classic.

How the "girl next door" ended up in Colorado is a story of ambition and adventure.

Marino was born in Elizabeth, but grew up in Forked River. She graduated from Lacey Township High School in 1991 and then attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. After graduation in 1993, she worked as a sous chef at Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City for three years.  

Rutigliano said his daughter had gone as far as she could in Atlantic City and had read an article about acclaimed Napa Valley, California, chef Michael Chiarello. When Rutigliano asked her what she wanted for Christmas that year, she said she wanted a plane ticket to San Francisco. He bought her the ticket and she visited Chiarello's restaurant, Tra Vigne. Marino met Chiarello and asked him if she could spend a day in his kitchen. She left with a job offer, said Rutigliano.

"She walked into this restaurant and got hired," he said.

Marino moved to California in a matter of weeks and worked her way up from line cook to sous chef at Tra Vigne. Three-and-a-half years later, she accepted the position of Executive Sous Chef at Ajax Tavern in Aspen, Colorado, and was promoted to Executive Chef within a year, she said.  

In 2005, Marino opened her own Aspen restaurant D19. Four years later, D19 closed and she opened Ellina. 

Hadley said that when her daughter left Ajax Tavern, a core group of staffers followed her to her two other restaurants.

"They were together 12 years. She's a great boss. She's a good mentor and she's just a good person," said Hadley.  

Marino's parents reflected on their visits to Aspen.

"I remember the first time we ate in the restaurant. ... Being there and seeing her, and then her presenting us with food, dish after dish, from appetizer to dessert. It was overwhelming," said the proud mother. "Her passion and her love of food comes out in her dishes."

"When she was in Aspen, I'd always be at her restaurant. You know, I'm the proud father. I'd be outside telling everyone, 'That's my kid in there. Go in there and get a nice dinner,'" said Rutigliano. 

Marino was equally inspired by her parents.

"Watching both of my parents, knowing that they always worked, no matter what it took, to let me go to school and have things that we wanted and wanted to do. ...You wanted to strive to be the best and do whatever it takes to make yourself known and be great at what you do," said Marino.

"Both my ex-husband and I believed in hard work and doing the right thing and being a responsible individual," Hadley said of the values she and Rutigliano instilled in Marino.

She also said her daughter's drive and determination was evident from childhood.

When Marino was a student at CIA, there were only three women in her class.

"Back then, especially when we got out of school, there was so much more you seemed to have to prove to be able to go into a kitchen full of males and be on the same playing field," she said.

The work ethic her parents instilled in her has been key to her success, she said.  

"Every holiday, you work. Every weekend, you work. Every night, you work. It's not a normal 9-to-5 job. When everyone's off, you're working. You just have to know that and get used to it, and then you hang with other people, a lot of chefs. It's a lot  of fun. The best thing is when people enjoy your food and they come back for more," Marino explained.

Italian food is her speciality, but Marino said seasonal ingredients are the real drive behind her cuisine. Although she declined to reveal details about her latest venture, she said she and her family moved to Miami eight months ago to open another new restaurant.