Wellington Chef Clay Carnes Wins Big On Food Network Show ‘Cutthroat Kitchen’
Story by Deborah Welky • Photos by South Moon Photography
Wellingtonian Clay Carnes is a well-known local chef and social media devotee, and as of this past summer, the winner of Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen: Time Warp Tournament.
Season after season, those of us who struggle in the kitchen watch in awe as competing chefs on Cutthroat Kitchen prepare fabulous meals while handicapped by missing ingredients, ridiculously inadequate cooking surfaces or challenges like having potato mashers strapped to their hands. All the obstacles in their way have been “purchased” at auction by their rivals with limited budgets.
None of this fazed Carnes, however.
“You have to remember that there’s a whole crew behind these devious ideas,” he explained. “Two or three people think up these crazy props, but there’s a whole team of guys who build them to spec, and then they test them with a culinary team. So, there’s always a way out with everything. Even if the task looks impossible, there’s a way. It’s up to you to figure out the key to making it work.”
Carnes, who was contacted by the Food Network after they viewed one of his food-inspired Instagram videos, flew to Los Angeles for a “Time Warp” competition that spanned four decades — the 1950s through the 1980s — to culminate with a finale set in the 1990s. “1950s” contestants had to make an all-American breakfast — while stuffed in a phone booth. “1960s” chefs had to prep Chicken Kiev — on protest signs. The “1980s” were required to make a toaster pastry while playing a giant video game.
Carnes starred in the “1970s” show, which required creating crêpes suzette while dressed as a disco ball and making hamburger macaroni and cheese while riding a banana seat bicycle — with two other chefs on board.
“They were feisty, man,” said Carnes of the two female chefs who shared his ride. “We had to split our time while preparing our stuff. So, I’m competing against them, but we’re all on the same bike!”
Once he won the 1970s episode, Carnes headed to the finale, which pitted the four decade winners against each other. Savvy competitor that he is, Carnes spent time watching the previously aired episodes, looking for strengths and weaknesses in his rivals.
“I didn’t know how to size them up. They’d all won before, and they were all pretty good chefs,” Carnes said. “It was hard, but on that show, you need to be a quick thinker. I had watched their episodes, and it was the ladies I was nervous about. The guy was kind of a goofball. But I did my research.”
The “1990s” required Carnes to dress as a member of a boy band to make BBQ chicken pizza, share a ship’s bow while he and a rival created fried calamari, and navigate a physically challenging DoubleDare-type obstacle course of desserts.
A combination of wicked cooking skills, plus mindful auction budgeting that allowed him to strategically handicap the other competitors, was what won him the game.
“You need to be incredibly good at making something out of nothing,” said Carnes, who wasn’t necessarily talking about ingredients. “The kitchen is 100 percent like you see on TV. They have everything you could dream of needing, very cool; the pantry is stocked very much on point with what you see as a viewer. But I would tell anyone going on the show to worry less about how good a cook you are and to concentrate more on being a problem-solver. Forget about what you know already — it won’t matter if your knife is sharp. Worry less about what they’re judging you on and more on, ‘Can I get out of here alive?’”
Is Cutthroat Kitchen truly that challenging? And is host Alton Brown as intimidating as he tries to appear?
“He’s so smart,” Carnes said. “If you follow his history, he’s a bundle of knowledge. He’s really awesome. But there, in the studio, you get an evil vibe about him. The show is definitely what it seems. It’s the real deal.”
Riding a banana-seat bicycle and cooking his way through an obstacle course were the furthest things from Carnes’ mind when, at age 12, he took a job as a dishwasher. However, as he spent day after day watching food preparations, he knew that he had found his calling. He attended the French Culinary Institute and ALMA/La Scuola Internazionale Di Cucina Italiana. Upon graduation, he was hired as chef de cuisine at Palm Beach’s Cucina Dell’Arte, where he learned real European cooking techniques.
“At that point, I knew I wanted to explore it,” Carnes said. “There was a spark. I thought it was the coolest thing that you could take all these ingredients and express what you wanted to through cooking for people.”
A stint as “chef ejecutivo” at the boutique hotel Mansion Alcazar in Cuenca, Ecuador, followed. Upon Carnes’ return to the United States in 2011, he brought his unique talents to Wellington’s award-winning restaurant The Grille, as well as the White Horse Tavern.
His latest triumph was this summer’s opening of Cholo Soy Cocina in West Palm Beach. The restaurant’s Latin street-type food boasts locally grown produce, non-GMO corn tortillas and top-quality meats. Peppers, herbs and other vegetables are grown on the patio and rooftop garden as Carnes looks to create specific flavors found only in certain regions of the world.
His busy life as a restaurant chef was good preparation for this star turn on the Food Network.
“When I went out to L.A. for all those filmings, the minute I stepped off the plane, there was a guy waiting for me with a Town Car or whatever, water, magazines,” he recalled. “I checked into the hotel and just relaxed. But the next day, it’s all work — from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. It was like a normal day in the life of a chef!”
To learn more about Clay Carnes’ latest venture, visit www.cholosoycocina.com.
