Singing River Yacht Club chef battles it out on Food Network's 'Guy's Grocery Games'
PASCAGOULA -- When a Pascagoula chef arrived in Sonoma County, Calif., the week before Thanksgiving, she toured a grocery store set up in a warehouse and studied the 10 aisles of gourmet foods any culinary artist would love to push a cart through. But Stacie Vande Wetering knew she would soon enough run down those aisles, grabbing what she could to impress Guy Fieri and a panel of judges.
Wetering, who took over the yacht club nestled along the water in Pascagoula 10 months ago, is a chef contestant on Sunday's episode of "Guy's Grocery Games," airing at 7 p.m. on Food Network.
Wetering, the general manager and head chef at Singing River Yacht Club, will be one of four contestants racing through Fieri's studio supermarket for a chance to win $20,000.
The show starts with four chefs, and one is eliminated each round. The winner faces a shopping challenge at the end of the episode for a chance to come home with the grand prize.
Each round has a different theme, and Wetering -- who goes by Cheffy -- said the competition is fierce.
"You have 30 minutes to shop, prep, cook and plate your dish," she said.
"They don't stop for editing. Once that clock starts, it's on. There are no do-overs."
Wetering said she went into filming with a "sort of" plan, but that plan did not last long after she got into Fieri's kitchen and started creating dishes.
"It's crazy, and a lot of times, they throw you curves mid-game," she said. "So you think you have a plan, but all of a sudden, you have to adjust your plan it's crazy crazy, but it was a lot of fun."
Wetering couldn't give away any details about the show, but the yacht club is hosting a viewing party Sunday to see if she makes it to the final round.
She said Fieri was very nice, and she would recommend competing on the show to any chef.
Cooking background
Wetering is from Montgomery, Ala. She started her culinary career with an apprenticeship at Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach, Ala. She lived in Atlanta for two decades and worked for two years in Manhattan. And she was the executive chef at Lakewood Club in Fairhope, Ala.
She's worked in hotel kitchens, high-end restaurants and for catering services.
But the job at Singing River Yacht Club was a tad different. Wetering is the head chef, but she also runs the place. She does the finances, maintains the appearance, strategizes to increase and sustain membership and she makes sure the pool stays running in the summer. She got the job after an interview 10 months ago.
"I came over and interviewed and saw it and saw that it had so much potential and needed some TLC and needed some new energy, and that's how they got me over here," she said.
Her first line of business: To make the club a club again.
She made sure the restaurant and yacht club kept regular hours. She hired new staff and "revamped the menu and the food quality."
She made sure the snack bar at the pool was open all summer. She implemented kids' night at the restaurant. And she added her "global-Southern" style of cooking to the menu.
"We just made it a place where people want to be again," she said.
The set menu is small so Wetering can offer a variety of seasonal specials. Some of the most popular dishes are a Creole shrimp and grits with Conecuh sausage, bang-bang shrimp with coconut rice, and her own fish tacos.
"My fish tacos, we usually sell out of those when we run them as a special," she said.
Another TV opportunity
Wetering couldn't pass up a chance to beat Bobby Flay in his kitchen. She filmed an episode of "Guy's Grocery Games" in California the week before Thanksgiving. The week after, she was headed to New York to film an episode of "Beat Bobby Flay."
There isn't a cash prize, but if the final chef scores higher than Flay, they have "ultimate bragging rights," Wetering said.
That episode airs March 31.
This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Singing River Yacht Club chef battles it out on Food Network's 'Guy's Grocery Games' ."