Is the next winner of Food Network's 'Chopped' a chicken finger-slinging UD sous chef?

When Newark sous chef Reuben Dhanawade gathered family and friends at Wilmington's Piccolina Toscana earlier this month, he knew something they didn't.

A really big something.

They were about to watch the first episode of Food Network's monthlong, tournament-style "Desperately Seeking Sous Chef" series, which pits chefs against each other.

Dhanawade competed in the first episode and knew he had won, so he packed Toscana with familiar faces.

When he won at the end to qualify for the finale, the roar of the restaurant crowd was so loud that a friend heard it while taking a smoke break at work a block away.

"The moment I won, you would have thought I won the Super Bowl. People were chanting my name. It was just so weird. It's a high that I'll be riding for a while," he told fellow contestant Cat White on a recent episode of his "Guys Who Cry" podcast.

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Now, weeks later, sous chefs who won each week this month will gather once again for the grand-prize competition. The Food Network finale pitting Dhanawade against three others will air Tuesday at 9 p.m.

And after keeping the secret for six months – the program was recorded in January in Knoxville, Tennessee – he's not about to spill the beans. You'll have to watch to see if he wins. The prize is a job in a kitchen run by one of the show's chef judges: Maneet Chauhan, Scott Conant or Chris Santos.

The 31-year-old Bear resident works full time as a sous chef for Aramark at the University of Delaware's Pencader Residential Dining hall, following stints at area restaurants such as Wilmington's Eclipse Bistro and Newark's Two Stones Pub.

After a chef friend of Dhanawade's couldn't audition for the show in October due to an injury, he told the headhunter to try Dhanawade. After a phone interview and a few Zoom auditions, Dhanawade was selected and sent off to Tennessee for filming soon after.

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He said he didn't feel confident going into the competition after reading the credits of his competitors, especially since he hadn't been working in a creative cooking environment recently.

"I'm from a university slinging chicken tenders," Dhanawade joked to fellow contestant White on the podcast. "There was a little bit of, 'Can I still hang with some of those people?'"

It only took the 20-minute competition for him to prove himself, winning the first round and setting off an eruption of applause on a sleepy Tuesday night in Trolley Square.

"I made a point to sit next to my mom at the party," said Dhanawade, who was born in India and moved to the United States with his family in 1996. "It was so neat seeing her get as excited as she did."

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She has watched his career every step of the way, starting when he decided to go to Paul M. Hodgson Vocational Technical High School in Glasgow to study culinary arts. He then went to Delaware Technical Community College, earning associate degrees in culinary arts and food service management.

While that schooling gave him a foundation for his work in the Food Network kitchen competition, he actually credits his podcast (with co-host Adam Cooke) and his Wilmington-based DETV cooking show "Reuben's Indian Kitchen" for helping put him at ease.

"Having that experience of cooking in front of a camera just made being on the show so fun," said Dhanawade, who has watched "Chopped" for years. "It seemed like there was nothing on the line. It really took the edge off."

So what's next for Dhanawade? It's hard for him to say ... because he can't.

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If he wins Tuesday, he has a new job at a judge's restaurant somewhere across the country. If he doesn't, it seems change could still be coming his way.

"All of this has increased the number of opportunities I've been presented with, through chef's reaching out," he said. "The next couple of weeks are going to be very integral in where my next chapter takes me."

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormierdelawareonline) and Twitter (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: How the next Food Network 'Chopped' champ could come from Newark