'I'm here to teach you a lesson,' Daytona area chef competing on popular Food Network show

Last night, DeLand-based chef Hari Pulapaka had to put his culinary skills to the test in front of a national television audience during an episode of the Food Network show "Beat Bobby Flay."

"Chef Bobby, I'm an educator at heart, I'm here to teach you a lesson," Pulapaka, a multiple semifinalist James Beard Foundation awards for Best Chefs in America, said on the show.

Despite joining the culinary world later in life by going to culinary school at 38 years old, during what he called a "professional mid-life crisis," the now 57-year-old chef born in India said he was not nervous in the slightest while competing. His poise and confidence must stem from his years of running a restaurant (Cress in downtown DeLand), being an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Stetson University and operating his Global Cooking School.

The first round was to compete against another chef to see who would battle Flay. The challenge was to create a dish with the star ingredient being a French baguette.

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Pulapaka explained on the show how he wanted to create a bread course, so using his years of experience he created a dish presenting the baguette in three forms: as a puree, in a Panzanella salad (a soaked bread salad with vegetables) and as crunchy croutons.

First, he combined cream and garlic heated up in a pot to begin his puree. He added bread, jalapenos and Dijon mustard, then emulsified the mixture with cream to create his bread puree. Next, he created his Panzanella salad with bread, shallots, garlic, champagne vinegar and baby mustard greens. Lastly, Pulapaka topped the dish with his crunchy croutons and champagne vinaigrette.

Celebrity chef judges Damaris Phillips and Scott Conant praised Pulapaka's dish for being "very creative and ambitious " with a "lovely flavor," but he ultimately lost to his competitor's dish due to texture issues on his bread puree. Pulapaka thinks this might have been a result of time since the puree sat longer than he thought it would before tasting, causing the mixture to "seize up and make difficult to eat." But Phillips did say, "This plate is gorgeous. You've really taken the baguette and manipulated it in so many different ways."

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Although Pulapaka was not able to challenge Flay, he was grateful for the experience.

"The feedback has been amazing, everyone has been so kind to me," Pulapaka said during a phone interview Friday morning. "It's been incredibly uplifting, inspiring, and my hashtag of 'I'm still here' is true. I'm still here."

Pulapaka, a James Beard Foundation Culinary Equality Mentor, said he would definitely do it again and welcomes the idea of another challenge.

If you missed the episode it airs again on Food Network on Friday, May 5, 7 p.m. Sunday, May 7, 3 p.m. May 11, 10 p.m. May 14 and 1 a.m. May 15.

Caroline Hebert is the restaurant and entertainment writer for The Daytona Beach News-Journal. A New Orleans native and food enthusiast, she can be contacted at chebert@news-jrnl.com. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Support local journalism by subscribing.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona's Chef Hari Pulapaka on Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay show