Chefs vs Wild 2022 (season 1) contestants: Meet the chefs and survivalists

The exciting new cooking competition, Chefs vs Wild season 1, is all set to air on Hulu on Monday, September 26 at 12:01 am ET, featuring chefs going head-to-head in the “wilderness kitchen.”

Renowned chef and adventurer Kiran Jethwa will host and also judge Season 1 of Chefs vs Wild alongside wild foods expert Valerie Segrest.

All about the contestants of Chefs vs Wild season 1

Chef vs Wild will air on Monday, showing chefs searching for the perfect wild ingredients with the help of Survivalists. The chefs will then show off their culinary skills in the outdoor kitchen “using their foraged ingredients and ingenuity to create savory dishes and, ultimately, impress the judges.”

The chefs who will compete in Chefs vs Wild are:

1) Chef Viet Pham

Chef Viet Pham hails from Salt Lake City, Utah. According to his Instagram, he won the Food and Wine Best New Chef award in 2011. 3X JBF. He also won Iron Chef America after beating Chef Bobby Flay. The Chefs vs Wild contestant was nominated for the James Beard Foundation Award three times.

He was born in a refugee camp and came to the U.S. with his family when he was five months old. Viet began his career in finance but soon found his true calling in cooking, as per his website prettybirdchicken.com.

After attending the California Culinary Academy, he worked for Laurent Gras and opened his own restaurant, Forage. A few of Viet’s favorite wild ingredients are herbs, wild trout, and cooking over a live fire.

2) Chef Sammy Monsour

“Michelin Award Winning Chef,” Chef Sammy Monsour hails from Cary, North Carolina. He is a third-generation chef and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. He published a cookbook titled American Burger Revival.

Sammy’s work has been recognized by the James Beard foundation and Zagat. He also received a Green Star from the City of Los Angeles for his sustainable business practices. He has on appeared on Viceland's The Untitled Action Bronson Show, Travel Channel's Food Paradise and Food Network's Guy's Big Project, among others.

3) Chef Nico Albert

Tulsa, Oklahoma native, Chef Nico is a self-taught chef. She is the owner of Burning Cedar Indigenous Foods and Founder of Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness.

She is the founding Executive Chef of Duet Restaurant + Jazz, a modern American eatery and jazz club in the heart of the Tulsa Arts District.

She developed a liking for cooking as a child when she helped her mother in the kitchen prepare meals for her family. The chef with Cherokee roots wishes to educate her "community on healthy eating and food sovereignty."

4) Chef Alan Bergo

James Beard Award-winning chef Alan Bergo is an author and host of the show Field Forest Feast on Tastemade.

The chef was infected with Lyme disease in 2012, which prompted him to detail his experience with foraging and cooking wild plants and mushrooms in a website.

The Executive Chef of Lucia’s Restaurant and Wine Bar hails from Menomonie, Wisconsin “where he hunts edible plants and mushrooms as a full-time career, testing recipes, writing cookbooks, and crafting once-in-a-lifetime meals."

5) Chef Robin Kort

The owner of Swallow Tail Culinary, Chef Robin Kort, is a fourth-generation Canadian. She began her career in restaurants but soon decided to land in the sea collecting wild ingredients.

The native Vancouverite “grew up hiking the mountains and swimming the seas of the Pacific Northwest.” For the past 10 years, Robin has “been teaching foraging programs from wild mushrooms to winter foraging classes in and around” her hometown, as per the website foraging.teachable.com

6) Chef Jade Berg

Chefs vs Wild Chef Jade Berg started his career as a dishwasher and eventually made his way to the head chef. He is also an expert forager and fisherman.

Jade butchers his own animals and make its own suausge among other things. The “private for-hire chef” aims to educate people on how to utilize wild ingredients from their backyard and turn them into something delicious.

7) Chef Kevin O’Connor

Raised in Sierra Foothills, Chef Kevin O’Connor has been hunting, foraging, gathering and cooking for most of his life. The California native started working in the culinary industry at 14.

He is well known for “cooking hyper-seasonally and only using local ingredients.” His “secret weapon” is olive oil as it can make anything taste better.

8) Chef Tushar Tondvalkar

The chef and owner of The Indian Pantry in Vancouver, Chef Tushar Tondvalkar “grew up between Mumbai and Malvan by his mother and grandmothers side.”

His dream of becoming a chef brought him to North America. On his weekends, he spends time fishing, backpacking and foraging. He also co-owns Urban Tadka and Frankie Street Wraps, two ghost kitchens in Vancouver.

9) Chef Laura Comer

The single mother of two Boy Scouts, Chef Laura Comer “began her career in the back of a Dairy Queen decorating cakes.” She is the executive chef at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts.

She is one of the most celebrated chefs in Kansas City, and is famous for incorporating “wild game into her dishes,” as per her official Chefs vs Wild profile on Hulu.

10) Chef Hanif Sadr

Self-taught Chef Hanif Sadr learnt about foraging, farming and tending to animals while raised in Tehran, Iran. He is the chef and co-founder of Komaaj Food group, a weekly pop-up restaurant and catering company based in Berkeley.

The Chefs vs Wild chef originally earned a college degree in materials science in Iran but moved to the United States in 2012 to attend a graduate program on renewable energy at San Jose State University. However, his career path took a turn towards the culinary world.

11) Chef Katie Coss

Chef Katie Coss grew up in Oklahoma and discovered her passion for cooking there.

She pursued her passion and completed her studies at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She later became the Executive Chef at Husk in Nashville. According to her bio on Tastemade, Katie "leads the menu creation, utilizing only the highest quality, seasonally-driven bounty from local farmers and purveyors to create dishes with a distinct Southern identity, as well as oversee the team of cooks to mentor the next generation of influential chefs."

12) Chef Andrew Rochon

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Chef Andrew Rochon has been the Executive Chef for over 10 years in resorts, hotels and country clubs in Canada. He is currently the executive chef at the Holiday Inn and Suites Kanata/ Graffiti's Italian Eatery.

He is also the food editor for Ontario Out of Doors Magazine and Cabela’s prostaffer for many years. He is also a Communications Specialist at Wildlife Habitat Canada.

13) Chef Mason Snyder

“Bronco-bucking rodeo rider turned private chef” Mason Snyder got his culinary chops in French cuisine and high-end restaurants. He studied at the Escoffier School for Culinary Arts and completed his externship at McCrady's in Charleston.

But the “cowboy followed his dreams into the wilderness as an Outfitter Chef by horseback.” The Chefs vs Wild chef is also a former Air Force Intelligence Analyst.

14) Chef Tracy Little

Chef Tracy Little is from Fort McMurray, Alberta, and started her culinary training at 21. She has worked as a chef, pastry chef, chef de partie and executive chef in kitchens over the course of her career.

She won the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs Food Game in LA. With "no survival experience," she still hopes to make it to Chefs vs Wilds. According to her interview with Alberta on the Plate, she grew up hunting and foraging with her forester father.

15) Chef Luca Ballard

Chef Luca Ballard has been camping solo since he was 11. The Chefs vs Wild contestant has been a professional chef for 16 years.

Luca dropped out of culinary school to follow his “personal and poetic vision.” He loves "fishing, hunting, and creating experimental dinners, and living on a farm with his partner Eric.”

16) Chef Cam Dobranski

With 32 years in the culinary world, Chef Cam Dobranski is all set to participate in Chefs vs Wild. He has worked all over the world from China to India to Switzerland.

He is the Chef/owner of Container Bar, Winebar Kensington.