Who is Derek Bowley? Contestant fails to earn $5000 as he loses to legendary chef Antonia Lofaso in the Outchef'd premiere episode

Food Network's new cooking show, Outchef'd premiered an interesting two-part episode on Tuesday, September 28, 2022, at 9 pm ET. The episode featured two chefs and contestants on each side battling it out against each other. The lineup of chefs for the night were - Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli and Chef Antonia Lofaso.

The contestants going up against the iconic chefs were home chefs Jimmy and Derek respectively.

Derek Bowley is a school teacher from Washington who took an interest in cooking from a young age.

To earn a win and take home $5000, the contestants only had to get one vote from a panel of six tasters, while the professional chefs had to try and sweep all votes.

While Jimmy earned one vote and won the cash prize, Derek failed to get a vote in the second part of the episode, leaving him empty-handed but with great experience cooking against Chef Antonia Lofaso.

---

More on Derek Bowley's journey with chef Antonia Lofaso on Outchef'd

Ahead of the competition, Derek revealed that his passion for cooking grew when he began helping his mother out in the kitchen. Once he got out on his own and started cooking, he started learning more by diving into Food Network shows, which "empowered him to try new things." In a confessional, he said:

"I love to share what I know because I think food is so amazing..And that shows when I talk about food or my cooking."

He waited in the green room with his husband Tim and friend SJ as Outchef'd host Eddie Jackson welcomed them. Derek initially thought that it was an audition, and was visibly shocked to see that he was about to compete against Chef Antonia Lofaso.

Chef Antonia Lofaso has previously had her share of reality television experience, and has made appearances on shows like Cutthroat Kitchen, Top Chef, Chopped, and Restaurant Startup, among others.

The Outchef'd contestant and chef were given eggs as the featured ingredient for their dishes and a total of 45 minutes to make the same.

Throughout the course of their time cooking, Derek struggled to boil his potatoes. He tried to shift it into a pan for a better result, but only managed to succeed by the end of the time limit.

While the duo added finishing touches to their dishes, Outchef'd host Eddie Jackson ran to the streets to pick people to become panel tasters and judge the preparations.

Check out the dishes cooked by the two below.

Derek Bowley: Roasted Vegetable Frittata with Home Fries and Arugula Salad

Chef Antonia Lofaso: Tuscan Egg and toast with Breakfast Sausage Ragu

While the panel complimented the chef's menu and the overall taste, they mentioned that the egg wasn't the "star of the dish." The panel felt that although Derek's dish was "sturdy but soft at the same time," the eggs and potatoes didn't bring out much flavor.

By the end of the Outchef'd episode, chef Antonia Lofaso had managed to earn all the votes. Although Derek didn't earn the cash prize, he was grateful for his experience on the show.

---

The Outchef'd premiere began on an interesting note and there is only more competition to come in the future. Apart from chefs Alex and Antonia, other chefs that are set to compete against contestants include Eric Adjepong, Anne Burrell, Maneet Chauhan, Scott Conant, Tiffani Faison, Amanda Freitag, Alex Guarnaschelli, Antonia Lofaso, Marc Murphy and Geoffrey Zakarian.

Tune into a brand new episode of Outchef'd next Tuesday, October 4, 2022, at 9 pm ET on Food Network.