Q&A: It's all about the food for 'BBQ Brawl' judge and 'Bobby's Triple Threat' 'Titan' Brooke Williamson

Behind the Screens with Joshua Maloni

@joshuamaloni

When it comes to food fights, Brooke Williamson has many titles: Competitor, celebrity, champion.

But her preference is chef.

The Bravo and Food Network star is a fierce force in the culinary world, making a name for herself by winning the biggest kitchen clashes and tournament titles.

Like her mentors, for Williamson, it’s all about the food.

By choosing flavor over fanfare and finesse over flashy, Williamson has earned praise from her peers: She is a sought-out contestant, an in-demand judge, and the person other people want to challenge to measure their skills.

Frequent collaborator and noted chef Bobby Flay said, “Brooke Williamson runs circles around the competition. Her California cuisine is packed with explosive flavor. If you think you've got her beat, don’t take a breath: She's got another gear.”

Master culinary creator Marcus Samuelsson called Williamson a “beast” of an opponent.

Whether as a contender or a critic, one thing you won’t often find associated with Williamson is criticism. As the former, her plates are flawless and her flavors irreproachable. When serving as the latter, she opines with consideration – never cutting down those she’s evaluating.

This summer, Williamson gets to showcase both sides of her brilliant battle brain: She returns as a judge on “BBQ Brawl” and as a “Titan” looking to defend her dominion of deliciousness on “Bobby’s Triple Threat.”

Both shows air on Food Network.

Williamson shared more in this edited Q&A.

BTS: So, Brooke, I think the first question – and maybe the most important question – is who is dressing Michael Voltaggio, and can that person dress me, too?

Brooke Williamson: (Laughs) Oh, so you like it?

BTS: Unique, I think is the word.

Brooke Williamson: Unique. He definitely has his own style. I will say nobody is shopping for him. There's a stylist on set who weighs in. But he's his own person (laughs). We’re all our own people.

Team captains Sunny Anderson, Bobby Flay and Michael Voltaggio in “BBQ Brawl.” (Food Network photo)

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BTS: I think, because of your time on “Top Chef,” and because of your competitive nature, that the transition for you to Food Network competitions was pretty straightforward and doable. But, speaking of things like fashion – and you are always stylish – how has the transition to TV star been for you along this journey?

Brooke Williamson: Well, I mean, thank you. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a TV star. I think I'm a chef who found some weird, hidden skill that I'm good at competition cooking. And so, the last – I don't know – 11 years, done it probably more than most people should. Taken several years off of my life! But I've had a lot of fun doing it – and I wouldn't keep doing it if it weren't fun and inspiring and an adrenaline rush that I really enjoy.

The TV part of it, I feel like I've gotten more comfortable in front of a camera. That's really all I can say about that. I'm still a chef. I'm doing what I do. I'm not an actor.

People, I think in general, when they meet me, are pretty surprised that I am who I am on TV – that I don't play someone else; that I don't play up anything.

I'm only capable of being myself.

BTS: You once told me that being a good chef and being a good competition chef are not the same thing. What would you say makes you excel in both areas?

Brooke Williamson: I think being a chef, for the most part, is generally about repetition and experience and understanding of fundamentals. You know, there is an element of that, obviously, that is needed for competition cooking. If you don't have the experience of repetition and the confidence to know that you can put a dish together in your head before you make it, then you're in trouble.

But they're very different skills, and I will stick by that 100%. Being a great competitive chef doesn't necessarily mean you're a phenomenal chef, although it is hard to win things without being a good chef. But, being a great chef does not necessarily mean you're going to be a great competitive chef. There are all sorts of elements that come into play, whether it be the clock, or the decision making, that are very specific to competition.

Brooke Williamson works on a winning dish, as Guy Fieri looks on, in “Tournament of Champions.” (Food Network photo)

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BTS: With regard to judging, I'm curious about your approach. When you see a dish a contestant has made, obviously, you know the dish; you know how you would make the dish; you could almost certainly make the dish better than that person. So, in light of that, how do you go about evaluating chefs?

Brooke Williamson: I mean, I see things when I'm judging. I see things all the time that I am impressed by, because they're things that I wouldn't have thought to do myself. I learn something new every single time I judge, and that, honestly, is the most fun part of judging for me.

I don't live to pick apart people's food. This is something that people do because they're passionate about it, and the last thing I want to do is critique someone for doing what they love.

So, what really drives me in that format, in that scenario, is seeing things that inspire me, that I can learn from, that I can bring to my own competitive moments.

Brooke Williamson on “BBQ Brawl.” (Food Network photo)

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BTS: Tell me about “BBQ Brawl.” I was really surprised to see how many acclaimed competitors you have this season.

Brooke Williamson: Yeah, and they're from all walks of life, in terms of where they come from, the type of cuisine that they're known for, their genres of live fire or barbecue. It's such a fun season.

And that goes also for the captains. You know, Sunny and Michael and Bobby are all such different chefs – or home cooks, as Sunny would call herself – and it's so much fun seeing the dynamic between the captains and team members.

BTS: And tell me about your fellow judges.

Brooke Williamson: So, Rodney and Carson, this is our fourth season judging together, we've gotten to know each other really well. We can kind of communicate with our eyes at this point to each other.

Carson is hilarious. He's so much fun to work with. He really brings the levity to the judging platform. Rodney is his own element of hilarious, as well, and is really well-versed in the sort of traditional barbecue world – especially when it comes to whole hog and that format.

It's so much fun. We're all so different from each other that I think that we all bring such different judging elements and make a really fun team.

BTS: I think it's great that Food Network would give barbecue a platform like this one. As I mentioned, a lot of really terrific chefs in this year's competition, as has been the case in previous seasons. But I'm wondering, do you think that barbecue, in general, maybe gets a bad rap, or maybe is not as highly thought of as other food styles across culinary competitions?

Brooke Williamson: Yeah, I mean, I think it's really wonderful that Food Network has given barbecue this platform. And you know, I will say that it took me a minute to really feel like I was well-versed in how to judge barbecue, because it is such a different skill and such a different culinary perspective than when I grew up in kitchens learning and doing. And it’s not even necessarily like the barbecue elements. Barbecue is its own world.

This show is really about live-fire, outdoor cooking, and how the elements interact and play into what you're doing. So, I think it's a really specific skill that some people are really, really incredibly talented at. And I think it's so much fun that the network has created this show, and that Bobby has really put support behind all of these people. Because Bobby's not known as a barbecue person. He's not a pitmaster. But he's really well-versed in outdoor, live-fire cooking. So, I think it gives an element of backbone and seriousness to that type of cuisine that you don't see very often.

Bobby Flay and “Titans” Michael Voltaggio, Brooke Williamson and Tiffany Derry star in "Bobby's Triple Threat." In season 3, Flay has handpicked a trio of top-notch chefs to represent him as the next generation of culinary forces. Each episode is hosted from a speakeasy-style kitchen, where Williamson, Derry and Voltaggio take on highly skilled competitors in three head-to-head cooking rounds with surprise featured ingredients for a chance to win $25,000. (Food Network photo)

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BTS: Speaking of Bobby, you're back for another season of “Bobby's Triple Threat,” of course. I'm wondering: How difficult is that competition relative to some of the other ones you participate in on Food network.

Brooke Williamson: It's a different kind of difficult, and it's incredibly difficult. And a lot of the pressure that comes with that environment is pressure that we all put on ourselves – which I think is the best kind. I think, honestly, the healthiest type of pressure; it makes you want to grow as a chef, as a person, as a competitor.

I think myself, Michael and Tiffany have all gotten better at handling the pressure, but we never feel it less from show to show. That anxiety and that pressure that you see us feeling on TV, we really feel it every single time; because, in order for us to deserve the title of “Titan,” we have to bring it, right? We have to win more than we lose. I think we all go into it feeling like our job is on the line every single day.

BTS: You, of course, have competed in many of what I would call the main event rounds of that show, the double-point round. When you are facing someone where this is their recipe – they've made it 100 times, 1,000 times, a million times – is your approach to make it the best way possible; to make it different; to make it be something that the judge maybe had never thought about before? How do you go about trying to outthink or outskill the person who brings that recipe to this competition?

Brooke Williamson: Unlike “Beat Bobby Flay,” these people are bringing two specific ingredients. They're not bringing a dish. So, our job is really to create the best dish in our heads using those two ingredients. And sometimes, in our heads, those ingredients don't even work together – unlike in the first two rounds, where the ingredients very obviously work together.

Sometimes, that competing chef is bringing ingredients to specifically trip up one of the “Titans” – oftentimes me. And sometimes, they're bringing those ingredients because they're cooking a dish they want to cook, and those are the focal ingredients.

So, you really kind of have to gauge and read the situation, the scenario, every single time. It’s a lot of pressure in that last round, since it is worth double the points. And, oftentimes, you get ingredients that you've never worked with before. So, it's a matter of potentially associating one of the ingredients, or both of the ingredients, to something that you have worked with.

It's definitely a mental game. It's definitely an incredibly difficult position to be in, and me, personally, I'm always just trying to put up the tastiest food I possibly can. Whereas, like Michael, potentially, is trying to outsmart the other chef. And you know, for all of us, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

WATCH:

BTS: It's interesting, I think, for viewers, in that, on one night, you're judging Bobby and Michael; and then on another night, they're your teammates. So, how do you balance or sort of compartmentalize these things?

Brooke Williamson: I mean, I just do (laughs). When I'm cooking, I'm cooking the best food I possibly can. When I'm judging, I’m judging very impartially, because I understand what it feels like to be judged.

I am never in a place where I want to tear someone down for work that they've done. It's, oftentimes, a matter of comparing two things against each other.

I mean, it's a different headspace. And also, I go into “BBQ” much more relaxed and open-minded, because I don't have that added pressure of having to carry my own weight. It's all about finding the right words at that point.

BTS: So, just out of curiosity, inasmuch as we are watching these shows, as I said, in the same season, on back-to-back nights, were they shot at about the same time, or different times throughout the course of the year?

Brooke Williamson: They were shot pretty close to each other. We shot a week of “Triple Threat,” we shot five episodes of “Triple Threat,” and then we had a little break, because we had South Beach Wine & Food (Festival) that we all had events at, and then came back and shot another five episodes. And then maybe went home for four or five days, and then went into Austin and started shooting “BBQ Brawl.”

So, yeah, they were pretty back-to-back – but in my head, they were light years apart, because my mind state was in a very different place going into “BBQ.” Whereas Michael’s maybe was in a similar mindset, but it's a very different environment.

They're very different jobs with different cuisines and different skills.

WATCH:

BTS: With regard to Bobby, he's obviously been a celebrity for a long time. He's been a celebrity chef for a long time. And, as such, we see him – we see his name – in many places, in many ways. He's obviously very acclaimed. What should people know about Bobby Flay in your opinion?

Brooke Williamson: Oh, interesting.

Yes, Bobby has been that celebrity chef that so many people have grown up watching on TV, and become inspired by. I've heard countless people say to his face that he's the reason why they started cooking. He's an inspiration. And while all of those things are incredibly inspiring, and very true – and for myself, as well – he really just does what he loves, and that's the most genuine part about him, is that he cooks because he loves food. He is so passionate about what he does, that the food always comes first, and that comes through in not only what he does on TV, but also who he is as a person – and also, I think, why he inspires people.

It's also why his shows, to me, feel so authentic and genuine. It's all about the food first.

Chef, food competition champion, restaurateur and new cookbook author Brooke Williamson is online at https://www.chefbrookewilliamson.com.

√ “BBQ Brawl” debuts new episodes at 9 p.m. Mondays this summer on Food Network.

√ “Bobby’s Triple Threat” airs at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on Food Network.