Freehold High School grad could be next 'Top Chef'

There is a good chance the next winner of Bravo's "Top Chef" will have ties to New Jersey.

Danny Garcia, who according to a Freehold Regional High School District Facebook message is a Freehold High School Class of 2010 graduate, has outcooked a dozen other chefs this season. He is among the final three chefs in the competition, which will air its season finale Wednesday, June 19, on Bravo.

For the finale, the chefs will create "the best four-course progressive meal of their careers" for "a lineup of culinary greats," according to Bravo. The winner will be named "Top Chef" and receive $250,000.

Garcia, who lives in Brooklyn and is an executive chef with Saga Hospitality Group, has been at the top for most of the season. Judges Kristen Kish, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons were continually impressed by and praised Garcia's culinary technique.

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He earned his spot in the finale by winning a fish-focused cook aboard Holland America's Eurodam cruise ship in the Caribbean.

"The finish line is right there," he said during the June 12 episode. "You work and you practice and you train for this moment. Everything counts at this point."

In the first challenge last week, Garcia and fellow chefs Dan Jacobs of Wisconsin, Savannah Miller of North Carolina and Laura Ozyilmaz of San Francisco had to prepare a dish with two ingredients from Cura?ao, where the ship was docked: lionfish and Gouda cheese.

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Garcia prepared a lionfish croquette with Gouda sauce and red cabbage slaw.

For the second challenge, prepared in the cruise ship's kitchen, Garcia prepared two dishes: sea bass mousse with fines herbes salad, Scotch Bonnet peppers and garlic green spheres, and smoked trout with pumpkin and plantain puree, and smoked trout foam.

The mousse was a miss, but Kish, Colicchio, Simmons and guest judge Ed Lee enjoyed Garcia's smoked dish. Kish called it "near perfect."

Ozyilmaz was the chef sent home, and Jacobs and Miller join Garcia in the finale.

"Top Chef" airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on Bravo.

Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to [email protected], follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to our Jersey Shore Eats newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Top Chef: Danny Garcia could be season 21 winner, Freehold grad