Sanibel chef competes on Food Network show featuring Bobby Flay
A local chef’s culinary skills were put to the test on a popular Food Network show.
Melissa Donahue, owner of Sweet Melissa’s Café and Island Pizza on Sanibel, appeared in a recent episode of “Beat Bobby Flay” called “Don’t Muck My Yuck.”
“I was a lot more nervous and anxious than I thought I would be,” Donahue said. “Everyone was great. We filmed it in one day in New York.”
Donahue said she got a call inviting her to appear on “Beat Bobby Flay” a couple of months after Hurricane Ian hit on Sept. 28, 2022. Her Sweet Melissa’s Café, which opened on Periwinkle Way in 2009, was completely gutted by the storm.
“We filmed on the six-month anniversary of Ian,” she said. “It was a difficult time.”
But Donahue, who was the first Lee County chef to earn a James Beard Awards nomination in 2019, persevered and competed on the show ― now in its 35th season ― that pits two chefs against each other for a chance to face celebrity chef and restaurateur Flay.
“He was very nice,” Donahue said. “I got to talk to him a little bit. He came over (to her first-round dish) and said ‘I like this. It reminds me of old school Zuni Café.’ That’s what I was going for.”
Zuni Café is an iconic James Beard Awards-winning restaurant in San Francisco.
The first round of "Beat Bobby Fay"
In round one, Donahue and Pacific Northwest chef Kaleena Bliss, who is the executive chef at the acclaimed Chicago Athletic Association, were tasked with creating a dish of their choice using a random ingredient selected by Flay. The winner moves on to the next round to face Flay as they make the contestant’s signature dish.
“She was awesome,” Donahue said of Bliss. “She won ‘Chopped’ (Casino Royale tournament in 2022) and this was like her sixth show.”
Flay selected dandelion greens as the ingredient to showcase.
“I have used it in the past,” said Donahue, who was introduced as a chef who puts New Orleans flair on Florida seafood. “I like it. I used to work in a restaurant where they would stuff fish with braised dandelion greens.”
On the show, Flay said he would use them to make a “salsa verde, lots of herbs, anchovy, garlic.” Donahue opted to keep them raw in a crispy dandelion green salad with anchovy lemon yogurt with a warm bacon vinaigrette.
Using the raw dandelion greens was a huge risk, she admitted on the show.
“Go big or go home,” she told Food Network host Sunny Anderson, one of two celebrity judges that week along with TV host Ross Matthews, best known as Ross the Intern on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and for his work on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
“I’m a nervous wreck,” she told Matthews.
Donahue put some of the raw greens into a fryer to give the salad more texture and later added large fried croutons to tie the dish together.
Bliss, meanwhile, made spaghetti with creamy dandelion green pesto topped with pancetta.
Donahue compiled her dish with anchovy yogurt on the bottom, followed by dandelion greens, then vinaigrette, golden raisins, fried dandelion greens and lastly, the croutons.
Bliss’ dish had spaghetti in the creamy dandelion greens pesto and more of that sauce on top with thinly shaved fennel and parmesan.
During judging, Anderson praised Donahue’s boldness of using fresh and fried greens, while Ross singled out the anchovy yogurt, the sweetness of the raisins and her nerve to highlight the greens.
Suggestions included resting the greens and downsizing the overly large croutons.
The judges loved Bliss’ perfectly cooked pasta and pesto cream sauce, although they felt she hid the dandelion green instead of really showcasing it as Donahue did.
Ultimately, they went with Bliss as the chef they thought could beat Flay that day.
And they were right. She beat him in the second round with her signature seafood boil.
What's ahead for Sweet Melissa's Cafe
Had Donahue advanced, she would have gone with “her blackened redfish dish with pickled collard greens, grits and pecan brown butter.”
Southwest Floridians are in luck though.
While her café is in the process of being rebuilt — “we’re waiting on new plans and permits” — Donahue has been doing Sweet Melissa pop-ups at her Island Pizza from 4-8 p.m. Thursdays and all day on Fridays.
The blackened redfish is on that menu along with other “greatest hits.”
“We really do call it greatest hits,” she said. “It’s a small menu with the best items. The fish stew, shrimp and grits, a scallop dish, watermelon salad.”
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Reservations are strongly recommended for the pop-ups.
If you missed Donahue’s episode, it will air on Food Network again at 1 p.m. on March 28, 11 p.m. on March 31 and 3 a.m. on April 1.
As far as the possibility of her doing another cooking competition, Donahue was up in the air.
“I don’t know right now,” she said. “I’m still processing.”
Island Pizza Company and Sweet Melissa pop-ups, 1619 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel; (239) 472-1581 for Island Pizza orders (open daily) and Sweet Melissa’s Café pop-ups (Thursdays and Fridays); islandpizzasanibel.com
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Sweet Melissa's Cafe owner appears on Food Network's 'Beat Bobby Flay'
