Wyoming Chef Petrina Peart Celebrates ‘Yes, Chef!’ Finale With Celebrity Chef T

Learning to let go a little bit when she’s in the kitchen has been the real prize Chef Petrina Peart takes home from her experience on the Martha Stewart-hosted reality television series, “Yes, Chef!”

Peart made it to the final five in the competition, which forced chefs to wrestle not just with each other, but with their own fatal flaws in the kitchen. Peart did not take home the $250,000 grand prize, but it’s a journey she celebrated nonetheless, hosting a watch party dinner for each episodeMonday nights in June at Brownie’s Tasting Bar, located in the Town and Country Supermarket Liquors in Cheyenne. 

The dinners have featured foods that were inspired by Peart’s appearance on “Yes, Chef!”  But, for the final episode Peart decided on something a little bit different. 

She invited one of her competitors, Chef Torrece Gregoire, more often referred to as just Chef T, to come share Appalachian cooking in Wyoming.

“This was the last one, and I really didn’t want to do it alone,” Peart told Cowboy State Daily. “So, I thought we could do a state vs. state, Virginia vs. Wyoming (dinner), but not like a competition. More like collaborative, and that would be kind of fun. Everyone would enjoy that and learn about Appalachia.”

The two cooked a dual menu of Wyoming vs. Appalachian foods, showcasing how they are different as well as how they are similar. 

“The ingredients do kind of overlap,” Peart said in between a course featuring her moose fry bread, a take on an Indian taco that was also meant to honor Wyoming’s own Taco John’s franchise, and Chef T’s chicken curry. 

“Appalachia has a lot of Natives,” Peart said. “And, obviously, Wyoming has a lot of Native Americans, too. So, I thought this would be really fun to do, not like a competition, but a collaborative dinner that everyone would enjoy and learn about Appalachia and Wyoming foods.”

What Is Appalachian Food

Survival is at the core of Appalachian food, Chef T told the watch party dinner guests. 

“It was an atmosphere where they had nothing left but food and faith,” she said. “All they could do is pass down these recipes along the way.”

But that doesn’t mean the food, which often features foraged items like ramps and poke along with locally sourced ingredients like pork and corn, can’t be interesting or elevated to gourmet levels.

Proving that is something Chef T has made integral to all of her cooking endeavors, including her restaurant, Union 41, in Bristol, Virginia. 

Simple but hearty dishes are characteristic of Appalachian food, with a core, farm- or forage-to-table mentality. But there are also cultural influences from European settlers and African Americans, as well. That makes Appalachia its own little melting pot, one that blends Native American, European, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, and Latino communities.

Chef T brought in some of that history as well, with a take on her grandmother’s chicken curry.

“(This) is a chicken curry that’s been finished the way my grandmother taught me,” Chef T said. “We do a different version of sofrito from like the Spanish. So Spanish sofrito is more like tomato base, cilantro, onions and garlic. Our sofrito base is more scallions, garlic, onions, crushed thyme and the habanero is in there as well.”

The curry was served with a simple dough she called roti, which is an unleavened flatbread that’s popular in South Asia and the Caribbean. 

Eating it is meant to involve one’s hands.

“You guys know each other, right?” Chef T said, chuckling a little bit. “Come on, use your hands. Really kind of tear the roti apart. Get in there with your spoon, spoon it on, and kind of taste the roti.”

Roti is a street food for the Caribbean islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Chef T added.

“You’ll have this kind of sopping, mopping curry,” she explained. “And I did not make (this dish) too spicy … And I finished it with a little bit of cilantro, so I hope you guys enjoy.”

One Opportunity Leads To Another

Joking with guests after the dinner, Chef T likened herself to cilantro.

“You either love me or hate me,” she said with a laugh. 

Plenty of people do love her strong personality, and she’s achieved a healthy fan base following her appearances on Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” where she was a runner-up on Season 14 of the show. She also appeared among the “all-stars” during Season 18 of the show.

Peart, meanwhile, has made a name for herself in Wyoming as the chef who almost beat Bobby Flay in an episode of the “Beat Bobby Flay” Food Network show that aired in July 2022. Her mission has been to shake up the foodie scene in southeast Wyoming with her cooking, which has included all vegetarian pop-up dinners that even cattle ranchers say they love. She’s also the executive chef at the Wyoming Governor’s Residence.  

In between dinner courses, each chef talked about their appearance on “Yes, Chef!” as well as the lessons learned.

“I’m happy that I took this journey, even knowing the results,” Peart said. “And I just really want to celebrate the fact that an opportunity like this even took place.”

One opportunity leads to another, Peart added. 

“It’s not always about winning,” she said. “Sometimes I like to say, ‘yes,’ to opportunities no matter how scary they are, because you never know what one thing might lead to.”

No Way She Messed Up A Wagyu Steak

Fans of Peart who have been following along for the “Yes, Chef!” adventures and attending Peart’s watch parties don’t really believe that Peart would have in any way botched a wagyu steak, as Martha Stewart and Chef Jose Andres claimed during Peart’s last episode. 

Mistie and Andy Wood, for example, who both grew up on cattle ranches and were at Peart’s most recent watch party, both said they’ve never had a bad steak when it’s prepared by Chef Peart.

In fact, the two say they’ve never had anything less than perfection from Peart, even when it was something unthinkable to them, like a vegan egg, during her all-vegetarian pop-up last year.

“It tasted just like an egg,” Mistie said. “I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know how she did that.”

Hearing Stewart or Andres say there was anything at all wrong with Peart’s steak was tough for them to stomach. 

“Martha has obviously never been to Wyoming,” Andy said. 

Peart isn’t holding a grudge over the steak, even though it cost her a shot at $250,000.

“A part of me might think (the steak was perfect),” Peart admitted. “But the largest part, most of me, is just happy for saying yes to the opportunity that presented itself.”

This won’t likely be the end of Peart on the television screen. She plans to say “yes” to more reality television opportunities if they come her way.

“The next time some other executive producers reach out to me for another TV opportunity, I’m probably gonna take it,” Peart said, joking that she clearly has no problem making herself look like a fool on television. 

“The biggest thing I learned during this experience is a little bit of how to let go,” she said. “I can be somewhat of a — and most chefs are, I would say, a control freak. That slows me down in the kitchen.”

Working on that and learning to pivot when things go wrong will be a focus for Peart moving forward. 

She’s going to take a cue from her popular watch parties, too, and start what she calls a supper club. It will be private dinner parties that are invitation only for adventurous foodies in southeast Wyoming.

“Like Jose says, ‘You got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet,’” Peart said, referring to the show’s other co-host, renown Chef Jose Andres. “It’s not always going to be pretty, but as long as the end results meet the vision, then that’s all that matters.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.