Columbus chef and restaurant owner Avishar Barua will be back in a familiar place Oct. 14 — on national television.
The owner of Joya’s and Agni, twice nominated for James Beard Awards, says he’ll compete on the next episode of “Bobby’s Triple Threat,” a Food Network cooking competition hosted by chef Bobby Flay.
It airs Oct. 14 at 8 p.m.
“I can’t tell you how it is gonna go, but I can tell you it is one of the wildest experiences of my life,” Barua wrote on Instagram.
Barua, whose Agni was named one of USA TODAY’s Restaurants of the Year for 2025, won’t compete against the host himself on “Bobby’s Triple Threat.” He already won a head-to-head cooking match against Flay in a 2023 episode of another Food Network Show, “Beat Bobby Flay.”
This Flay show, in its fourth season, features visiting chefs taking on three culinary “titans” one by one. This season’s titans are New York chef Ayesha Nurdjaja and Los Angeles chefs Brooke Williamson.
The guest chefs win $25,000 if they beat all three. The judge for Barua’s episode is New York chef Leah Cohen.
The Columbus competitor said he’s a fan of all four fellow chefs.
“These aren’t just chefs I respect. They’re culinary leaders who shape how I think about food,” Barua wrote on Instagram. “”The anxiety is real. The stakes are high. But getting to stand in that kitchen with them, talk to them as humans, cook alongside them — that part is something I’ll never forget, like a very vulnerable, very public form of therapy.”
It won’t be Barua’s first cooking rodeo.
In addition to “Beat Bobby Flay,” he has competed on “Guy’s Grocery Games” and was featured on host Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.” He was a “Top Chef” contestant in 2021 when he was chef at Columbus’ Service Bar.
Dining reporter Bob Vitale can be reached at rvitale@dispatch.com or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus’ Avishar Barua is ready to battle three top chefs on Food Network competition
Reporting by Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
