A Columbus home chef is one of three finalists on the PBS cooking competition, “The Great American Recipe,” which airs Aug. 15 at 9 p.m. on WOSU-TV.
Rex Alba, a physical therapist from the Northwest Side who also has a YouTube cooking channel, will face a challenge of cooking three dishes — an entree, a side and a dessert — for 13 people in three hours as he competes for the show’s fourth-season crown.
In an interview with The Dispatch, Alba said he couldn’t say what he cooked in the already-taped finale, but it’s safe to assume he shared more dishes from his native Philippines. “The Great American Recipe” contestants focus their cooking mostly on dishes from their regions of the country and their families’ heritage.
When they were tasked with combing both influences, Alba made a Filipino-influenced Cincinnati chili dog. In other episodes, he has impressed the show’s chef judges with Philippine dishes such as dinuguan, a pork-blood stew.
“I feel proud to have represented the Filipino community,” said Alba, who is president of the Philippine American Society of Central Ohio. “I really wanted to share some of our dishes.”
His competition in the finale are the only other contestants left from an original field of eight: Waigal Safi, a San Diego resident who is a second-generation Afghani-American; and Coby Bailey of Lafayette, Louisiana, who has cooked dishes reflecting his Cajun heritage.
Alba said he and Bailey talked about getting together to host a watch party for “The Great American Recipe” finale with a main dish of Louisiana crocodile roasted like a Filipino lechon, or whole pig. They’ll each be watching in their own homes with their families, though, Alba said.
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: ‘The Great American Recipe’ finale will feature a Columbus cook: How to watch
Reporting by Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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