Semifinalists named in Own Your Own Restaurant challenge

October 21, 2023

Conor Doherty,

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — 24 chefs gathered in Burgaw over the weekend to try and impress the town’s residents.

The chefs came from all across the US and Canada, looking to try and cook up a victory in their quest to win a million dollars to renovate and operate a new restaurant.

As part of the first cooking challenge, each chef created a dish for 200 Burgaw residents to taste and then rank, in order to determine the top 12.

Those semifinalists were announced Saturday evening and they are:

Nathaniel Blanford, from Cincinnati, OH;
Shawn Buskirk, from Holly Ridge, NC
Christopher Carlo, Waterford, MI
Mandy Chow, Wilmington, NC
Matthew Cole, Winterville, NC
Zachary Fabian, Jersey City, NJ
Joe Friday, Toronto, ON Canada
Penny Hayes, Myrtle Beach, SC
Brandon Hunsaker, Escondido, CA
Khristen Hunter, Wilmington, NC
Karoline Schwartz, Tabernash, CO
Bart Weber, Hickory, NC

Lucas McLawthorn, a Wilmington resident, was one of a dozen chefs from North Carolina who competed.

He said despite being in a competition, all of the chefs enjoyed getting to meet and know each other.

“I feel blessed and its amazing how in like two, three short days, everyone has met each other and how we’ve all come together,” McLawthron said. “This competition does not have a cutthroat feel to it. Like Richard did a great job making us just feel the camaraderie.”

The Richard he was referring to is Richard Johnson, the competition’s organizer. Johnson has always wanted to help Burgaw continue to grow and bring more people to its downtown.

“I’ve been focused on the town of Burgaw and I have been trying to help revitalize the town,” Johnson said. “After I bought some buildings here, I realized that what we really needed was some foot traffic. And so by bringing in some restaurants, what we can do is have a focal point for the town to come back and come back downtown.”

Throughout the afternoon, the chefs kept preparing samples and answering questions, hoping to impress the judges.

While winning the competition is a great opportunity, it is also life-changing in more ways than one.

“Yeah, so my son is about to go into middle school and me and my wife already said that we would try to buy a house once he does go to middle school,” Vincent Mangual, a chef from Brooklyn, NY said. “So the kind of timing of this, if I were to win, lines up with all of that, so we’re kind of ready for a move.”

Along with the Burgaw residents, a panel of restaurant owners and operators from throughout the Cape Fear area helped choose the 12 semi-finalists.

UPDATE (10/23): The final 12 have been cut to 6, and these chefs will undergo a series of challenges in area restaurants this week. The final two will be named Friday.