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Food Network

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Cedar Grove Chef Competes for Next Iron Chef Title

Food Network Star and Cedar Grove native Amanda Freitag takes on popular cooking competition.

Chef Amanda Freitag has always been a proud Jersey girl, having grown up in Cedar Grove before moving to New York to become a Food Network television star. Freitag moved to Cedar Grove with her parents when she was in second grade and later graduated from what was then known as Cedar Grove Memorial High School. She moved out when she started at the Culinary Institute of America but always comes back home for the holidays. Freitag got her culinary start right in her hometown and worked as a busgirl and a banquet waitress at the Friar Tuck Inn, now The Grove catering hall, which was located on Pompton Avenue. “I fell in love with the restaurant industry and I was interested in the kitchen and how it all worked,” said Freitag. “My home …

Monday, June 25, 2012

Verona Chef Sliced and Diced But Never “Chopped”

Avenue Bistro’s Chef Michael Dilonno dishes on the TV competition and his career.

Verona just might be the next hot dining destination thanks to a local chef hitting it big in a nationwide cooking competition. As the home of Avenue Bistro and Pub, Verona has claim to culinary fame after the restaurant’s chef Michael Dilonno took the title of “Chopped” Champion in the Food Network’s cooking competition last fall. As the last chef standing, Dilonno has proven he’s got the chops to compete against the best in the business, but the title and the $10,000 that came with it might just as easily never have come to pass.  If Dilonno had it his way, that is. Dilonno, who has spent 40 years in the business and has run several restaurants, said he never planned on entering the competition. It was a member of his staff who suggested…

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