Minnesota native competes on Hulu's 'Secret Chef'
An Elk River, Minn., native is a contestant on “Secret Chef” — a new reality cooking competition show on Hulu. All episodes are out Thursday.
Josh Walbolt, a New Jersey-based private chef, grew up in the northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities.
He cut his teeth working under chef Gavin Kaysen at Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis, and Michelin-starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park in New York City.
The show’s premise: “Ten contestants from all walks of life — from professional chefs and home cooks to social media influencers — are isolated in a secret underground kitchen labyrinth connected by a series of conveyor belts.”
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
There are no judges. Instead, contestants rate each other in blind taste tests.
Walbolt has a growing TikTok presence — over 93,000 followers @lovefoodmore — and his career has been steadily growing for years.
“Secret Chef,” though, was his first time on a television set.
“I felt like a kid at Disney World. Like seeing all the cameras and all the lights. I was like, this isn't really happening,” Walbolt told MPR News host Emily Bright. “And I feel like I’m still in that phase where I won’t realize what happened until I see it on TV.”
As a kid in the Twin Cities, cooking for his brother and sister was just a way to provide for his family.
It wasn’t until he won two statewide culinary competitions as a student at Elk River High School that he thought he might have a future in the industry.
“And I love doing it. Being able to create something from nothing. Take an ingredient that’s almost perfect as it is and then try to make it even more perfect,” he said.
Many of his influences come from home. One of his signature dishes, Salaw Machu, is a Cambodian recipe he grew up eating.
He also started a hot sauce company, Baby Daddy’s Hot Sauce, inspired by the flavors at his multicultural childhood kitchen table — where Thanksgiving featured not only turkey and mashed potatoes, but also chicken curry soup, beef skewers, sticky rice and papaya salad.
The culinary industry is cutthroat. Burnout is common.
But every time he wants to quit, every time it gets hard, he remembers how passionate he is about it. He reminds himself to keep pushing.
“I would do it for free, you know, if I could. I’m just making food. I'm nurturing somebody,” Walbolt said.
“I'm creating an experience for somebody … And then that same time creating memories for myself.”
As for the results of the competition?
“I will say I was a very happy chef,” he said.
Audio transcript
[AUDIO PLAYBACK]
- I don't know where I am. It's not a kitchen. So I'm really unsure what's happening.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Hello. Let's play a little game.
- I signed up for a food competition, but I have no idea what this is.
- Oh, it's like Alice in Wonderland but so much scarier.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Hello? Hiya, chefs. My name is Cheffie. In this competition, there are no judges. Instead, you chefs will judge each other.
- This is weird.
- But to make sure you judge fairly, you'll cook in secret. You'll taste in secret.
- This is very, very different from what I was expecting.
- And you'll judge in secret.
- That is not good.
- That's why we call this Secret Chef. Makes sense, huh?
- Boom.
- I don't like to keep secrets.
[LAUGHTER]
[END PLAYBACK]
INTERVIEWER: Josh Walbolt is a 2012 graduate of Elk River High School, which is, of course, in the Northwest suburbs. He cut his teeth working at restaurants in the metro area. He's now a private chef in New Jersey, and he spoke with MPR news producer Emily Bright.
EMILY BRIGHT: So OK, the premise of the show, 10 contestants from all walks of life, from professional chefs and home cooks to social media influencers, are isolated in a secret underground kitchen labyrinth connected by a series of conveyor belts. That sounds absolutely nefarious. Am I reading that right?
JOSH WALBOLT: You are reading that 100% correct.
EMILY BRIGHT: Did you know what you were getting yourself into? Or did you think it would be more of a traditional cooking competition, like Chopped or Great British Baking Show?
JOSH WALBOLT: Yeah. I had no idea what I was getting into. I know it was a cooking competition, and that was about it. And then the rest was a secret.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY BRIGHT: Well, it sounds appropriate. What was the filming process like?
JOSH WALBOLT: The filming process was really fun. It was my first time on set, like, doing a production like that. I don't know. For me, I felt like a kid at Disney World, like seeing all the cameras and all the lights. I was just like, this isn't real. This isn't really happening. And I feel like I'm still in that phase, where I won't realize what happened until I see it on TV.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. I bet that will be fascinating to watch yourself on TV, see how they edited it. Now, I know we're not going to spoil the ending, but were you happy with your performance?
JOSH WALBOLT: I will say, I was a very happy person, very happy chef.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY BRIGHT: What's your pitch? Why should folks watch?
JOSH WALBOLT: Should watch this show if you're into cooking and mystery and secret challenges and definitely inspiring to food lovers. Like, I consider myself pretty well trained in competition. But the challenges were very interesting.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY BRIGHT: All right. I'm intrigued. Let's talk about your work in the cooking world. So going way back, you call yourself a latchkey kid growing up in Minnesota. Sounds like that's how your passion kickstarted?
JOSH WALBOLT: So yeah. Everything was started off with just taking care of my brother and sister and just like feeding my friends and family to just provide. Right? I never thought of anything out of it, like, oh I'm going to pursue this passion of being a chef, until later on.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. You won two statewide culinary competitions back in high school. So do you remember a moment when you thought, oh, I could do this and people will pay me?
JOSH WALBOLT: That was literally the moment. It was like, wow, I can cook and get paid to do it? And make a living off this? I'm like, great, let's do it. Because it's something I was good at, and I loved doing it, being able to create something from almost nothing and take something that's almost-- like an ingredient that's almost perfect as it is and then try to make it even more perfect and more enjoyable. So it was always like a fun little science experiment for me that I loved to do and to create, to continue creating.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. Where do your influences come from?
JOSH WALBOLT: I love music. I love dance. I love going on walks and nature. So every part of my life influences each other. Right? So like, I'll be in the walk in the woods, listening to a song, and I'll think of a dish that I want to make to represent that moment. You know? And it's like, I don't think there's any boundaries to anything.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. I definitely get that. A lot of my creative ideas come when I'm out for a walk and just focusing on something else. That totally makes sense. So you've worked under esteemed chefs, like Gavin Kaysen at Spoon and Stable here in the Twin Cities. You've worked in Michelin star restaurants. What's been your biggest lesson so far in your career?
JOSH WALBOLT: Oh, man. It's a simple couple of words, sense of urgency and to push. You know? There's always a saying. I had a bunch of cooks from Eleven Madison Park sign a book that I had on my birthday. And my wife had them sign a book for me. And like, every chef just wrote, push, keep pushing. Like, that was like the mantra was like to never settle, that you can always achieve something better and just to keep trying to be better every single day, no matter what it is.
EMILY BRIGHT: So if that's your goal, if you always feel like you're pushing, I mean, this is a tough job. This field has a high burnout rate. How do you manage to balance it all?
JOSH WALBOLT: I always tell myself, like, when I feel like quitting, remember why I started. Because there's a lot of burnout in the industry. And a lot of people who like quit, because it does get hard. But it's something that I love to do, and I would do it for free, if I could. Hey, I'm just making food. I'm nurturing somebody's soul. I'm creating an experience for somebody and trying to create memories for someone else. And at that same time, I'm creating memories for myself.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. Even if you're doing it in a secret, underground lair.
JOSH WALBOLT: Yes. Exactly.
EMILY BRIGHT: So speaking of the things you're balancing, we should also mention you've become quite a TikTok star. Or rather, you've got quite a following, 93,000 followers or so. So you're trying out different-- cooking different foods. You seem to have a lot of fun with it.
JOSH WALBOLT: It's literally just having fun, like, just not being scared to showcase myself and my personality on these platforms. I remember I was so hesitant to get on TikTok, because I was like, oh, these are for like 12-year-olds, 14-year-olds, whatever. And then I think I came across like Gordon Ramsay doing a TikTok dance. I was like, yo, if Gordon Ramsay can be on TikTok, sign me up. I'm going to do this thing.
Just making like simple things that I make for my family, like, we don't always eat the greatest meals at home. We're eating canned tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, like a lot of people. And those are the videos that were taking off. It's just like, hey, this is what we cook like. This is what we eat like at home.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah.
JOSH WALBOLT: It was just really fun to see the feedback that we've gotten and how the followers translated into business. So I was like, hey, I can make money off this, let's just keep doing it.
EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah. We should mention you have a private chef business with your wife. And I want to ask you about your hot sauce company called Baby Daddy's Hot Sauce. You say that each flavor pays tribute to your home state of Minnesota. And we know that Minnesota does not have, shall we say, a national reputation for spicy food. So tell me about these hot sauces.
JOSH WALBOLT: Yeah. So definitely, the hot sauce company, Baby Daddy's Hot Sauce, started right in the beginning of the pandemic. You know? My wife and I were struggling to have kids. And all of a sudden, we get laid off from the best restaurant in the world, and no job, and she texts me and tells me like, hey, can you- my wife was vegetarian at this time. And she's like, can you pick me up a pepperoni stick and a pregnancy test? So I was like, OK, awesome.
[LAUGHTER]
So we find out she's pregnant, and then I'm like, all right, I have to figure out what we're going to do. You know? I was delivering for DoorDash at the time. So I was like, I got some chilies in the cabinet. Let's just-- let's sell these. Let's put this online and sell them. And they were fermenting, and I remember I got into fermentation in Minnesota. The thing about eating at a table in Minnesota, for me, was it's always very multicultural.
Like, even at our Thanksgiving dinner, we had classic turkey, mashed potatoes, but then we would have Cambodian kuyteav or like chicken curry soup or beef skewers and sticky rice and papaya salad. We have those things like always co-mingling each other. So I'm like, let me make a hot sauce that reminds me of my childhood growing up but also tastes good with not just Asian food, but with everything, like the pizza, the turkeys, the pastas.
EMILY BRIGHT: Well, sign me up. Your Thanksgiving dinner sounds amazing, by the way.
JOSH WALBOLT: Yeah.
EMILY BRIGHT: Before you go, I want to hear a bit about your signature dish.
JOSH WALBOLT: Definitely. So I do have a couple signature dishes. As a chef, you have to be pretty well rounded. But one of my favorite dishes to make is samlar machu, which is a Cambodian dish that I grew up eating. It's like some vegetables, celery, tomatoes, and then like this super aromatic paste called kroeung, which is like lemongrass, garlic, shallots, kaffir limes, galangal. And it has like this little bit of sour from tamarind, and it's super aromatic and hearty.
It's like the perfect soup that you eat with some rice or noodles. And that is probably my go-to dish to make. If our whole family's getting together, I won't make it. My mom will make it. But if I'm missing home, then I'll definitely go and reconstruct that dish in a way to where it's nostalgic to me. It reminds me of home.
INTERVIEWER: Mm. That was Chef Josh Walbolt, who grew up in Elk River, speaking with MPR's Emily Bright. Josh is a contestant on the new reality show Secret Chef. All the episodes are out Thursday on Hulu. By the way, you can follow Josh on Instagram, and as you heard, TikTok. He's @lovefoodmore.
Download transcript (PDF)
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.