Central Ohio chef to appear on ‘Next Level Chef’ with Gordon Ramsey

Mere days after one Columbus chef took home the title of Chopped champion, another is set to make her television debut on the third season of Fox’s Next Level Chef, a high-energy cooking competition judged by Gordan Ramsey and fellow chefs Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais.

Arora makes her first appearance in the second episode of season three—which kicks off at 8 at p.m. tonight.

Uniquely for Arora—a New Albany-based cookbook author and owner of a spice blend and frozen food company called Maani’s Artisan Indian Cuisine—the showrunners actually sought her out, a process that typically occurs the other way around.

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“A casting agent called me last August while I was on vacation with my daughter. I guess Gordan Ramsey saw me on the local morning Fox cooking segment ( Good Day Columbus) and instructed the casting agent to contact me,” Arora told 614Now.

This didn’t preclude the central Ohio epicurean from being subjected to an rigorous screening process for the show, however.

“Then there was a very lengthy interview process, with lots of phone interviews, zoom interviews, background checks and ofcourse pictures of me cooking with my friends and family,” she said.

While we can’t divulge any information about how Arora performed on the show (and to be quite honest, we don’t even know ourselves), she could share her experience meeting Gordon Ramsey  in Dublin, Ireland where the show was filmed.
“Even though the environment was stressful, competitive, and very chaotic I learned a great deal from all the contestants and from the three mentors including Gordan Ramsey. He was very nice, supportive and wanted us all to succeed,” Arora said, adding “It was crazy that he tasted my food.”

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