(Screenshot from The Food Network)
ORLANDO | Trina Gregory-Propst, chef and co-owner with her wife of the popular Orlando restaurant Se7en Bites, conquered Flavortown when she was named the winner of Guy Fieri’s Food Network realty competition series “Guy’s Grocery Games.”
This season pitted chefs from Fieri’s other Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” — which Gregory-Propst has appeared on twice — against each other in a series of competitions inspired by summer activities.
In the finale, Gregory-Propst took on Domenica Catelli, chef and owner of New York eatery Catelli’s, and Richard Hales, chef and owner of Tampa’s Grateful Hospitality, as they were challenged to create dishes based on summer family road trips.
In the first round, which asked the chefs to re-create a diner staple with a twist, Gregory-Propst was able to take the lead with her Hot Brown Fried Chicken with Gravy Extravaganza.
“I’m taking the chicken from chicken and waffles, I’m taking the sourdough toast like from a hot brown, I’m making sausage gravy from biscuits and gravy, all the good diner food combined into one,” she said during the competition.
Gregory-Propst and Hales made it through to the final round where they were challenged to make a steak dinner worthy of the high stakes city of Las Vegas. Gregory-Propst came out on top with her fillet mignon topped with her wife’s “wedding bell” marinade and a wedge salad.
We chatted with Gregory-Propst after her recent GGG victory — she has appeared on the competition show before — about her time on the show, what it means to win and how it has changed her life.
How did you approach your time on this season differently from your previous times on the show?
I realized I was probably overthinking about what was going to happen and tried to plan for things that you really can’t plan for because there’s no rhyme or reason for what you’re going to do, what the games could possibly be, what the challenge will be, what foods you may have to cook with, and I think maybe prior I was over thinking the process.
This time, I literally went for fun and was like “Okay, whatever they throw my way, I’ll just cook what I know.” I know Southern food so I just took what I normally cook and fit it into the challenge and that’s the only thing I would have to say that I did differently.
I know that everyone thinks that there’s a magical secret to it but this time there just really wasn’t. It was just a matter of doing what I know, being authentic to who I am and how I cook and what I think tastes good and I stuck to that.
Are the chefs given any indication to what the challenges may be or are they sprung on you in that moment the audience sees it on the show?
We have no idea. You really have 30 minutes to cook and come up with a plan to do it. He says “three, two, one and go” and you go. There’s no “here’s what the challenge is going to be, this is what the game is.” We are as surprised as everyone else is, and when they’re filming everything, you’re getting to see it firsthand.
When you go into a competition like this, what’s the most challenging part for you?
I am definitely a people person and I really love being around a lot of other people, and with these particular shows we don’t get a lot of time to talk to the other competitors.
I really love that camaraderie of getting to know them so it’s nice being able to just exchange numbers, emails and things like that because then we can follow up with each other afterwards and check on each other and see how we’re doing.
I feel like that’s probably one of the biggest parts of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” and “Guy’s Grocery Games,” the chefs that you’re with, you find you have a lot in common. That is the one thing that I’ve seen across the board with these shows is a lot of the businesses that he goes into, us chefs are really a part of our business, we work our businesses and we’re truly there for the community and I love that piece of it.
Getting to know the other chefs really creates this brotherhood and sisterhood of we’re all in this together, and especially with this past year, it’s just really created a lot of stronger bonds between small businesses trying to do what we can to continue to feed our community and keep our staff safe, employed and happy and thriving and I think that camaraderie is literally everything.
What is Guy Fieri like behind the scenes?
It is maybe one of the funniest experiences ever. I’m pretty sure that if Guy wasn’t as popular as he is within TV and food, he would absolutely be a standup comedian. He is a jokester and you just never really know what to expect which I think is the funniest part of all of it.
The crew that he has, his family that he’s created around him, they’re phenomenal. Some of the best of the best and I think that the thing that is the most astounding to me is how they just always make us look so good. It just looks so seamless and they’re just at the top of their game with really providing entertaining TV for people who love food and people who cook food.
What was going through your head when you won?
It’s surreal. I mean, here we are like months later and it’s still surreal to me. I don’t even know that there’s really any way to describe it other than I am beyond grateful that all of the training and all of the education that I had, all of these moments have led to this moment and it is one of the best feelings.
I’m 52 years old going “holy shit, I did this at 52 in a career that I’ve been in for only eight years.” All those moments that I push myself and said I need to do better because I’m not in my 20’s starting a new career, I’m in my 40’s starting a new career and I have to hit the ground running.
All the work and the energy and the effort and the dedication to perfecting a craft has paid off. The work and the effort is showing that I do understand food, I do understand my way around a kitchen and I am creative and I can come up with things spontaneously as long as I stay authentic to myself and the food that I loved to cook.
What has the response been like in your restaurant and in the community since you won?
Oh my gosh. I’ve never had so many people want to take a picture with me, and I’m more than happy to do it. I guess in that way it’s just so humbling because I can’t even believe that people want to have their picture taken with me.
The thing that I probably cherish and love the most is these kids that come in. They are overwhelmed seeing someone that they saw on TV and I talked to them about school and do they like to cook and being open to making sure that they try new foods and you really understand that you have this impact on people’s lives because this is the connection that they’ve had.
Food just brings families together and it feels like an overwhelming responsibility but also an amazing opportunity to really share my love of food and our family recipes with people who really just wanted to be a part of that food scene. They are like your biggest fans for just doing what you do every day that comes naturally to you. It is an overwhelming responsibility, but it is also something that I will never take lightly. I appreciate being given the opportunity to just share that passion with people. It’s a little crazy, but I’m here for the crazy.
What does it mean to you to be part of LGBTQ representation on television?
I feel so overwhelmed with the response that we’ve gotten from the community because I’ve never hidden who I am. My wife and I own our restaurant together and we work as a team, we make all of our decisions together. We have a son, we raise our family and I just I don’t know that I could have it any other way. I never tried to hide who I am and who I love.
So I mean if that is giving representation and people see that you can live authentically, by all means I’m here for it. I talk about my wife and that we run our business together on the show and we truly are a team. We make decisions for our business together. We come up with recipes together, we talk about our specials every week together. We are one in that unit of making unified decisions for what the future of our business will be and what that looks like. Just as much as she is my biggest fan, I am her biggest fan.
I love being able to show people that Orlando has a really great and amazing food scene and you know we’re always happy to be able to be part of that representation. We’re certainly proud of the other small businesses and we are all in this together trying to lift each other up and continue to provide amazing food that is thoughtfully and lovingly prepared for our Orlando foodie community.
“Guy’s Grocery Games: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Summer Games” season 27 is currently available to stream on Discovery+.
Se7en Bites, located at 617 Primrose Dr. in Orlando, is open Thursdays and Fridays, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, go to Se7enBites.com.
