Wendy Gauthier, chef and owner of Chef Chic, preps meat for a southern hash at her restaurant on Thursday. Gauthier won the 2019 Iron Chef Tucson title.

 Rebecca Sasnett, Arizona Daily Star

Two Tucson chefs who grew up in the same East Coast city on the same street but never met until they both moved thousands of miles away to Tucson will compete for the Iron Chef Tucson title on Saturday, July 30.

Reigning Iron Chef Wendy Gauthier, chef-owner of Chef Chic at 1104 S. Wilmot Road, will defend her title against Kenneth Foy, chef-owner of Dante’s Fire at 2526 E. Grant Road.

Reigning Iron Chef Tucson Wendy Gauthier of Chef Chic discusses what it's like to return to the competition that she won in 2019.

The pair grew up a mile apart on the same Alexandria, Virginia, block and never met. They graduated the same year from rival high schools before Gautier struck out for culinary school at New York’s prestigious Culinary Institute of America. Foy struck out to Washington, D.C., to participate in the American Culinary Federation training program that led him to cook in some of D.C.’s finest restaurants and a handful of upscale country clubs.

Chef Chic chef/owner Wendy Gauthier talks about the ingredients she can work with and some that will be more challenging.

Gauthier moved to Tucson in 1998 to escape the East Coast snow. Foy arrived five years later to take the helm of Tucson Country Club.

“I came out here for a joke — they paid for the trip and I thought I would hate it. I didn’t,” he said with a laugh.

Several years later, Gauthier and Foy became Facebook friends and quickly discovered their shared hometown roots. They finally met in person when they judged a tequila and salsa competition at La Encantada in 2012.

But that’s not where the connection ends: The pair also are Tucson neighbors. They live a couple of blocks from one another.

“We’ve been circling the same drain for years,” said Foy.

Foy opened Dante’s Fire in 2013; Gauthier ran her Chef Chic catering business for 18 years before opening her restaurant in December 2019, not long after winning the 13th annual Iron Chef Tucson title in 2019. The competition was put on hiatus in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, said Nathan Lanham-Baird, marketing and promotions director of the contest’s coordinator Arizona Lotus Corp.

Dante’s Fire chef-owner Kenneth Foy will try to unseat reigning Tucson Iron Chef Wendy Gauthier during the 2022 final at Casino del Sol on Saturday.

Dante's Fire chef-owner Kenneth Foy lays out his strategies for Saturday's Iron Chef Tucson competition

Iron Chef Tucson is a local version of the popular Food Network show that pits chefs in a timed cooking competition. The chefs, assisted by two other cooks, have an hour to create and plate four dishes using a secret ingredient that will be announced at the beginning of the competition. The ingredient has to play a key role in each of the four dishes.

The chefs will get a hint of the secret ingredient on Friday, July 29, when they will learn of four potential ingredients being considered. That will give them a couple of hours to sketch out possible dishes, Foy said.

This is Foy’s first Iron Chef Tucson competition after several unsuccessful attempts.

“I never made it past the qualifying round,” he said.

But that changed when he beat out other chefs in the June 26 Meet the Chefs competition with his coriander and star anise-brined corned pork shoulder with a horseradish potato salad, pickled eggplant and a sweet pea couli.

Gauthier snagged her win three years ago with a series of octopus dishes including a cold jicama sheet enchilada stuffed with shrimp and octopus; a lettuce soup with prickly pear onions and octopus tentacles; cheddar octopus fritter; and a beer crepe with an octopus apple bacon compote topped with brie cream and beer cream.

Wendy Gauthier, chef and owner of Chef Chic, is defending her Iron Chef Tucson title when she takes on Dante's Fire chef-owner Kenneth Foy. 

For Saturday’s competition, Foy admitted it’s “hard to plan in a vacuum” but he said he plans to employ some of the culinary prowess he’s perfected at his 9-year-old restaurant.

“We’ve got a dish under glass with smoke coming out of it, foam and some neat stuff,” he said.

Gauthier said she will rely on the strategy that earned her the 2019 title: “Breathe and try to do what we do and try not to worry about the other stuff,” she said.

“Worry about the clock rather than the other team,” she added.

In addition to serving the four judges, Gauthier and Foy have to prepare enough food for a dozen VIPs. Gauthier said they will have an additional 15 minutes to plate the VIP table.

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Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch