The Great American Recipe is filmed in a barn in Ruther Glen, Virginia. The Great American Recipe Season 2 has eight episodes.
The show is an inspiring cooking competition reality series acknowledging the cross-culturalism that makes American food distinct and famous.
The new season introduces nine skilled home cooks who will present their cooking talents. The cooks will represent various cooking styles impacted by their diverse backgrounds.
Hosted by Alejandra Ramos, in each of the episodes, the contestants will be asked to present two of their favorite impressive dishes as they fight to win the national search for “The Great American Recipe.”
Season 2 will be available to stream on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS app.
If you haven’t watched Season 1 yet—you can binge it now on the PBS Passport app or Amazon and Hulu.
Where Is The Great American Recipe Filmed?
The Great American Recipe is filmed in a barn in Ruther Glen, Virginia. The first season of the show was also filmed in a similar barn.
The second season of the show premiered on Monday, June 19, and will be available till August 7 at 9:00-10:00 pm ET.
Since the cooking show requires a huge space with lots of equipment along with cast and crew members, an area like a barn is a perfect place for filming.
Different cooking stations for each of the contestant requires a place just like this.
VPM is a proud co-producer of the show, and filming it in Virginia is a suitable experience the multiplicity of cultures through the lens of food.
The VPM (Virginia Foundation for Public Media) will include local chefs making their treasured culture-related recipes at local festivals across Virginia.
The local festival will explore many flavors and cultures, inspiring chefs’ famous dishes at
- Richmond Night Market on August 12 from 5-9 pm;
- The Harrisonburg International Festival on September 23 from 12-6 pm.
Meet The Great American Recipe Judges
The Great American Recipe Judges are Leah Cohen, Graham Elliot, and Tiffany Derry. The same judges appeared in Season 1.
They assess the unskilled cooks who do their best to avoid being the ones to be sent home that week.
The finalists cook an entire meal for the judges at the end of the series in the hopes of earning a place of honor on the cover of The Great American Recipe Cookbook.
The following are the Judges on The Great American Recipe:
1. Tiffany Derry
Tiffany Derry is one of the judges of The Great American Recipe. The Texas native is the originator of Tiffany Derry Concepts and co-originator of T2D Concepts.
It is a Texas-based motive-driven hospitality organization behind Roots Chicken Shak, Roots Southern Table, and Shef Tiffany spice and apparel line founded in 2016 with business partner Tom Foley.
A traditionally trained chef, Tiffany is reconceptualizing and developing the Southern cuisine of her early age at her restaurant Roots Southern Table opened in Houston in the Spring of 2021.
2. Leah Cohen
Leah Cohen is another returning judge on The Great American Recipe. She’s also the author of the Southeast Asian cookbook “Lemongrass & Lime.”
Leah Cohen is a 2013 Star Chefs Rising Stars Award receiver, whose Filipino background and yearly visits to the region are seen in her cooking ideology.
Experimenting with raw ingredients in her free time, Leah developed an interest in cooking and therefore enrolled herself in the reputed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
In her early days, she worked in Michelin-starred restaurants with some world-famous chefs, such as 3-Star Eleven Madison Park under chef Daniel Humm and Italy’s Michelin-starred restaurant La Madia.
3. Graham Elliot
Graham Elliot is also one of the judges of The Great American Recipe. He is a self-described “navy brat” who has been around the world and all fifty states.
This ignited a great interest in food which led him to join Johnson & Wales University.
Elliot was named one of the Food & Wine Magazine’s “best new chefs” in 2004 and became the youngest chef in the US at 27 to receive four stars from a major publication.
He also received three James Beard nominations for his fine dining work at Avenues at Peninsula Hotel.
His Eponymous Restaurant also received two Michelin Stars, which was opened in 2008.
In the same year, Elliot obtained a spot on Crain’s Chicago Business list of “40 Under Forty”, featuring him in the privileged club alongside Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama.
The Great American Recipe Season 2 Contestants
The Great American Recipe Season 2 contestants are Abbe Odenwalder, Khela Brewer, Maria Givens and 6 others. They come from diverse backgrounds.
From Guyanese to Greek, Libyan to Lithuanian, Caribbean to Native American, Midwestern to Traditional Hawaiian, the contestants in Season 2 showcases the delicious diversity of American home cooking.
The show highlights rich individual stories and the motivation behind the contestant’s favorite recipes. Season 1 included 10 contestants.
Below listed are the contestants of this amazing culinary competition TV series:
- Abbe Odenwalder (Denver, Colorado)
- Brad Mahlof (New York)
- Khela Brewer (Overland Park, Kansas)
- Leanna Pierre (Norcross, Georgia)
- Maria Givens (Seattle, Washington)
- Mike Thomas (Cleveland, Ohio)
- Relle Lum (Maui, Hawaii)
- Salmah Hack (Orlando, Florida)
- Ted Pappas (Western Springs, Illinois)