Easton chef steaks claim to victory on Food Network episode

Lloyd appeared on Season 5, Episode 2, of the show on May 9, in an installment titled, "Steak Your Claim."

The premise of the show, filmed outside of a grocery store in Los Angeles, is that four chefs interact with shoppers for ingredients for the cooking challenges, with one chef eliminated each round until only the winner remains.

Lloyd, a longtime veteran of the hospitality scene both in Easton and elsewhere, sat down for an interview at one of his current projects in the Avalon.

The Stakeout — Lloyd's experience on camera

Lloyd faced off against three other "amazing" chefs from New Orleans, Rhode Island and Chicago, respectively.

The show is a three-round competition that pits four chefs against each other in a kitchen set up outside of a grocery store. Each contestant is given $500 and the mission of purchasing groceries from random people coming out of the supermarket.

In the first round, the rules dictate the chefs have 45 minutes to purchase items and cook a dish, with the caveat of not being able to look in the shopping bags first.

The theme of the first rounds dishes was "steak house," and Lloyd thought he was in a good position when he bought a cart full of bags.

The contents of the bags were almost disastrous. "It was nothing but bagels, orange juice and slippers," he said. 

Lloyd said when he prepped for the show, he studied and contemplated the "dry storage" each contestant had access to that included basics like salt, flour, vinegar and sugar. If worst came to worst, and he was "caught in a pickle," Lloyd knew he could lean on those basics as a chef who enjoys making pasta and bread.

He took the salsa and cream cheese he found in the cart and started on handmade raviolis. While it didn't fit the steakhouse theme, "I knew if I made an excellent dish, I could get to the second round," he said.

Lloyd "jazzed up" the salsa and grilled the raviolis to give it a flatbread vibe, and his efforts were enough to advance to the second round.

The next round had a picnic theme, and Lloyd again thought he was in luck. Disaster loomed again when he looked in the bag and saw pre-made picnic products, including sandwiches, potato salad and coleslaw. Faced with having to create something new, he reorganized the sandwiches, "flipped them inside out and back and forth," and created a sandwich duo.

Lloyd rinsed and drained the potato salad to get to the cooked main element of the dish, then tossed the potatoes in flour and fried them to make a potato garnish. He then drained the coleslaw, this time to collect the drippings of the mayonnaise-based dressing, and make a new dressing to add with potato salad to a sandwich. "They got a kick out of that," he said.

After advancing to the next round, he began to look for ingredients to create a dish for the last theme: a diner-style dessert. This round's rules stipulated contestants could purchase any five single ingredients from shoppers, but after purchasing ice cream, he hit a drought of viable choices that lasted until one shopper came out with a large container of berries.

"I'm headed back to dry storage," he told himself, as he started on a mixed berry pie made of the blueberries and blackberries he had purchased. With 10 minutes left, the host told the contestants that if they had any money left, they could go into the store for a final purchase, and with three minutes left, he ran into the store for a canister of whipped cream. His dessert was enough to "bring home the win." 

Lloyd's overall experience on the show

Lloyd said the talent levels of his fellow chefs was impressive, and the challenge of time constraints, limited ingredients and the inherent dangerous physical conditions of the kitchens were not unlike any other busy night for the chefs.

The host of the show, Iron Chef alum Alex Guarnaschelli, received effusive praise from Lloyd, saying she is a "complete badass, amazing woman, amazing chef (and) mentor."

"You could just tell she's like, a boss, and just so kind, so professional. No fluff about her, no arrogance," Lloyd said.

He had high praise for his competitors, and he spoke fondly of the camaraderie they shared, calling it "one of the best parts of the show."

"We all went to dinner, we all supported each other," Lloyd said.

The production team impressed Lloyd as well, who said that compared to a common perception of reality TV where the mistakes of contestants are highlighted, he was made to feel comfortable. "They really make you feel like 'our whole goal here is to make people look and feel amazing on the show,'" he said of the team.

The win, as could be expected, was also a highlight of the experience. "Awesome," Lloyd said of the victory. "So fun, just amazing."

"Individually, you never think you're going to be the person that has the opportunity to win something like that," the chef said of the surreal nature of the experience, comparing it almost to to an "out of body experience."

Lloyd's background

Lloyd opened the Bartlett Pear in Easton in 2008, operating there for about 12 years, before going to Washington, DC, eventually launching his current primary venture, Hambleton House Catering, with his wife, Alice.

"We love to cook, we love the hospitality. We love the nature of it and the nurture of it," Lloyd said, observing that the catering and events company was the best fit for their lifestyle at this time.

"It gives us a lot of freedom to pick and choose the dates, we work from home now ... just a ton more family time, which was the goal, and being active in our industry," Lloyd said.

The chef began his career at 12 at what was then Cafe 25 in downtown Easton, washing dishes as his entrée into the restaurant world. "I fell in love with it," he said.

By 15, he was running the kitchen on the weekends. "I just fell in love with the work, I fell in love with the people, the industry. I loved it because it didn't feel like it judged anyone. It judged them on their work ethic and their character, everyone was accepted," he said.

Lloyd's next stop was culinary school in Pittsburgh, after which he returned home and helped open Mason's dinner program. A chef there introduced Lloyd to Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook. "That was a pivotal moment in my life as far as cooking, because that was the first time I looked at something I could really connect with. That was the first time I really connected with food," Lloyd said.

In 2001, two and a half years later, Lloyd found himself in Manhattan, helping to open Keller's Per Se restaurant there, partaking in the number one restaurant open in the world that year. After a year and a half, the high cost of living in the pricy borough relative to his salary won out, and the Lloyds moved to help open Auberge du Soleil in South Carolina, then Atlanta for two more openings.

The next stop was Miami, where Lloyd landed a position as chef de cuisine for renowned chef Christian Delouvrier ("the godfather of French cooking in America," Lloyd said), often preparing food for famous guests at the posh spot.

The 2008 economic downturn hit Miami and Delouvrier's restaurant hard, and with a 2-year-old and a newborn, Jordan and Alice decided it was time to move back to their hometown.

Through his career, Lloyd has participated in various capacities in more than 40 restaurant openings in Easton and elsewhere, some his own ventures, and many as part of others' projects. 

In addition to spearheading his own ventures, Lloyd has worked as a chef de partie (a line cook in French cooking), a chef de cuisine (the executive chef's right hand man), and a service captain who runs the front of the house.

Lloyd opened up Eagle's Cafe at Hog Neck Golf Course and was there for about three years, until COVID hit.

He currently consults with restaurants, giving them advice on all aspects of the business, including food costs, labor costs and menu design. In those instances, he might "go in for three months, set them all up and roll out."

He is adept at getting restaurants set up and through health department permitting.

One aspect of Lloyd's current work is at the Avalon's restaurant space, currently called the Avalon Corner as the team there develops the future use for the space.

The night before the May 12 interview — coincidentally Lloyd's 44th birthday — he catered an event in the space during a performance of the Mid-Shore Symphony Orchestra, when he took advantage of one of the perks of the Avalon's layout by opening the kitchen door that connects to the theater proper and letting the beautiful music drift in.

While the organization works on the eventual vision for the space, Lloyd will do what he does; that is, get the space up and running and activated, including using the kitchen for his Hambleton House catering group.

"This is really a special place," he said of the Avalon. "We all knew it growing up ... there's something really special and amazing that it brings to the community."

Lloyd said working daily there and interacting with the staff there — one a childhood friend who grew up six houses down from him, another who coached him as a baseball player — is energizing. "They've got a really cool group here," he said.

Lloyd's advice

When asked about the key to success as a chef in the hospitality business, Lloyd said, "a relentless pursuit for excellence ... a lot of patience of patience to the team, a natural desire to educate, a natural desire to give your talents away." He said he tries to adhere to Pablo Picasso's mantra: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

His advice for a young person entering the hospitality industry is the other side of that equation, to find someone with that gift to give away. "The most important thing is to find a healthy mentor," Lloyd said.

Lloyd referred to the variety of places he worked as a youth, and how those mom and pop places gave him a chance to start with the basics and not overthink it too much.

He pointed specifically to multiple restaurants, but said the professional experience was broadly available to those seeking it. "Just working at a professional level is really important, but that professionalism can happen at a hot dog cart, or it can happen at a hotel. Professionalism isn't about how fancy it is, it's about the integrity that's put into the individual product," he said. "It's about finding a good mentor and keeping it simple from the beginning."

The fundamentals are learned in entry level roles like dishwasher, and culinary school isn't as necessary as being in the environment.

"Keeping it simple, and just focusing on enjoying the atmosphere, and letting everything else just come natural," Lloyd said.

Lloyd's victory on Supermarket Stakeout will air again at 1 p.m. on June 19.