Wednesday, June 14, 2017
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
BOARDMAN
Mark Canzonetta, a chef and co-owner of Aqua Pazzo restaurant in Boardman, will compete on the Food Network reality show, “Guy’s Grocery Games,” on Sunday.
The episode will have a special Father’s Day angle: Fathers and one of their children will compete as teams. Canzonetta’s daughter, Gina Canzonetta, 27, of Florida, will be one of those teams, squaring off against two others for a possible prize of up to $20,000.
Gina, a 2008 Howland High School graduate, works at On Swann Restaurant in Tampa, Fla., and is a skilled cook.
A watch party will take place Sunday at Aqua Pazzo, 492 McClurg Road, at which Canzonetta will serve some of the food items he made on the episode. Due to a non-disclosure agreement with the show, he’s not allowed to say in advance what those foods are.
The public is welcome to attend the watch party; doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the episode begins at 8 p.m. Admission is free, and a cash bar will be available.
For years, Canzonetta has worked for celebrity chef Guy Fieri, who is the host of “Guy’s Grocery Games,” and played a key role in developing his line of sauces.
“I was part of the design team for [Fieri’s] barbeque sauce, wing sauce, pasta sauce,” said Canzonetta. “He gave us the flavor profiles and we designed the recipes. We came up with ideas, and got them nailed down through a testing process and making a lot of trips to his house in California.”
Canzonetta, of Warren, was one of two chefs in Fieri’s culinary department. “I was based at home, but I traveled throughout the country to open restaurants, work on his cookbooks and develop recipes,” he said. “We had a lot of projects.”
Fieri has close to 50 restaurants nationwide.
All of Fieri’s sauces and specialty retail food products are made by Summer Garden Food Manufacturing, which is next to Aqua Pazzo restaurant. Tom Zidian, CEO of Summer Garden, is a partner in Aqua Pazzo.
Each episode of “Guy’s Grocery Games” features four chefs competing in a three-round elimination contest, cooking food with ingredients found in a supermarket grocery store as Fieri poses unusual challenges.
Sunday’s special Father’s Day episode will feature just three dads and their kids, who will pit their family recipes against each other for a shot at the prize, according to the show’s website.
First, they must make their greatest grilled dinner using processed ingredients. Then, the teams will enjoy a round of bowling that will determine the ingredients they’ll have to use for their “game day” favorites.