Kaleena Bliss Just Keeps On Winning

Hailing from Washington State, chef Kaleena Bliss has had cookery on her mind since she was a toddler. “My first word when I was 2 was ‘eat,’” she told Food Network Obsessed. “I was the weird kid who was playing with plastic food instead of Barbies.” Kaleena turned in her play spatula for a real one by age 16 and was named to the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list less than 20 years later. She made her debut on the cooking competition scene in Chopped's "Casino Royale" tournament, winning $40,000 and earning the coveted blade. Kaleena went on to win Beachside Brawl Season 1, beat Bobby Flay with her seafood boil and take two turns at Tournament of Champions. She accomplished all this while serving as the executive chef at Thompson Seattle, then in the same role at the Chicago Athletic Association.

For Kaleena's second time as part of Guy Fieri's bracket, she was ready to finish what she started in Tournament of Champions Season 6. She had the advantage of competing before and experiencing the process — for better or worse. “The randomizer is real, and it’s cruel,” Kaleena told Food Network Obsessed.

Kaleena's first match was against Adam Sobel and consisted of ground lamb and cucumber, required the use of a food processor and a layered presentation. She decided on crispy ground lamb dumplings, which made judge Scott Conant say, “There are a lot of happy flavors here.” She beat Adam 79 to 77, but sadly lost to Kenny Gilbert in the second round of the competition.

For Kaleena, getting the call to join the big leagues — Tournament of Champions — was one she welcomed. “I was a fan of the show before I was a competitor on the show,” she told Food Network Obsessed. “I’m still a fan of the show.” Her first match was against Chris Cosentino, who she beat by only two points to move on to the next round.

She was then ready to take on Shota Nakajima with her weeknight dinner dish that needed to incorporate salamander, Cornish game hen and flowering cauliflower. Her grilled Cornish game hen with kimchi cauliflower and roasted cauliflower had judge Scott Conant saying, “I want to go to their house for a weeknight dinner. This is just easy to love.”

Unfortunately, she lost to Britt Rescigno in the quarterfinals, but neither her nerves nor loss would deter her from competing again. “Once the timer starts, like in every competition, I’m not even kidding, I black out,” Kaleena told Food Network Obsessed.

As part of Brooke Williamson's West Coast team — along with Brian Madayag, Josh Mouzakes and Jessica Roy — Kaleena came to give her all in search of the Best of the Beach title on Beachside Brawl Season 1. Over six weeks, she did just that, making it to the final challenge against East Coast chef Ed Lordman. Her destination dinner, which required her to use lemongrass and macadamia nuts in all three courses, wowed judges Antonia Lofaso (the show's host), team captain Brooke and East Coast team captain Tiffani Faison, earning her Beachside Brawl's first-ever win. Her first turn on Food Network seems to have gotten her hooked on competing. “I love it,” she told Food Network Obsessed. “It’s a different kind of sport, cooking, and it’s a different level of adrenaline that you can’t get from working on the line, at least not for me.”

Kaleena might have knocked out her competition on Beachside Brawl, but she was ready to prove herself against Bobby Flay on his own stage. Before she got a chance at Bobby, she had to beat chef Melissa Donahue. Assigned dandelion greens as the required ingredient, Kaleena made spaghetti with creamy dandelion green pesto. “It’s delicious," judge Sunny Anderson said, "but I think you might have hid the dandelion green too much.”

Her interpretation still earned her entrance into the next round and a shot at Bobby. For the second round, Kaleena chose a seafood boil as her meal of choice and decided to shy away from the typical Cajun style and add some “Asian-y elements.” Of picking a dish and committing to it, she told Food Network Obsessed, “Part of being successful is you just have to pick something and you have to commit, you have to make it the best.”

Kaleena’s seafood boil, served messy and family-style, had the judges raving the second it hit their plates. Chefs Valentine Thomas (who’s also a spearfishing expert), Jeremy Salamon and Skai Young sang her praises, with Jeremy calling it “certainly a party on a plate.” After being named the winner, Valentine said Kaleena’s was “such a fantastic seafood boil, it’s actually one of the best I’ve ever had … Please come to my house, come fishing with me.”

In early 2022, Kaleena was invited to participate in Chopped’s Casino Royale tournament. She told Food Network Obsessed of that moment: “I didn’t think that I ever would, to be honest. I remember when I first got pinged for potentially being on Chopped and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, it’ll never actually happen, but I’m just curious to see what the interview process is like.’”

She went up against three chefs to make her best appetizer, entree and dessert to earn a spot in the finale, all judged by Scott Conant, Tiffani Faison and Christian Petroni. Kaleena survived each elimination and was crowned the first battle’s winner, leaving her a chance to win it all — the title and $40,000 — against Nichole Armstead, Grace Goudie and Zoe Schor.

After one turn in the Chopped arena, Kaleena was prepared to handle whatever the mystery baskets gave her to work with. She breezed through the appetizer and entree rounds, but was dealt a possibly bad hand in the dessert round: required use of chocolate casino chips, guava, pickled pork skin and habanero hot sauce. Luckily, she and Zoe opted to swap the pork skin, and Kaleena rolled for cape gooseberries and won. Her final finale dish impressed judges Amanda Freitag, Tiffani Faison and Christian Peroni, gaining her the dough and the Casino Royale crown.

Kaleena made her way back to the Chopped kitchen to compete in the “Grand Champs’ Holiday Hurrah” alongside fellow winners Christina Coupet, Melvin “Boots” Johnson and Annisha Marccel. With a holiday-themed ingredient included in each mystery basket, she made it all the way to the dessert round before losing to Annisha’s creation featuring frozen fruitcake salad and gingerbread cookie dough.