Claudette Zepeda’s 'Triple Threat' Victory Kicked Off an Epic Winning Streak

“With age comes wisdom.” This Oscar Wilde quote certainly rings true for chef and culinary anthropologist Claudette Zepeda. And for Claudette, with age comes winning, too.

On her 42nd birthday, the Mexico-born, San Diego-based Food Network star sat down with Food Network Obsessed host Jaymee Sire to reflect on how she’s grown in the two-and-a-half years since they last spoke. “My 40s have been my favorite era. With all of my chest, I can say that I’ve never been more comfortable with myself — with my creativ[ity] … with my ‘weird,’” Claudette reflected.

Embracing her true self is certainly paying off. In the last two years alone, she’s been racking up the victories.

In May 2025, Claudette came in second to Shirley Chung on House of Knives. This May, her Encinitas, California, restaurant Leu Leu was celebrated by Resy as one of the 100 restaurants that define American dining. In June, Claudette released her cookbook Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States (Clarkson Potter). And this August, she took home $50,000 and a supersize trophy as the champion of the inaugural Guy’s Grocery Games Global Games tournament.

If you ask us, Claudette’s hot streak began the day she first stepped foot into the kitchen. (Did you know she started as a pastry chef at an Italian restaurant in La Jolla?) However, in the culinary competition world, we’d wager that her 2022 victory on Season 1 of Bobby’s Triple Threat was the triumph that helped launch her on this incredible upswing. In honor of that, ahead, we’re reminiscing about the delicious dishes that earned Claudette $25,000 and a lifetime membership to Club 3.

“I'd like to think that I'm as good as these Titans, and I'm here to prove it,” Claudette told Bobby before he kicked off the competition. “It's incredibly easy to doubt yourself. Being here means a lot more than the money.”

Claudette confessed that she entered the club with a lot of nerves — and also a lot of determination. Her mood immediately brightened when Bobby revealed the two secret ingredients Claudette and her Titan of choice would have to champion in the first round: pineapple and chipotle peppers.

“I know at least 10 things right away that I could do with them,” Claudette noted. She could narrow things down to two, though, since she and her chosen Titan — Tiffany Derry — had 40 minutes to whip up two different dishes each for the judge, Iron Chef Marc Forgione.

Marc found Claudette’s Pineapple and Chipotle Aguachile With Red Snapper flavorful, albeit a bit too fiery.

Still, her Oyster Mushroom al Pastor Taco With Pineapple and Chipotle Adobo Sauce was a smash hit, save for the mushroom stems he could have done without. Due to Tiffany’s overly rare steak, the competitors tied at six points each.

Claudette didn’t hesitate with her Titan selection when Bobby unveiled the ingredients for round two: duck and oranges. “Michael's style is extremely different from my own, and I think that could work to my advantage,” she said.

With the battle set, Michael Voltaggio and Claudette ran to their respective kitchens to make the most of their 40 minutes with these ingredients that remind Bobby of one quintessential French dish: “The first thing you think of is duck a l'orange. But there are so many different ways to go here.”

Inspired by her grandma’s arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), Claudette crafted a dish she called “Arroz con Pato,” or Duck With Ginger-Garlic Rice and Tomato-Orange Sauce. Marc declared this “fun to eat.”

Then, to tip her cap to the large Chinese population in her native Tijuana, Claudette added a Tijuana-Style Chinese Duck Salad With Sesame-Orange Dressing to her spread. It’s a “smart dish, and the duck is cooked well,” Marc flagged. (At the beginning of the round, Claudette had worried, “Properly cooked duck is one of the easiest things to get wrong.")

Michael walked away with eight points for his cassoulet and duck breast in blood orange dashi, since the dashi was a bit shy in flavor, and the pine nuts in the cassoulet were burnt. Claudette added nine points to her tally, since Marc said, “Both dishes brought me to a nostalgic place.”

The final round ushers in a matchup for the ages…

“Brooke [Williamson] is one of those women that I look up to in this industry. She's my Tom Brady. She's my G.O.A.T.,” Claudette said. As such, it was no surprise that she saved the best for last: “I wanted her for the round that I get to choose the ingredients.”

With 45 minutes on the clock, double the points in play and just one dish required of each chef, Claudette unveiled the feature ingredients: huitlacoche (an earthy, savory corn fungus) and fresh corn masa.

Brooke conceded that she had far less experience with these items, so she decided to add them to a dish she is familiar with, fried fish. Her spice-dusted Fried Snapper With Huitlacoche Sauce and Masa Dumplings was deep in flavor, yet the whole dish was overloaded in greens.

Claudette’s Chileatole Soup With Huitlacoche Salad and Masa Dumplings was “elegant, savory and homey,” according to Marc. The close final round “is going to make my job hard,” the judge admitted.

For the final cook, Marc awarded Brooke 16 points, and Claudette scored 18. That means the fearless challenger topped the Titans by three.

“Most of the chefs that come into this kitchen are walking into our world. Today, Claudette forced us to walk into her world as well,” Michael said, while Claudette realized she had just acquired $25,000 and some serious bragging rights. “This one hurts,” he added, as Tiffany and Brooke looked down in regret.

“To have cooked a little piece of Mexico for you at the end … that was really special,” Claudette said, as she grabbed her cash, added her name to a permanent locker in Club 3 and shared a round of mezcal shots with Bobby, Brooke, Tiffany and Michael.

“This one is for little Claudette. This one is for my mom. This one is for my grandmother. This one is for my kids,” Claudette said, reflecting on her win.

“Drinks on me,” Claudette cheered, inspiring Bobby to joke, “Make it a triple!”