‘Wildcard Kitchen’ Host Eric Adjepong Dishes on Season 2 Drama & What Next

The table has been set for another high stakes season of Wildcard Kitchen. Hosted by Eric Adjepong, the Food Network’s culinary poker game returns with all-star chefs putting their money where their mouth is, to the tune of $5,000. On the line, a big pot of cash and bragging rights. They’ll need to have the game face on in this unique cooking competition in order to win. 

Adjepong welcomes his fellow foodie personalities to this test kitchen with an after hours vibe for three hands of underground poker. The dealer draws cards, which ultimately determines dishes. The Top Chef alum also throws in some unexpected challenges into the game. 

Episodes include legends Alex Guarnaschelli, Rocco DiSpirito and Andrew Zimmern, as well as culinary titans Michael Symon, Esther Choi and Marcel Vigneron. There is also a battle of the James Beard-award winners Karen Akunowicz, Stephanie Izard and Jonathan Sawyer. The tables turn for Chopped judges Tiffani Faison, Amanda Freitag and Geoffrey Zakarian. Other combos to come feature Tiffany Derry, Mei Lin and Brian Malarkey; comfort food connoisseurs Eddie Jackson, Damaris Phillips and Molly Yeh; frenemies Carlos Anthony, Kelsey Bernard Clark and Crista Luedtk and restaurant queens Antonia Lofaso, Ayesha Nurdjaja and Claudette Zepeda. 

Here Adjepong gives us the breakdown of Season 2. 

Eric Adjepong – Inside Man (Dir. Kwame Blue)

You never know how a show is going to do with a new concept. How do you reflect on that first season? 

Eric Adjepong: People going into the unknown. I think it was kind of a new secret so to speak for that first season. Probably, the best kept secret. Then it aired, I got a lot of great feedback from the folks that watched and the chefs circulating through the Food Network. It was really humbling to understand and know people like the concept. That was really cool. Now that Season 2 is here, everyone wants to come. It’s awesome and gratifying to know the concept stuck and people like it. People came in super amped to cook and win money as well. That was probably the best talking point as well. The bragging rights. Also, you get to take your friend’s money, and it’s real. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going. 

What were some of the changes you made based on feedback? 

One thing we picked up from folks watching it and also some of the chef feedback, is getting into the cooking a bit faster. Even though, there were two gameplays happening. Obviously, the one at the table and also when chefs are cooking. What we did is eliminate the time round, time card. 

We started issuing communal times. The first round is 20 minutes, second is 30 and thereafter. That ended up being a great addition by subtraction. We made sure we got into the cook and meat of the cards faster. People want to see the ingredients a bit more. People want to highlight the wild card a bit more. The style of the dish was the focal point. So having the time card eliminated kept the game speed faster kind of like the pitch clock in baseball. That was a good addition to the show. 

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Jet Tila and siblings Michael and Bryan Voltaggio started things off in a big way during the premiere. 

I thought it was a great start to the season. Jet is a seasoned competitor and familiar face on the network. The Vegas theme and the cards were perfect. It all played into everyone’s world and made sense. It was a lot of fun. I think people liked it. I loved it. The concept of having brothers brings brotherly rivalry. Jet knowing the brothers for so long as well. It’s all in the family. There is the interpersonal gameplay and bluffing and peer-pressuring,  in addition to playing a hard game and having to cook. 

It’s a three-level thing. That really set the tone for the rest of the season. People are going to be pushing each other because they know each other. I think casting helps with that as well. You really feel like a fly on the wall and in the room with your favorite chefs. That’s what we provided. 

When you say pushing, it’s not physically pushing right? We want to just put that out there. Unless things get so heated that security was needed? 

[Laughs] No, no, but when money is on the line you never know. With the brothers, we let them fight it out themselves. But no security was called. Everyone behaved at least this season. It did get rowdy, especially during the second round when you get an idea what the playing field is and how it might pan out. People get really serious. After the first cook, you realize you can either lose all your money or gain all of it, then it gets serious. You see the competitive nature come out more. 

With returning faces, do you feel they were at an advantage more? 

Absolute. When you’ve done something before, there is an advantage. You know the kitchen a little more, so you’re not running around looking for spices or ingredients. Then the gameplay even though the cards come out random and no sequence, there is a little strategy with the gameplay and how much you bet and maybe get in the first round and last round. That can help someone who has done it before. 

What can you tease about this “Top Secret” Wildcard episode? 

We did one episode where there were three winners. They all came back. Three people who all won a season ago and came back. We had three winners that went against each other. That to me was really cool. Just seeing the competitive nature heightened rather than three people coming in blindly and not really knowing and having to explain the game rather than three chefs who know the deal. It’s another level of competition and intensity. 

If you were to set up a table for this game yourself, who would you want to compete against? 

Chris Oh from Cali is probably the best trash talker. Tiffani Faison too, so it would be a table full of trash talkers. I’d probably say Brian Malarkey or Michale Filagio. Those chefs talk a good game. Honestly, that gives you an advantage when you can get in someone’s head and push them out of their comfort zone by just their words. The peer pressure alone, those chefs are good at that. It makes for one hilarious episode and great competition because you have to put your money where your mouth is. It’s not just about talking but cooking. That’s what’s great about  this show. 

It’s amazing to see how you’ve grown your career after Top Chef with cookbooks, TV shows and other opportunities. You have really made the most of that platform. 

I’m a massive Top Chef fan. I’ve always been. I say to this day it is one the best cooking competitions, if not the best cooking competitions that I’ve seen and grew up watching. I love the additions they’ve added to it. It’s a historic show. I was happy to be part of that fraternity. I support it as much as I can because I understand what it’s like to be in that position. Someone who is coming in and you want to really stake your claim so to speak. To see what chefs do with that platform is really cool. 

You did an episode of Selen Gomez’s cooking show Selena + Chef. How is it for you to see celebs in this space? 

We all cook and have to eat every day. You appreciate food, so it’s nice to see different worlds blend. To think of a star like Selena doing her thing is really cool. I even applaud home cooks, celebrities or just regular people who embrace the world of cooking. There is always something new to learn. Seeing someone like Selena or any other celebrity like Stanley Tucci get into the food space makes a lot of sense and brings synergy and different platforms to talk about their world and our world and how they combine and collide. 

Along with the show, 2025 is a big year in that you’re opening your first restaurant Elmina. Congrats on that! 

Yes sir. Opening a restaurant in Washington D.C. We open in two weeks on January 23. We’re super excited to feed the folks here in D.C. and beyond. It’s a special week with the presidential inauguration happening. It’s a moment that every state in the nation will be in our small district and representing. I think it’s an opportunity to build word-of-mouth in a way that could probably not happen in any other fashion, so looking forward to that. Ghana food from West Africa and shouting out the greater diaspora as well. You’ll see things from North Africa, South Africa, East and the Caribbean islands. There is a focus on Ghana, where myself and folks are from. I’m just so proud. It’s a project that has been on my mind quite literally since eight or nine-year-old. So to see it come from fruition is a pretty surreal moment. 

Wildcard Kitchen, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Food Network