In the competiton, the four chefs were each given $25,000 to spend at auction on items to help themselves or sabotage their competitors.
After each cooking challenge was announced, the chefs were given 60 seconds to gather ingredients from the pantry, then regroup for the auction. They bid on culinary curveballs such as forbidding an opponent to taste his or her own dish as it cooked or forcing an opponent to use strange ingredients.
A chef was eliminated after each of the three rounds, and Palmieri was the last chef standing.
On this episode, Palmieri had to make spaghetti and meatballs without using pasta or meat; create two dishes using chicken wings, ginger snaps and pickles; and make doughnuts using rock candy instead of sugar.
Palmieri is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and formerly worked at top New York restaurants, including Windows on the World with Michael Lomonaco, TOWN with Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian and Coco Pazzo with Pino Luongo.
The Orange Squirrel opened five years ago, and has consistently been praised by New Jersey Monthly and the New York Times.
The Orange Squirrel
412 Bloomfield Ave
Bloomfield
973-337-6421