Marblehead Chef Heads To 'Chopped' Grand Finale On Food Network

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Making the most of pork floss, grapefruit, a pizza cookie cake and wormwood liqueur was Alex Pineda's recipe for success as The Landing of Marblehead chef won his preliminary round of "Chopped: Alton Brown's Maniacal Baskets" that aired on the Food Network Tuesday night.

Pineda outlasted three challengers in preparing dishes using an eclectic mix of ingredients that ranged from the unusual to the untenable for the chefs.

Pineda will compete for the $25,000 grand prize in the "Maniacal Baskets" grand finale scheduled to air next Tuesday at 9 p.m.

"It's far from over," Pineda said. "But I'm excited to continue.

"Alton's baskets are very difficult. But I'm ready to take over that win."

Pineda turned the "dessert" ingredients into a "pizza cookie crumble with bacon ice cream and grapefruit and wormwood sabayon."

One of the judges described the pork floss as "cotton candy-flavored pork" with the wormwood liqueur termed "as bitter as any Chicago winter with a flavor I can only describe as vile."

Despite expressing some doubt about his final dish prior to the presentation to the judges, Pineda was declared the night's winner.

During the episode, Pineda also made waffles with fried haggis surf and turf, as well as bitter melon and fermented banana peel risotto.

The Landing held a live viewing of the episode at the restaurant.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)