Arts & Entertainment

"Top Chef" Contestant Started Cooking in Dana Point

Justin Devillier got his start at Jack's Restaurant in Dana Point working the pizza station.

Justin Devillier has come a long way since growing up with his single mother off Strand Beach in Dana Point.

The boy who got his culinary start at the pizza station at Jack's Restaurant, 24462 Del Prado, now has a shot at becoming "Top Chef" on the Bravo reality game show of the same name. And he could win a $125,000 prize.

  • Channel: Bravo (Channel 55 for Cox cable subscribers)
  • When: New episodes premier Wednesday nights at 10 p.m.
Devillier left California in 2003 to get a feel for New Orleans-style cuisine. He skipped culinary school, saying he preferred to learn on the job.

“I kind of view cooking as more of a craft, like being a carpenter or a mechanic, where you need to put the time in on the job,” he told the Orange County Register.

In 2010, Devillier bought La Petite Grocery, where he had worked as executive chef. He is now married with two daughters.

Although his season of "Top Chef" has already been taped, he hasn't told anyone the results—not even his mother, Maryann Devillier told the Register.


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