5 Courses with Laura Henry-Zoubir of Dramshop Hospitality

Laura Henry-Zoubir conquered live Dungeness crab, bone marrow, and three other Food Network-selected chefs to win $10,000 on a January episode of Chopped. Now the Dramshop Hospitality culinary director is trying for another taste of culinary glory (and a $50,000 prize) in a Chopped champions competition, which is being taped this month. But as the resident problem-solver at both Church (69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston, 617.236.7600) and The Regal Beagle (308 Harvard Street, Brookline, 617.739.5151), not to mention Plymouth's new Union Fish and soon-to-open Rye Tavern, she's used to performing under pressure. "I pretty much pick up and go wherever I'm needed," Henry-Zoubir says. "I make sure I show the kids that I don't just walk around fixing things, that I can still cook them under the table any day."

What's it like switching from having lots of control in your restaurants to having no control with the Chopped "mystery baskets"? I know I can cook, so it's not that big of a deal. But when there is a lot of money on the line, you just get stressed from that. So the first week in May I'm going to have the chefs in all the restaurants make me baskets, so we can set the timer and start practicing. There is no way to practice what you're going to make; you can practice that challenge of coming up with a creative meal on the fly.

What did you learn from your first experience on the show, and how will that impact your second appearance? I learned that it is a grueling day: it's 5 a.m. up until almost midnight, if you do well. . . . Something that I did last time, which was good, was when we were in this little stew room between shots and they were encouraging us to talk with the other chefs - I don't know if they want the drama or they want one chef to psych out the other - but I very much kept to myself. I didn't want to let them get in my head, so I'm just going to go with the same plan: be myself, keep quiet, and hope for the best.

You usually cook comfort food in your restaurants. Do you try to stick to that with Chopped? That's my style; whatever I'm in the mood for or craving is the kind of food I make. . . . So when I'm put on the spot with ingredients, I go straight to thinking, "If I were the judges, what would I want to eat?"

What ingredients you would love to find in your basket on competition day?  I have some experience with Peruvian cooking from Taranta in Boston, and I feel like there are ingredients that I may not have heard of if I hadn't worked there. So it would kind of be a nice surprise to have something Peruvian. . . . There's this dried corn called cancha corn . . . I don't know if anyone else would know what to do with it. But I definitely think my weakness is eel or the stinky smelts or anchovies. To have that in my basket, I'll be like, "Oh, crap! I hope this tastes good!"

How are local culinary competitions different from Chopped? It's just really light-hearted; it's a good time. It's not for the title necessarily, but more just to have people enjoy what we make and get to see everybody because we all work so much. Everybody's there; they get to try everything we make and get to know the chefs. I think that's where this industry is going, where the chef no longer hides in the kitchen. The diners want to know who's cooking their dinner.