Antonia Lofaso Talks Spying on Restaurants & Serving Up Tough Love

Antonia Lofaso knows what it takes to run a successful business as a restaurateur. This makes the chef more than qualified to help failing businesses turn things around on Food Network’s new series Kitchen Undercover. The Season 6 of Tournament of Champions winner observes activity from a secret command center while partner in crime, sous-chef Nestor Milian takes on another identity in the field to identify the issues within an establishment. 

In the spirit of Gordon Ramsay, Lofaso then heads in to deliver some tough love to try to rescue these restaurants and turn business fortunes around. Lofaso pulls from all her experience within business to probable tragedy into triumph. Here the no-nonsense personality sets the table for what viewers can expect from the show. 

What were your thoughts about this concept?  

Antonia Lofaso: I was wildly excited for a couple different reasons. Number one was you know I have been cooking professionally for almost three decades now, and that terrifies me and excites me all at the same time. Even before that like my entire family has always been in the restaurant industry. I eat, sleep, and breathe it. I have had restaurants open. I’ve had restaurants close. I’ve been wildly successful, and I’ve also felt like I will never cook again and hide under a rock, and you’ll never hear from me again. I have collected so much information over the course of all of these decades, so something like this coming up and being able to work with these restaurants…These owners know that something is wrong. These are owners are really desperate for a fresh set of eyes to come in and say, “Please explain to me what you see, and what’s going on.” A lot of the time life is just hitting people and smacking them down. 

People have lost their passion, and they become complacent. They’ve given up a little bit, and I think having someone come in and say that x, y and z is wrong, but also this is what’s so amazing about your restaurant. Whether it’s a legacy restaurant, whether people are standing in line to get something specific, there are all these brilliant things to give them a little pat on the back as well. Like let’s not give up. This is how we fix it. Everyone come together. This is the plan. Life keeps going. There’s a real human story to this that I think everyone can very much connect with in whatever it is that you do for a living. You get so excited about and passionate about this thing. Maybe it’s a business. Maybe it’s a job, and then life starts to hit you, and it becomes a little harder. Maybe you see some success, and all of a sudden see some failure. Then do we give up or do we fix and persevere it. I’ve met all of these restaurateurs at the point of, “don’t want to give up. I want to persevere. Can you help me? 

Host Guy Fieri and winning contestant Antonia Lofaso with Hunter Fieri, Tiffani Faison, Maneet Chauhan, Brooke Williamson, Mei Lin, Simon Majumdar, and Justin Warner, as seen on Tournament of Champions, Season 6. (Food Network)

How do you kind of compare your approach and just the show in general to a Bar Rescue or Restaurant Impossible? 

There’s very little female energy in these spaces. Where you’ve seen women come in and their approach and the way that they communicate. I think that there is a little bit of a difference there. I can be as aggressive and as hard ass as you’ve ever seen. Obviously, running restaurants in Los Angeles has made me that way, but in the other part to it, is that there has to be the part where I break them down. I also bring that warmth and humility; I really think I bring to the scenarios. We’re going in not based on what sort of like producers have been told about what’s wrong and what they think needs to be fixed by the owner. This is a full actual discovery process that has been built by myself and Nestor, who is essentially kind of like my sous chef sidekick, who is going in as a real employee. 

What are some of these scenarios? 

The owner hires Nestor. He tells the story that he wants to tell his staff. Whatever that he thinks they’re going to believe. Sometimes he’s a culinary student. Sometimes trying to get his hours, sometimes he is someone who’s you know just trying to find a good prep cook job, and you know they hire you. So, I’m watching this over the course of four days. There’s background that is done on these restaurants so that I have a little bit of information before I go in, but the information and the problem is without question based on what myself and Nestor put together over four days of watching. This isn’t like a quick shoot where I kind of like run in and run out and this is what we think this is. It’s four days of information gathering myself and Nestor and then formulating a plan and really understanding what’s wrong every restaurant is different. Regardless of the mechanics of all restaurants, it was very specific to each restaurant. I think that sort of idea that you know the owner where one leaves the premises so that we can really see what’s happening with the bartenders and the host. 

It’s like as soon as mom and dad are out of the house how does everyone behave. Everyone is very much aware that there are cameras all over the restaurant and that does never matter to the staff. It’s always the funniest thing in the world, and I know this because I’ve done reality TV since 2007. We know we’re mic’d. We know there’s a camera, but then all of a sudden, we forget. We get the real honest information. That way I’m able to then go in with Nestor and formulate a plan. I want everyone to really understand how serious the situation is, and at the end of that sort of initial meet where everyone’s usually hyper defensive really upset, they’ve heard things that you know aren’t great…I always ask, “Is there anything that I’ve said here today untrue?” That usually opens up the opportunity for everyone to get something off their chest what they’ve been holding on to. This is cathartic for then where we clean and rebuild.  

What’s the turnaround time for all these? 

The whole shoot for every restaurant was like five days.

How many hours are you watching under surveillance? I picture you sitting there with your popcorn watching everything unfold. 

If you see me, you will always see me snacking on something. A lot of times the producers are like. “You are talking with food in your mouth.” I would sit in this chair, and it was actually really funny. The first episode where you’re seeing what’s working and what’s not, they got me the tiniest little stool to sit on. I was there for 11 hours, and i was like, “I need a recliner at this point you know what i mean.” I’m almost 50 years old. I need a recliner. I sat in that chair on average anywhere between eight and 11 hours. My reveal sometimes you know they’d be like, “Hey Antonia, we got to go to lunch.” I’d say, “Then we should have started this earlier.” …I was able to go in and those reveals sometimes were like six hours. I would be going through every little thing, talking to them. If they’re like, “Hey, we got to break the cameras. I’m like, “Well, I am staying in here with them to continue this conversation because the one thing I wanted every single one of these people in the restaurant to feel, whether it was a dishwasher, whether it was the executive chef. Everything that I was doing was a hundred percent. Yes, we’re filming a television show, but I am legitimately here with my years of experience to answer your questions. You know I needed a seven-month vacation after these episodes 

What was it like to see these transformations? 

This was honestly the most rewarding show I’ve ever done. The personal accolades of winning things and doing great in competitions, all of that feels amazing personally. I would see restaurateurs, and I’m like, “Oh my God, for sure, I’m going to get thrown out of this place. This company is going to kill me.” Then cut to hugging, crying, and people saying we changed everything. Now those are just the owners. I had special moments with dishwashers that all of a sudden felt like they had a new lease on life where they could continue and go and move their career even higher in the restaurant industry. The same thing with floor managers that wanted to go to to hospitality school to learn more so that they could come back and own their own businesses.

It told Nestor our intention going into these places is there, but we don’t know whose life we’re going to change. We have no idea based on what we’re saying, how we’re trying to inspire or, the feedback that we’re giving to give. We don’t know whose life we’re going to change.

It’s like you created this support group for everyone going through this experience. 

When I was a kid, I told my dad that I wanted to be a therapist. Then all of a sudden, I’m a chef, and he always jokes that I could have been a doctor. Good leaders have that ability to spend time with people and to get them to open up. Then you figure out how to problem solve. So, I feel like I’m a therapist, and that’s kind of what a lot of times felt like. 

You finally won Food Network’s Tournament of Champions last year. Do you plan to compete again on a show or leave on that high note? 

That’s the 10-million-dollar question right now. I am forever a competitor in my spirit, and I don’t think I ever want to give it on that. If Tournament of Champions they ever did like you know every winner coming back, I would never say no to something like that. But right now, I got to be like, hold on a second. That took a lot out of me, two years in a row I was in the finals. You know that kind of takes years off. It’s like I’m living dog lives now because of that show, but I have a competitive spirit. I will always say yes to a competition. It’s just in my nature. I’m an addict for that anxiety. That high-low, you know I can’t ever give it up.

Kitchen Undercover, series premiere, July 28, 9/8c, Food Network