Lakelands resident Gregory Webb, the executive chef at Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar in Downtown Crown, recently went head-to-head with master chef Bobby Flay on the Food Network show “Beat Bobby Flay.” A call from one of the show’s producers set all of the ingredients in motion for Webb to apply, be interviewed, and ultimately be selected for the episode titled “Do or Die.”

“They said that they have talent scouts out all the time and my name had been kicked around for a season or two so they reached out,” said Webb. The lengthy application process, with the risk of elimination at every round, began with an application that took him four hours to complete. Next came a Skype interview and then the request for eight signature dishes to be considered for the competition. “That’s a very difficult process for a working chef. You have to give photos and recipes that have been tested and done for six people down to the details, and you need to have executed each of them under a timed scenario to be sure you can do it.”

A pre-production, on-location interview in Gaithersburg, with camera shots of Webb’s family and working shots in Paladar’s kitchen, consumed half a day for the resulting 20-second final cut of his background information that aired. When time for taping came, Webb arrived at the studio in New York at 5 a.m. Filming, that concluded at 5 p.m., began at 7 a.m. with pre- and post-interviews for the clips inserted into the episode along with the timed cooking challenge. “You know, the actual time when you’re in the kitchen has to be the time shown on television. … Those clocks are real. You don’t get to get into the kitchen until 15 minutes before you start cooking. You don’t get to know where the meat is or the vegetables are … that’s all real,” noted Webb.

The show hailed him as “Tex-Mex master Gregory Webb who has made a great name for himself in five U.S. cities and Mexico.” His opponent, Peter Morris, was introduced as “one of New Jersey’s best new chefs.” Morris recently won top chef of New Jersey. Webb said, “I’m thinking to myself, why did you give me this guy?”

“The premise of the show is, you want to compete against Bobby Flay with your signature dish, but there are two of you, and Bobby says you have to compete against each other to get to me and I’m going to name an item that you need to make the centerpiece of your dish.” Pomegranate seeds were Flay’s item of choice. Morris and Webb had two minutes to envision a dish incorporating the seeds and 20 minutes to execute it for judging by chefs Scott Conant and Geoffrey Zakarian. “I have very limited experience with pomegranates,” said Webb. All went well for him in round one. He beat Morris and was selected to compete against Flay in round two with his signature dish.

Webb’s Chiles Rellenos de Tinga a Pollo was chosen by the show. Conant, watching Webb’s skilled preparation, said, “He’s cooking like a native over there.” Webb spent the past 15 years studying authentic interior Mexican cuisine that features slow cooking and braising as opposed to “cocina de la frontera” or border cuisine.

Flay self-critiqued, “Mine is a little bit of a modern spin on the classic … a more contemporary, southwestern version.”

Webb maintained a confident repartee when questioned about his preparation techniques as he held his own in the almost manic, beat-the-clock pace of the set. Three food expert judges blind taste-tested the Webb and Flay versions of the dish. Webb said, “By split decision, Bobby won. It was very close. I thought I won the whole time, I really did … a lot of people did actually. If you look at the two dishes, his is extremely simple and very minimalist, and he got criticized for it by the judges. I was doing a full, traditional meal.”

Webb said a highlight for him was having time to talk with Flay after the judging and gain insight from him. “Talking with a guy who’s really the face of Food Network and how he approaches the whole thing was a good education for me.” A number of years ago, he worked with Flay for one week at Mesa Grill in New York City. “He didn’t remember me,” laughed Webb. “Bobby has a real TV personality but you know, people forget, he’s a master chef and he’s no joke. He’s really a personable, normal, hard-driven guy, and so I asked him, do you have like some system or technique or a program that you use to get yourself ready for these things, and he goes, ‘Chef, all I’m trying to do is finish the dish.’ I asked him, are you nervous? ‘Oh, God yes. I never know if I’m going to do it.’” Webb said Flay added, “I have techniques, if you watch, and I use them really regularly, and I stick to those techniques because I know they work and I try not to step out of it.”

Webb, who trained in 50 kitchens, said he developed his skills by the “old school technique” of chasing down the best chefs in the cities where he worked. He credits chef Robert Neroni as one of his early mentors who told him he was “really raw and needed to be exposed to better cooking and better chefs.” Neroni wrote a letter of introduction for him with a list of top chefs to contact. Webb said, “I traveled the country working for those chefs. The term ‘self-taught’ is not true … you learn from others and that’s what I did. For a long time, the expression has been, get into the best kitchen that you can and when you stop learning, leave.”

Learning and teaching are a large part of Webb’s day. He said he enjoys instructing his cooks and “providing them with a livelihood by giving them better techniques and improving what they do. Being a chef is being a teacher. The greatest satisfaction for me is taking a dishwasher and seeing him turn into a chef. I’ve done that many, many times in my career and it’s great fun to do that.”

Webb’s inspiration came from his mother who he said was a tremendous home chef who had a love for good food from scratch. “You know, with the family table … I learned after 30 years in the kitchen that what drives me is that gratification … that doing something nice for somebody else. Eating is about shared experience, giving, providing pleasure, obtaining satisfaction … and I can bring that to people and I still get a big charge out of it. I found my expression in cooking. … It’s a good place for me to be, it’s very hands on, it’s very physical, and it’s got a lot of artistry.” He mused that on the day before his day off, his refrigerator miraculously becomes filled (by his wife) with all of the raw material needed for numerous preparations. “So, every day on my day off, I just cook everything in the frig.”

Paladar celebrated its one-year anniversary on Sept. 30 with an outdoor event featuring a deejay, rum punch, and Webb grilling sample menu items on little skewers. He said, “For the first time in this area you can do sort of a D.C. quality restaurant without having to go to Bethesda. The Gaithersburg scene is really picking up, and we’re right in the center of it. It’s vibrant and exciting with lots of variety.”

Webb moved to Lakelands from New York City six years ago. “We came down from Manhattan just after our first child was born and we just love it down here. … We found a home for life.” For more information, visit www.thejourneymanchef.com.