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utmost ,” she says . “ If you made a mistake , you felt it . Iwas one of the only females in the line at that time , but I wanted to be where the action was .” She also found that coming in before her shift started allowed her to roll rice paper tuna rolls next to �ongerichten himself .
“ No one said �Come in early ,’” she says . “ My parents instilled that work ethic in me and my two brothers .” After �ong , Freitag moved to �erbena , whose menu was focused on Mediterranean cuisine . While working with its chef , �iane Forley , she started focusing on using local , organic ingredients , often from nearby �nion Square Greenmarket .
“ After Alice Waters ( owner of in�uential farm-to-table restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley ), you had to be part of the seasonal trends ,” says Freitag . “ Seasonal food will taste better . We got on nature ’ s calendar .”
To learn more about using fresh ingredients , Freitag traveled to Paris for a two-week internship with chef Alain Passard at his Michelin-starred restaurant , Arpege .
“ What Isaw in that kitchen was a walk-in fridge where you could store everything , and it would be empty at the end of the day except for golden butter ,” she recalls . “ That never happens here unless the fridge breaks .”
Every morning , she says , farmers brought fresh produce , fishermen offered fish , and butchers came with meat . “ Everything was fresh every day ,” says Freitag . “ The menu was created by what walked in the door — literally , in the case of frog legs .”
She also traveled around Italy , from Trieste in the northeast to Sicily in the south , and picked up skills there .
“ I grew up a red sauce Italian New �ersey girl ,” she says . “ I love it . I ’ m not putting it down . But everything was so different from what I ’ d seen before . Now making pasta is one of my favorite things . Sheeting dough into strands like fabric is therapeutic .”
For 6or�years , Freitag says , she worked in Italian restaurants in New York . Her next move was to The Harrison , whose owner , �immy Bradley , shared her grounding in Italian food prepared with French techniques .
UNDER PRESSURE AT THE TOP OF HER GAME
It was not long after her �ron Chef appearance — commenters during the show pronounced her “ a chatty challenger ” and “ a chef to be reckoned with ”— that �inda �ee , creator of Choppe� , visited her at The Harrison and asked if she ’ dbe interested in appearing on her new show . Freitag watched the Choppe� pilot ona��� with her parents in Cedar Grove .
“ I was inthe original core group of judges ,” she says .“ Nobody knew how successful it was going to be . It ’ s a juggernaut , part of pop culture .” Food Network likes having her on , she says , because “ Icould cook and talk and have fun on camera and smile .”
The sunniness , self-assurance and love of competition that she projects has made Freitag arepeat judge and contender . She made it to the Final Four in the Next �ron Chef , and came in second to chef Alex Guarnaschelli in The Next �ron Chef� Re�emption . She has also appeared
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