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Josh Cooper stirs butter as he works on making a sugar cream pie creation during the filming of World Food Championships, at Ivy Tech Community College, Indianapolis, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. This final round of the weekend’s competition pits three cooks in a sugar cream pie contest.  (Photo: Robert Scheer/The Indianapolis Star)

World Seafood Champion, Josh Cooper recently competed in the World Food Championships (WFC) final culinary gauntlet in Indianapolis, Indiana, where nine other champions navigated three cooking challenges in their quest to earn the biggest title in Food Sport, along with a $100,000 grand prize.

Now, for the first time, foodies across the nation will be able to watch the intense, tournament-style elimination process –– known as “Final Table: Indy” –– unfold as The Cooking Channel reveals who the $100,000 winner is on Oct. 3 at 1 p.m. 

The one-hour docu-series highlights the competitors’ Food Sport journey and captures the intensity of the multi-day competition as the aspiring chefs face-off in Indiana-specific challenges.

The 10 competitors won their spot to compete at the “Final Table: Indy” event by emerging from WFC’s 2019 Main Event, where they beat out almost 500 teams to become the Champion of their category. Not only did they obtain a new culinary title to add to their repertoire, each Champion also won a $10,000 grand prize. In August, they reconvened at Indy’s Ivy Tech Culinary Center to battle three more times, only this time there was a lot more money up for grabs.

The Category Champions who competed in the “Final Table: Indy” were:

  • Lidia Hadaddian, two-time Category Champion (2019 Recipe, 2018 Chicken) from Pasadena, California
  • Jodi Taffel, 2019 Bacon World Champion from Altadena, California
  • Matthew Statham, 2019 World Chef Champion from Fultondale, Alabama
  • Morgan Cheek, 2019 World Burger Champion from Muscle Shoals, Alabama
  • Ryan Hegland, 2019 World Steak Champion from Lakeville, Minnesota
  •  Josh Cooper, 2019 World Seafood Champion from Tallahassee, Florida
  • Kelli Fairchild-Cochran, two-time Sandwich Champion (2019, 2014) from Merced, California
  • Evette Rahman, two-time Dessert Champion (2019, 2016) from Orlando, Florida
  • Rocky Julianelle, 2019 World Open Chili Champion from East Haven, Connecticut
  • Ryan Murphy, 2019 World Barbecue Champion from Kansas City, Missouri

Before Cooper’s debut at the “Final Table: Indy,” he competed in Food Sport for 13 years winning almost $54,000 in prizes. When asked what he would do with the $100,000 grand prize, Cooper said he would repay expenses from all of the cooking competitions he has traveled to recently as well as donating some of it to charity.

Find out who came out on top when the show airs in its entirety on Oct. 3 at 1 p.m. on The Cooking Channel. 

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