Melissa “Missy” Corey ’06 defeated three other chefs on the Food Network show Chopped for a grand prize of $10,000, impressing the judges with her Calvados-deglazed escargot on a crispy crostini, served with a salad of Chinese longbeans, pickled jalapenos and spinach.

Corey, who’s a cook at the Portland restaurant Duckfat, competed on the episode, “Ready, Set, Escargot!,” which will air over the next week. She was the youngest competitor and only female. She told the Portland Press Herald, “I don’t think any of the guys who were against me thought that I would be the one to pull it off in the end. I think I sort of surprised them.”