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NEW ORLEANS – If you had told Chef Michael Gulotta three years ago that he would be on “Iron Chef,” he would’ve laughed.

“It’s all happened so fast,” he recalls.

Gulotta owns two restaurants, the highly popular MOPHO restaurant and the newly opened Maypop restaurant.

“I mean, we literally decided to open up a pho shop in a strip mall in Mid-City, New Orleans,” he says with a laugh.

 

Gulotta has French, Italian and German training. The first season of the hit show “Iron Chef” premiered when he was studying in culinary school at Nichols State in Thibodaux.

“I never thought I could get a job cooking, and then suddenly I was the chef at Restaurant August. I never thought I could run a five-star restaurant, and then suddenly I was the chef de cuisine, and then I never thought I’d have my own restaurant, and all of a sudden I did,” says the humble chef.

Then, Food Network called.

Gulotta stands in his own spotlight now, among seven other chefs competing in the most esteemed stadium kitchen.

Tune in April 16 to catch Gulotta on Food Network, or pop in to his CBD restaurant, Maypop, where he will most likely be in the kitchen.