Root Cellar’s Sera Cuni

Pittsboro resident to appear on Food Network program

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PITTSBORO — Root Cellar co-owner and chef Sera Cuni will make her national television debut on the Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

The show, hosted by celebrity restaurateur Guy Fieri, pits chefs from around the country in a single episode who are given a theme — and then a limited time to grab ingredients from the “warehouse market place” Fieri helped create and cultivate. The chefs then create items that are evaluated by a three judge panel.

In each of the three rounds in each episode, one chef is eliminated until a single chef participates in a shopping spree where they are given clues to different foods that they must find in the market place and place in their cart. If the contestant gets all the ingredients in time, they win $20,000.

Cuni, a Pittsboro resident, didn’t apply for the show. She said she received a Facebook message over the winter from what she described as a “random lady” asking to be friends. The woman then messaged Cuni asking whether she had interest in being on a television show.

“I thought, ‘This is a scam,’” Cuni told the News + Record. “So I gave her very specific times and hours, like between 2 and 2:30 on a Tuesday. And they called.”

The caller told Cuni representatives from the show “scour social media” for possible contestants. Cuni said she was “very skeptical” as it felt like a “rush-rush thing.” She did another interview, with the caller never saying what show they were calling from. By the evening, the producers for the show called to say she was a contestant.

“It was kinda like a whirlwind thing,” Cuni said.

The biggest struggle for Cuni as a business owner was that show producers didn’t give her an exact date for filming — and with two businesses, Root Cellar locations in Chapel Hill and Pittsboro, she had a lot to juggle. The next thing she knew, she was on a plane for San Francisco, waiting for a car to take her to the studios.

The contestants were picked up early and taken to a trailer where producers reviewed rules and decided which of the seven different outfits they would wear on the show. Cuni said she spent a lot of time with the other contestants, fellow chefs from other areas of the country.

“I know it’s a competition, but we were all cheering for each other too,” Cuni said. “I feel like we really all lifted each other up.”

And then there’s Guy

Cuni said Fieri gave the chef contestants a pep talk before the day began. Cuni said Fieri knew little pieces about each of the contestants.

“I’m going to remember that forever,” Cuni said. “He said to us, ‘You’ve already won if you’re here, because we think you’re somebody.’ He really cares.”

Cuni also raved about the market place the show created in a warehouse saying it contained “everything you could want” and the “most interesting things” that don’t appear in a typical grocery store. “The produce section,” she said, “was beyond amazing.”

The Root Cellar during COVID

Back at home, Cuni returned to The Root Cellar before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the region, causing shut-downs. She said she started seeing things slow in Pittsboro, so she and her wife and co-owner, Susan White, decided to close that store first, then the Chapel Hill store. But they continued doing “family meals,” where customers can order five nights of meals for two, including salads. And they continued doing Friday night take-out where Cuni makes up a menu for the evening. Her staff distributes the meals at the Chapel Hill store, the Pittsboro store and in Briar Chapel.

“We knew it was helping people, too, because they were having a hard time finding things at the grocery store and they were afraid,” Cuni said. “But the hardest part was telling our staff, many of whom were with me when I started 15 years ago. These are my family. We’re working on hopefully being able to bring them back, but with take out and only having 50% capacity, it’s hard to bring back 30 employees.”

Throughout COVID, Cuni has stayed in touch with her fellow contestants.

“We’ve all had our ups and downs through the coronavirus,” she said. “It’s good to get their view. We were all chefs. They all have restaurants all over the place and they are all really great people.”

Looking forward, Cuni said she doesn’t really know what is going to happen with both Root Cellar locations. She said “we make decisions every morning.” She wants to reopen the Pittsboro location, but doesn’t feel like it’s safe. And she’s not sure they can afford to reopen Pittsboro under the current restrictions considering the economics adding that “everybody is struggling.”

Cuni had hoped that the show would be a “big break” for them, but COVID hit. They had wanted to do a watch party, but for now she and friends will simply watch it from home in their living room.

“I was representing North Carolina and Chatham County,” Cuni said. “I hope I made Chatham County proud and represented it well.”

Casey Mann can be reached at CaseyMann@Chathamnr.com.