SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — If you consider yourself a foodie, local restaurants Herb & Sea and Herb & Wood may already be on your radar. If you consider yourself a really serious foodie, then Chef Aidan Owens should be a familiar name, too.
The budding 28-year-old chef has worked in some of the best kitchens in San Diego, making a name for himself in the ever-evolving culinary scene this city has to offer.
And now Owens is going to be on television, starring in the latest spinoff of the Food Network’s “Chopped” cooking competition show.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Owens grew up living an agrarian lifestyle in Byron Bay with a mother he described as a “hippie” on a farm filled with chickens, ducks and vegetables.
Later in life, he set his sights on the Golden Coast, landing in San Francisco and ultimately San Diego. He bounced around. Starting at Kettner Exchange, while he pursued going to school and becoming a historian.
But Owens said he eventually realized sitting in a classroom wasn’t for him, and Chef Brian Redzikowski, who is now the corporate executive chef at Kettner Exchange, encouraged him to consider cooking as more than just a side gig.
Owens dropped out of school and started working full-time in restaurants. About a year later, he was a traveling sous chef managing several restaurants.
For a fresh 21-year-old, the job became a lot to handle.
“ That was horrible, I kind of like lost my mind a little bit,” said Owens. “ I just wanted to be a line cook again.”
Owens said he realized that managing a restaurant was making him miss out on seeing friends on weekends or doing the types of things someone his age should be enjoying, like traveling or going to music festivals.
So he left the role and started traveling around Mexico, Los Angeles and Big Sur with a friend.
“I realized I was like kind of missing out on some stuff,” said Owens. “We just bounced around and didn’t take life too seriously for a minute.”
Despite the change in scenery, Owens said he realized one thing stayed consistent, and that was his love for cooking.
“ So clearly I like doing this, and I was like, ‘Alright, maybe I get back into it,’” he said. “The second I got back into it, I took it really seriously.”
Owens landed at TRUST restaurant group, where he helped reopen the grill at Fort Oak in Mission Hills and eventually became sous chef at TRUST in Hillcrest. When the head chef spot at TRUST opened up, Owens said Owner Brad Wise approached him and asked if he’d want to try out for the position.
After a 60-day trial period, Owens became the head chef of the restaurant, a daunting task that he took on for the next three years or so.
“ I really enjoyed the challenge of it; it’s not an easy job. I figured that out,” he said. “It turned into like those 16-hour days and the craziness. That restaurant was a challenge. I was doing that for about three years, and then I was ready to just go on to the next project in my life.”
That next project happened to be working for Puffer Malarkey.
Started by Brian Malarkey and Christopher Puffer, the restaurant group owns and operates Herb & Wood, Herb & Sea, Animae, Le Coq and Herb & Ranch.
Co-owner Malarkey is a reality TV frequent flyer.
He’s hosted the Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out” and has been a judge and contestant on “Guy’s Grocery Games, Chopped, Tournament of Champions,” and “Wildcard Kitchen.” He also starred on a season of “Top Chef” and “Top Chef All-Stars” and won as a mentor on ABC’s “The Taste with Anthony Bourdain.”
“That’s kind of how he made his bread and butter is doing TV shows,” said Owens about Malarkey’s TV experience. “I will say when that guy has like 30 minutes to do something, he can do three times the amount as anyone else. And it’s practice, but it’s also insanely impressive to watch.”
Chef Owens and Malarkey in the kitchen (Puffer Malarkey Collective).
“Chopped Castaways” — the show Owens stars in — combines the physical challenges of “Survivor” with tasks like spearfishing and archery, and the classic cooking challenges of “Chopped.”
Owens said the unique concept was what ultimately convinced him to join the show despite being approached by other cooking shows in the past.
“ I love “Survivor.” My mom was like obsessed with “Survivor.” I grew up watching “‘Survivor,’” he said.
For about a month, Owens filmed the show on a remote island in a location he said he can’t disclose, with other talented chefs all vying for a $100,000 grand prize. He faced off in classic “Chopped” style challenges that featured mystery baskets, time limits and unconventional ingredients.
”It was way, way harder than I thought it was gonna be. I think people think like those TV shows are super staged, and to some degree they kind of are,” said Owens. “ You have 30 minutes to build fires, grab pans, do this, break down a chicken, marinate it, cook it, flip — you have 30 minutes. It is a very, very, very difficult style of cooking.”
Through those challenges, Owens said he grew surprisingly close to his fellow competitors, two of whom are also based in Southern California, despite production’s occasional efforts to instigate fights.
“ They’d be like, ‘Who do you think is the weakest?’ And everyone was just like, ‘I think everyone’s here for a reason,’” said Owens. “Not that like typical TV drama.”
As far as the future is concerned, Owens said he eventually would like to open his own restaurant in San Diego, but when it comes to reality TV, that career might be over as soon as it started.
“I just wanted to experience it because I know a number of our chefs at this restaurant group have done it. You never know until you try something,” said Owens. “I’ll never have regrets of like, ‘oh, I can’t believe I didn’t go to this crazy remote island and do this insane experience’ because now I’ve done it.”
You can watch Owens and other contestants face off on “Chopped Castaways” starting on May 12 on the Food Network or HBO Max. New episodes will air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.