Hudson Valley Mom, Sons Compete On 'Family Food Fight'

ARMONK, NY — A new cooking competition show will feature a Hudson Valley food family. "Family Food Fight" on ABC-TV features teams made up of families who are determined to display their culinary heritage to the public. One family whose restaurants are familiar to many in Westchester and New York City are the Livanos.

Their Livanos Restaurant Group is behind City Limits Diner in White Plains, Moderne Barn in Armonk and Ousia in Manhattan, to name a few.

Making their debut on "Family Food Fight" Thursday at 9 p.m. will be matriarch Lorena Livanos, plus her sons Johnny and Enrico.

They will be competing with seven other families for a $100,000 grand prize and the title of "America's No. 1 Food Family."

Hosted by restaurateur Ayesha Curry, "Family Food Fight" features homestyle cooking from the families' most treasured recipes.

In addition to Curry, the judges are chefs and television personalities Cat Cora and Graham Elliot.

Patch spoke with Johnny and Enrico Livanos about their experience on the program.

Johnny Livanos, whose day job is general manager for Ousia, lives in Armonk with his folks.

While he said the experience of competition cooking in front of television cameras was definitely stressful, there was a certain amount of comfort also.

"We were cooking family dishes," Johnny Livanos said. "We weren't expected to make foam. And the judges were also nice."

Enrico Livanos, who lives in Manhattan and is the manager at Ousia, described the family meal they produced for the competition. It was comprised of chicken cutlets, a Greek stuff pepper with arborio rice and pine nuts, a Sicilian sardine pasta, a classic Greek salad, spanakopita, broccoli rabe with chili flakes and parmesan and a ricotta cheesecake.

Both men grew up in the food industry.

Johnny Livanos said he and his brother work front-of-house at Ousia, but they used the same attention to detail when they were competing on the TV show.

"From a bar background, I'm used to doing five things at the same time," he said, "plus seeing what my teammates are doing."

Plus, Livanos said, "Working in a restaurant makes you work with a smile, and that's what we did on the show."

For his part, Enrico Livanos said stepping onto the set was amazing.

"They had every single appliance under the sun," he said, "and we cook at home so we know we have a good foundation.

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