A Havre de Grace executive chef will be appearing next week on an episode of the popular Food Network show "Chopped."Kristina Sciarra, the executive chef at Laurrapin Grille, will compete against three other chefs in an episode that airs Oct. 13 at 9 p.m.Sciarra can't say how she did on the show, but found it to be a neat experience."It was something I never thought I would be able to do," Sciarra, a 38-year-old Conowingo resident, said. "I had to keep reminding myself that it's real and just to be calm, don't freak out."Laurrapin will host a viewing party the night the show airs, beginning at 8 p.m. Owners Bill and Sherifa Clarke are hoping to have Sciarra re-create the dishes she made on the show as specials that night.She said it's kind of weird that she'll be seeing herself on television."I haven't seen it yet, and I know how much editing goes into it," Sciarra said. "It's a little nerve-wracking for me. I kind of want to hide in the corner while everybody else watches it."How she got to be on the show is a "funny story."Sciarra was working at Birroteca in Bel Air and her fiancée was at Laurrapin. One of the show's production staff spoke with the general managers at both restaurants within 24 hours of each other, and both suggested Sciarra for the show."Everybody was like, go for it. Do it, do it," she said.So she emailed the show and within 15 minutes had an email response asking her to send in a video explaining who she is, what she does and why she does what she does."It was me at home, a personal video, why I got into cooking, the influence of my grandmother, my great-grandmother," she said.They loved that video, she said, then asked for a "high energy" video of Sciarra in the kitchen."I did that and it just kind of went from there," she said.Sciarra filmed her episode several months ago in New York City, which was a surreal experience, she said. And an "incredibly long day.""They're all secretive about everything," she said. "You have to meet at Starbucks at 5:30 a.m. in New York City. You show up there, don't know who you're meeting and someone comes in and says follow me."She and the three other chefs competing on her episode, from New Jersey, New Mexico and Washington, D.C., were escorted to the studio, where they filled out the necessary paperwork and their personal belongings were taken."You're there with just your knives," she said.Then there's a lot of hurry up and wait, she said. It only takes 20 minutes to get through a round, but then there's a lot of still photographs and videos that have to be taken."It's very different from what you see on TV," Sciarra said.She was finally done around 9:30 p.m.Sciarra's episode was not themed."That's all I was worried about, that it was going to be Halloween or barbecue," she said.Her approach to the show was simply to make good food."I just tried to stay calm and rely on the skills that I have. Don't freak out, don't worry about the clock, just make really good food," Sciarra said. "As much as they say don't worry about the clock, 20 minutes go by pretty quickly."Did she make good food?"I did. It could have been better, but I did," she said.The chef left at the end of the three rounds, the one who isn't "chopped," is declared the "Chopped Champion" and wins $10,000.Sciarra can't say if she won the cash prize, but if she did, she'd use the money to take her family – fiancée Janice Rogers and their two sons, Frankie, 10, and A.J., 9 – on a "really nice vacation.""Anywhere warm, any little island that is warm," she said.Sciarra has been at Laurrapin Grille for only about a month, after a two-year absence during which she was working at Birrotecca.Rogers is the general manager and catering coordinator at Laurrapin.Sciarra has been a professional chef since was 17, starting at Tidewater Grille in Havre de Grace, but she started cooking much earlier."I've always been infatuated with cooking, pretty much since I could see over the table between my grandma and great-grandma," she said. "It was a huge part of our lives. "They were both amazing cooks, my mom's an amazing cook."She doesn't have a certain style, more of an influence."What influences me most is just the love that goes into it," she said. "You have to take your time, love your ingredients, love what you're putting together to make it taste good."Sciarra said she watches "Chopped" all the time."I watch it at home when the kids are asleep. I think, 'I would make this if I had this basket,'" she said. "That's a lot easier to say when you're on the couch with your feet up."