Who Gets Chopped from Next Food Network Star?

The third episode of the new season The Next Food Network Star aired tonight. This season has the contestants divided into three teams of five, and each team is led by either Giada de Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, or Alton Brown. After two episodes, teams Alton and Bobby are down to four members each while Giada still has all five of her team members. And after two episodes, I can’t decide who I’m rooting for, either as a team or as an individual. I really like all three team leaders, so it’s really difficult to decide which team I would like to see the winner come from, so I’ve been trying to choose a specific contestant to root for. After two episodes, I’ve managed to decide two or three I don’t want to win. I would not watch a show starring them on any channel. Two episodes haven’t given me a clear idea of whom I would watch, though. As I’m watching the third episode, where each team has to face a Chopped challenge which will result in three contestants, one from each team, facing the Producers’ Challenge at the end of the show, I’m still trying to find that one contestant to root for.

Chopped judges Mark Murphy, Alex Guarnaschelli, and Scott Conant were guest judges for the teams’ Chopped challenge. I’m writing as I watch, and I’m going to try to be very careful and not have any spoilers in here, just in case you decide to start watching. Food Network shows reruns frequently, so if you haven’t started watching, you can easily catch the first three episodes and be all caught up by next Sunday night.

Team Alton just completed their challenges, and after watching their performances and presentations, I think I can narrow it down to either Emily Ellyn or Justin Warner as possibilities to root for on his team. Both of them were just quirky enough to keep my attention, and both had very interesting dishes. Martie Duncan lacks confidence and her dish is something I could have come up with. When I watch the shows on Food Network, I’m looking for new dishes to try. Judson Todd Allen did better this week, but he, too, lacks confidence, and his dish was not interesting to me at all.

Team Giada has now completed their challenge and presentations. It’s a little harder to choose from Giada’s team since their personalities seem more subdued than those of Alton’s team. I can, however, say that Josh Lyons is not one of my favorites, and I wouldn’t be interested in watching a show that starred him. He just seems too nervous and disjointed to me. Yvan Lemoine and Linkie Marais aren’t among my favorites either. Their personalities just aren’t there for me, and the dishes they prepared were not something I’d be interested in. That leaves Phillip “Ippy” Aiona, from Hawaii, and Martita Jara, from Mexico. Both of these have enough personality that I would give a show of theirs a chance, and I think I’d be interested in food inspired by Hawaiian or Mexican influences.

Team Bobby has finished their challenge and presentations. The food from Team Bobby’s team always looks good, so when deciding who to root for or not to root for from Team Bobby, I have to go solely on personality. Nikki Martin just doesn’t present well enough for me to sit down and watch a half hour show she’s hosting. There’s just something about Michelle Ragussis that strikes me the wrong way. I wouldn’t watch anything she was hosting. That leaves Eric Lee and Malcolm Mitchell. Both these guys have some personality, but if I had to choose which one to watch on a show, it’d be Malcolm.

After each team completed the Chopped challenge and faced the judges, the bottom person from each team was chosen to present in the Producers’ Challenge, which is basically a cook-off. I don’t want to put a lot of spoilers in here, but I will put this one. None of the people I chose as possibilities to root for were selected in the bottom three. So as far as that goes, I’ve at least chosen well enough that when I watch again next week, I can possibly refine my choices and narrow it down even more, without the judges eliminating somebody I’d like to see starring in a show.

I’ll stop the blog now, even though the Producers’ Challenge is going on right now because I’ve accomplished my purpose of identifying who to possibly cheer for, and as my purpose is not to include spoilers, there’s no point in writing to reveal who has been eliminated. If you haven’t watched any of this season, I suggest you play catch up and start watching. Food Network is the network I watch most often. I love to cook, and I love the ideas, suggestions, and recipes I get there. If you haven’t already, you should give it a try.

Celebrity Contestants Lack Key Ingredient

Food Network keeps coming up with new ideas for competitive cooking shows. The most recent offering is the Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cookoff. The concept sounds interesting enough: Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri mentor the celebrities on their teams in cooking challenges. The winning celebrity’s charity of choice will receive a $50,000 prize. Even though my husband and I are watching the series, it’s not the best one we’ve watched. We get more excited when the commercials for the upcoming season of Worst Cooks in America air.

Part of the fun of Worst Cooks is that the people on there seem to know absolutely nothing about cooking. They burn water. The mentoring of returning champ Ann Burrell and her new competitor Bobby Flay will be some true mentoring, and it’s fun and interesting to watch the progress these non-cooks can make over the course of the series. On Rachael vs. Guy, they chose celebrities who can cook and who enjoy cooking, but they are not professional cooks. They, too, do need the mentoring to get through the challenges they are presented. This could be an interesting show. The problem is, even though we’re still watching, it’s not the most interesting show.

The challenges aren’t the problem. As challenges go, they’re as interesting as anything that shows up on Next Food Network Star, Worst Cooks, or Chopped. The mentors aren’t the problem. Rachael and Guy are two of our favorite Food Network hosts. The judges aren’t the problem. The first challenge was judged by a group of 150 guests and was based on taste and entertainment. The second challenge was appropriately judged by students ready to graduate from pastry school. The third challenge was appropriately judged by three of the Chopped judges – Scott Conant, Alex Guarnaschelli, and Marcus Samuelsson. So, if the problem isn’t the hosts, the challenges, or the judges, what is the problem? The celebrities.

The eight celebrities who started the series were divided into two teams of four. Rachael’s team included musician Aaron Carter, Olympic gold medalist Summer Sanders, musician Taylor Dayne, and actor Lou Diamond Phillips. Guy’s team included Miss America Alyssa Campanella, musician Joey Fatone, musician Coolio, and actor Cheech Marin. It’s just hard to choose anybody from this particular list to get behind and root for.

Part of the problem is personality. While they may be really good at whatever talent made them famous, they’re not as inspiring as celebrity cooks. Most of them are so lacking in personality that I think the only reason Jimmy and I are still watching is habit. We watch Food Network, and we like Rachael and Guy, so we keep watching. I’ve had a hard time trying to decide who to root for, but I finally decided to root for Lou Diamond Phillips on Rachael’s team and Joey Fatone on Guy’s team. I simply dislike them (as contestants on this show) less than I dislike the other celebrities on the show.

I’m sure we’ll keep watching until the end, but if Food Network does this show again, I strongly suggest they consider some celebrities who will present some more personality with their cooking. That’s one of the things they look for in their series The Next Food Network Star. It wouldn’t hurt to consider it for this show as well.

It’s Hummus vs. Hubris on Next Iron Chef

As you already know, my husband and I are huge Food Network fans. We have particular hosts we love to watch, including Giada de Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Anne Burrell, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Michael Symon, Guy Fieri, the Neeleys, and Robert Irvine, just to name a few. We also enjoy the competition shows, such as Next Food Network Star, Chopped, and Next Iron Chef. So, when this season of Next Iron Chef was being promoted, we anxiously awaitedthe  October 30 premiere of the Super Chefs. Of course, we had our favorite picked out the moment we saw the lineup. We’re for Anne Burrell all the way.

Ideally, I would’ve liked to see it come down to Anne Burrell and Robert Irvine in the final episode, with Anne winning. I like Robert Irvine, but I like Anne better, and I do enjoy watching her beat him, as she did on Worst Cooks in America and Chopped. I was hoping for showdown number 3, with Anne coming out on top again. Last week, when Chef Spike chose to put Anne and Robert together for a team, it was quite funny, especially for those of us who know their history. It was with great relief that we learned that they were not the bottom team and did not have to face off against each other in the premiere episode. There was hope that they still might get the chance to fight it out in the finale.

That hope died tonight when Robert Irvine was eliminated from the competition. I was speechless. Robert manages to complete Dinner: Impossible and Restaurant: Impossible challenges all the time. Robert is very well respected among the chefs employed by the Food Network. How can it be that it is episode 2, and Robert is gone? For what it’s worth, which isn’t really much since he was eliminated, the decision wasn’t unanimous. At least one of the judges wanted Robert to stay. And I’m going to guess that more viewers would have liked for Robert to stay than for Chef Michael Chiarello to stay.

Robert Irvine is such a popular chef, it was startling not just to viewers but also to the other Super Chefs that he was eliminated so early. And as Alton Brown pointed out, because his hummus was too thick. Personally, I thought Chef Chiarello’s attitude was too thick. Of course, since this is Super Chefs, there are going to be some Super Egos to contend with, and while the viewers get to see all the comments the chefs make after their food has been evaluated, I’m guessing that the judges don’t get to see all those comments. And that’s probably a good thing since if I were one of the judges and I heard one of the competitors dissing how I judged, I’d be more likely to eliminate them.

Tonight’s episode was a huge wake-up call to fans and chefs alike. If a chef like Robert can be eliminated so quickly, anybody can. As for this fan, though, I still have a preferred order for elimination, which simply calls for all the chefs I’m not really familiar with or that I just don’t like as well to go first. The next ones I’d like to see go are Michael Chiarello (didn’t like his attitude), Elizabeth Faulkner (just don’t really know anything about her), and Chuck Hughes (don’t really know anything about him). After that, Geoffrey Zakarian, Marcus Samuelsson, and Beau MacMillan would be the next three to go, leaving Anne Burrell and Alex Guarnaschelli to compete for the final spot. Since I can’t have Anne and Robert in the finale, then let’s have Anne and Alex and add a female Super Chef to the prestigious Iron Chef crew.

Of course after tonight, it’s hard to speculate about who will win this competition, but it’s certainly going to be interesting to watch, and it’s not going to be an easy task for the competitors. But since it is Next Iron Chef, it shouldn’t be easy for them. One thing I’m wondering, though. When this is over, will those who serve as Chopped judges be any more sympathetic to those competitors than they were before? That may be as interesting to watch as these episodes are.