Which Food Network Star Shines Brightest?

Last night was the big reveal on The Next Food Network Star. If you haven’t yet watched it yet and you plan to, you need to stop reading now and come back later.

Last week, the finalists were supposed to be reduced to three, one from each mentor, and last week, I told you how I didn’t like that format as it would result in someone who deserved it more being sent home in order to keep the teams even. I really do hope that when the next season airs, that problem is resolved. To further back up my case, when it came down to it, Bob Tuschman and Susie Folgeson couldn’t trim the finalists to just three. Team Alton had two finalists who were just so good that both were given the opportunity to make a pilot. After the four pilots were shown, American was given the chance to vote from the time the show went off that night through Tuesday evening at 5:00 P.M. Our choices were Michele Ragussis from Team Bobby, Yvan Lemoine from Team Giada, and Justin Warner and Martie Duncan from Team Alton.

If you read last week, you know my vote was cast for Justin Warner from Team Alton. If I had to rank the finalists in the order of how I would have liked them to finish, it would be Justin, Martie, Yvan, and Michele. Since Jimmy and I started watching The Next Food Network Star regularly with season four, we’ve picked the winner every time: Big Daddy Aaron McCargo Jr., Melissa d’Arabian, Aarti Sequeira, and The Sandwich King Jeff Mauro. After being 4/4, we were really hoping to keep our track record intact.

The first part of the show allowed everyone to gather together again and remember the highlights of the season. After the first commercial break, Bob revealed the first contestant eliminated, the one with the fewest of the 4 1/2 million votes that were cast. That finalist was Martie. I’ll admit I was surprised, though I can’t help but notice that the three teams are evened up again.

The mentors revealed the “winners” of some anonymous polling Food Network did with the contestants. Nikki won the most competitive award, while Malcolm won the cockiest award. These awards were followed by footage of Nikki and Malcolm demonstrating their competitive and cocky streaks. This footage was a reminder why I’m glad Nikki and Malcolm were not among the final contestants. I can’t help but notice that both were from Team Bobby, the team labeled “the jocks.” Interesting. (By the way, Team Giada was labeled “the cheerleaders,” and Team Alton was labeled “the nerds.”)

After announcing Martie’s departure from the finalists, leaving just three, the rest of the show was a highlight reel, saving the announcement of the winner until the end. Seeing the never-before-seen footage was interesting, and in its own way, really just served to reinforce the opinions I already had about the contestants. I kept telling myself that Justin would be the winner, as he was clearly the most interesting of the three who were left.

Right before the big reveal, each mentor was allowed to show why he or she thought his or her candidate should be the winner, by showing footage from the season. After watching this footage, I still felt good about my choice of Justin. Michele still grated on my nerves. Yvan didn’t grate on my nerves, but he didn’t really stand out either. For me, Justin was still the one with the most spunk, creativity, and personality; in short, he’s the one I would definitely watch.

Finally, after the commercial break, the contestants and their mentors stood on the line one last time, to reveal the results of the 4 1/2 million votes, and I was so very excited that once again Jimmy and I had called it. Justin Warner, the culinary rebel with a cause, was proclaimed the winner and will get his own show, produced by Alton Brown, in the fall. I, for one, am looking forward to it. I may never cook anything that Justin demonstrates on his show, but I’m sure I’ll be more entertained than I am by some of the current stars on Food Network.

Deen’s Critics Not Sweet on Her

For some reason, Anthony Bourdain enjoys making Paula Deen the object of his critical comments. He doesn’t like the way she cooks. He doesn’t think it’s healthy. And in the wake of her revelation about having diabetes, he’s decided to use her illness against her as well. In fact, from headlines I’ve seen, others are also being critical of Paula Deen because she’s had diabetes for three years and has just now revealed it. Let’s consider some things.

First, she’s a chef with several cooking shows on Food Network. She’s published several cookbooks, and she owns a restaurant or two. For those who think she should have revealed her diabetes before now, I ask, “Why?” Really, what business is it of ours what health issues she has? If she’d been fighting cancer for three years and just now told us, would the critics be as up in arms? I doubt it. Just because she’s a celebrity chef does not mean she has to reveal her private health issues to us. We are all entitled to privacy concerning our health, and cooking on TV doesn’t remove that right.

Second, I’ve never heard Paula Deen claim that she cooks the healthiest dishes. She cooks with butter, cream cheese, butter, heavy cream, and more butter. She likes to deep-fry foods. On the shows I’ve watched, she’s never claimed the dishes are healthy. She’s also not encouraged viewers to eat those dishes every day. On the flipside, though, she also prepares vegetable dishes and grilled dishes, which are healthier. Anybody who watches her shows and uses what they know about healthy cooking will realize it is inadvisable to eat those kinds of dishes every day. Here’s the thing. Each chef with a show on Food Network has a theme. They sometimes demonstrate dishes that are outside of their normal cooking routines, but most often, they stick with the theme. Bobby Flay will grill, Rachael Ray will give you a 30-minute meal, and Melissa d’Arabian will show you how to feed four for less than $10. Paula Deen’s theme is comfort food. And comfort food is fattening and is not considered healthy. That’s what makes it comfort food.

If it makes all her critics feel better, her son Bobby has a new show on Cooking Channel called Not My Mama’s Meals where he reduces the fat and makes the dishes healthier for you. If you want to eat the healthier version, use Bobby’s recipe. If you want or need the comfort food, use Paula’s. If you want to eat Paula’s version every day, that’s your business. But don’t get upset because you’re not following a healthy diet.

Paula Deen’s job is to share recipes with you. She does that. She doesn’t make any false pretenses about those recipes. Her critics need to move on. Her health issues are her business, not ours. Her recipes are her business. If you don’t like them, for whatever reason, don’t use them and don’t give her grief for sharing them. If you’re just watching her show so you can give her grief, maybe it’s time for you to change the channel.

The Next Food Network Star Is …

When The Next Food Network Star began last night, three contestants remained. Susie Jimenez was the front-runner, and the second spot was a toss-up between Jeff Mauro and Vic Moea.

Preceding the season finale, Food Network aired its first reunion show. All the former contestants were there, previously unseen footage was shown, rivalries were discussed. The reunion show proved enlightening about the relationships among the contestants and made clear one point. Several of my students say they look forward to getting out of high school so they can get away from the drama. The reunion show proved drama never goes away, especially when that many strangers move into a house together, and they all have the same goal. Honestly, some of the clips shown made high school look like a piece of cake.

The reunion show ended, and the finale began. There was an immediate cook-off to eliminate one of the three, which would allow only two to make a pilot. It had appeared that early into the series, Susie had become the judges’ sweetheart. They offered her advice for improvement, but it never really seemed they were as harsh with her as they sometimes were with the other contestants. This seemed evident yet again when Susie was deemed safe after the cook-off challenge, leaving either Vic or Jeff to be eliminated. I can’t say I was terribly surprised when Vic was eliminated. He had struggled more than Jeff during the last few competitions.

Jeff and Susie made their pilot episodes, directed by season two winner, Guy Fieri. Both did an admirable job, and both had points of view that I would be interested in watching. I preferred Jeff’s pilot, but I still believed that Susie was their sweetheart and thought they would choose her. I was surprised, therefore, when Bobby Flay announced that the next star would be Jeff.  Pleasantly surprised, that is.

Over the past three episodes, Jeff had won me over, and apparently, he also won over the judges. My biggest complaint is his new show will premiere on Sunday at 11:30 A.M. I will be in church on Sunday at 11:30 A.M. In order to get to watch it, I’ll have to DVR it. There’s nothing wrong with using the DVR, except finding time to watch everything that ends up on there. I’ve noticed, though, that a lof of their new programming is aired on the weekends. I would prefer they air some of these new shows in the evenings. Over the course of the week, I had the opportunity to watch last week’s episode of The Next Food Network Star at least four times. Why not show me a rerun of one of the weekend morning shows instead?

So, how well will Jeff do? Given his premise of being The Sandwich King, he should do well. Americans, in particular, love sandwiches, and we’ll try making anything into a sandwich, especially if we have a talented, funny guy showing us how to do it. But what about Susie and Vic? Given the history of Food Network, they have a decent shot of ending up with a show of their own.

When looking at information about the previous seasons, there were no star names that I recognized from either season one or season three. From season two, Guy Fieri is the only name I recognize. Big Daddy Aaron McCargo, Jr., season four’s winner, is still around and doing a few things for Food Network, but so is his runner-up Adam Gertler. Season five only has Melissa d’Arabian to show for its efforts. Aarti Sequeira, winner of season six, still has her show, but so does the third runner-up of season six, Tom Pizzica. I’m not sure what happened to season six’s second-place finisher. And now with season seven in the books, Jeff Mauro, The Sandwich King, will entertain us with all sorts of sandwiches. It’s just as likely that Susie Jimenez will still get to spice it up, and Mama’s Boy Vic Moea still has a shot at a show of his own. The interesting thing about The Next Food Network Star is that each season provides the potential to produce multiple stars.

Congratulations to The Sandwich King, and I look forward to finding new ways to make good sandwiches.

Cooking Up a New Star on Food Network

My husband and I started watching The Next Food Network Star with Season 4. We found a marathon of Season 4 on TV leading up to the finale, and we watched them all. By the time the finale came on, we liked both Big Daddy and Adam Gertler, but we didn’t care so much for Lisa Garza. In the end, we were rooting for Big Daddy to win and were pleased when he did. Until we ran across this marathon, I wasn’t all that familiar with the show. I hadn’t really heard of it before, but Jimmy told me that Guy Fieri had won Season 2. That was a name I recognized, but even as we were watching Season 4, at the time I had no idea how many seasons there were or which one we
were watching. Since then, I’ve read the names of the winners of Seasons 1 and 3, but I can’t really tell you anything about them. Also since then, we haven’t missed a season. My Season 5 favorite was Melissa d’Arabian, but Season 6 was a tough one and I couldn’t choose between Aarti Sequeria and Tom Pizzica.

Now we are watching Season 7, and last week was the midterm. From the beginning, Chris and Penny were two of our least favorites, so we were very happy to see both of them leave. It has been difficult to pick a favorite this season, in part because there was too much drama going on between the contestants and it distracted from the competition. With Chris and Penny now gone, the drama will
hopefully be gone as well, and the focus can be on the food competitions. Most of the remaining contestants are likeable; it’s time to choose who I would be willing to watch, and who I’d like to win.

Whitney needs to loosen up. She seems to have a sparkling personality in there somewhere, but because of her background as an engineering consultant, she sometimes gets lost in being too technical. Her point of view of “Gourmet Classics” does sound interesting to me. Jyll had Vic pegged correctly when she referred to him as a “big teddy bear” in their food truck commercial. He’s a very likeable guy, and his point of view of “Mama’s Boy” resonates well with me because I have three boys of my own. Susie is perky and knowledgeable. She’s finding her groove as the show goes on, and her point of view of “Spice It Up” and playing up her Mexican roots will benefit her. Mary Beth is trying too hard. Her food is hit-and-miss, but as a food writer she has proven she knows food. Her point of view of “Sunday Supper” would resonate well with anyone who likes the tradition of Sunday family dinners.

Jyll needs to get a grip on her nerves. It’s OK to try to be tough and act like things don’t bother you, but Jyll takes it too far. It wouldn’t hurt for her to show a little emotion instead of being a doormat. I like her point of view of “Jyllicious Bites”; finger foods are some of my favorite. Jeff’s point of view of “Sandwich King” would also be interesting to watch. There are days when nothing beats a good sandwich. In order to make it to the end, though, he needs to rein in his sometimes over-the-top antics.

Six contestants are left. With three (I think) episodes left, it’s time to choose my favorite and the one I want to win. I asked Jimmy to do the same. Here’s how Jimmy sees it playing out. The remaining finalists will leave in this order: Mary Beth, Whitney, Jyll, Jeff, and Susie. Jimmy has chosen Vic to win it all. My list isn’t too different than his. I have the remaining contestants leaving in this order: Mary Beth, Jyll, Whitney, Jeff, and Vic, with Susie winning it all. That said, though, I would watch a show with either Vic or Susie on it,
but I doubt I would hang around very long for any of the others. Now that we have somebody to root for, I’m anxiously awaiting the next episode.