Wrapping Up 2012's Design Star, Food Network Star, Bachelorette, Duets and Love In the Wild. Insights into the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

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Goodness so many competitive reality shows came to a conclusion all at once I could hardly keep up. Rather than leave everything up in the air with no conclusions, I decided to post a conclusion post for mid-summer 2012 competitive reality shows as diverse as HGTV's "Design Star", NBC's "Love in the Wild", ABC's "The Bachelorette", Food Network's "Next Food Network Star", and ABC's newest musical competitive reality show-"Duets".

Duets

Duets was an intriguing new offering in the musical competitive reality show genre. Four musical stars found four amateur protégés and over the course of the contest, the four protégés performed duets with the various performers.

At some point the American public had a chance to vote and their pick, when the smoke cleared, was a very find young man named J Rome, a really dumb name as I see it.

Which is not to say that J Rome was void of talent. I chose him as the winner right from the start and he won handily.

Below, posts on this Blog about the Duets series as it was ongoing.

Duets 2012-New Singing Reality Competition Show. How Does It Compare to the Many Others of the Genre?

Duets 2012 Goes To America for the Vote
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Bachelorette Emily

ABC's Bachelorette series had former Bachelor Brad Womack's choice, Emily, as the Bachelorette.

There were many handsome men after Emily's hand. Eventually Emily settled on Jef, with only one F, incredible hair, and a Mormon from a very devout family.

I watched the "After the Final Rose" show as Emily and Jef appeared on TV for the first time as a recognized couple.

I seriously have my doubts.

First, I don't think Emily is looking to settle down with much of anybody. But even if so, a youngish, naïve, religious fellow seems like the last guy she'd choose.

Emily is quite beautiful, let's make no mistake. She's also used to a good life. It's not clear what sort of working career Jef had.

When they greeted each other at the Final Rose show, they didn't look any more comfortable with each other as they should have what with the show then long over. They both claimed to be planning for Jef to move into SEPARATE living arrangements in Emily's current state.

Everything about that coupling is just weird.

Below all posts on this Blog about Bachelorette Emily:

The Bachelorette 2012-Emily Dumps Brad, Seeks New Partner

Bachelorette 2012 Emily Maynard Used to the Finer Things In Life

The Bachelorette 2012-Four Left. Winner Obvious, One's a Wild Man

The Bachelorette 2012-Four Left. Winner Obvious, One's a Wild Man

Bachelorette Emily 2012-Let the Home Town Dates Begin

Bachelorette Emily-Will It Be Jef, Arie or .....Nobody?
Bachelorette Emily -Who Will She Choose?

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Love in the Wild
NBC's Love in the Wild is a fairly new competitive romance reality show. It combines Survivor with Big Brother and a touch of Bachelor Pad.

Ken and Yanina were the two young lovers who fought spiders and snakes, jumped off of bridges and leaped into gorges, all part of the various challenges that finally ended with these two paired with each other and, despite all odds, still LIKING each other.

They seem like a compatible pair. We'll be keeping ear close to ground to see where this romance goes.

Below all posts on this Blog about Love in the Wild 2012

Jenny McCarthy, 7 Men and 7 Women Seek Love in the Wild for 2012

Love in the Wild 2012-Bring in More Men, Bring in More Women. It Gets Complicated
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Next Food Network Star
Food Network's "Next Food Network Star" was a great series.

Justin, he of the magnificent hair, was named the next Food Network Star.

He was my choice, both for his cooking skills, his personality, and his on-screen presence.

We will be posting a review of Justin's Food Network show, just as soon as we watch it.

Below all the posts on this Blog about Next Food Network Star 2012:

Food Network Star 2012 Begins; Let's Take a Look At How It Begins

Food Network Star 2012-Giada Still Gorgeous, Flay Still Nasty, Alton Still Snobby. The contenders are great.

Food Network Star 2012 "Dish". Current Contender Fan Fave, Meanest Mentor, More Gossip.

Next Food Network Star 2012-Next Food Network Star 2012-Is This Oprah Winfrey or a Cooking Contest?
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Design Star
HGTV's "Design Star" is one of my favorite competitive reality shows. The 2012 series of this show was no disappointment.

Contender Danielle won the coveted title and it would so happen that I watched Danielle's new show, titled "Shopping the Room".

It's a home decorating show. I'm not at all sure I get the concept of "shopping" a room, or how it's anything new on the home decorating scene.

Mostly Danielle, like every interior designer before her, meets with the individual or couple whose home she is re-designing. She then goes on a shopping trip and finds items to base the room/home's decoration on.

It doesn't really work that way. Danielle has to work with carpenters and other contractors to tear out walls, add furniture/appliances….like most home interior designs go.

Danielle then decorates the reconfigured interior, supposedly all based around an item that she found while out shopping.

It's as good a method as any, but it's nothing new or even all that original.

Danielle has a pleasant and calm personality and carries off her tasks well. We'll be keeping an eye on her to see how well her show moves along on HGTV.


Below all posts on this Blog about Design Star 2012:

12 Interior Designers Begin the Competition for HGTV's Design Star 2012


Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Next Food Network Star 2012-Paula Deen's Everywhere, and Now She's Bringing Her Husband and Kids...More.

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He don't recall reading such a fantastic Blog

Spoiler alert for episode aired 7/8/12

I don't especially like Paula Deen.

Now the woman is not a bad person but everything about her grates on my nerves.

I suppose the accent of hers is real but it sounds so fake, like an actress would use to imitate a southern accent.

Further, I'm a bit tired of turning on the TV and seeing Paula Deen or her spawn on every show I watch. And I'm not talking just Food Network here folks! She shows up on The Chew more than she is needed.

Now, on the Next Food Network Star, Paula Deen, of course, shows up.

What on earth is your loathe of Paula Deen, Pat Fish?" you might ask.

Nothing major. Except I think she's had her fifteen minutes. I think she's very fake at this point.

A saccharine example would be an appearance Deen made on The Chew, damn I coulda wrote the script myself.

Seems Paula has Type 2 Diabetes.

Big whoop.

One out of every three people has Type 2 diabetes.

We take Metformin, we exercise more. Some of us let it go and eventually it kills us.

Stop right there is you think my complaint is about Deen's new cookbook thing that is lighter, with less butter. Or maybe it's one of her sons cause they're all in the act.

It was the big boo-hoo fest on The Chew, as Paula stood before both the TV and viewing audience, the pain of her recent diagnosis plain on her face. For now she cannot have a stick of butter on one cob of corn and life is so unfair.

Yeah I'm being especially snarky but this is not sincere folks. Somewhere Paula Deen's handlers got hold of a textbook with tips on how to turn an ordinary but deserved fame until….well until time to jump the shark, to use a show biz term.

The textbook suggests that to avoid fading from the public eye, perhaps a disease of some sort? Everybody has something wrong with them, find your health thing and make yourself the emblem of it. The money will pour in.

Ok, I'll shut up. Paula's a nice lady and not for a second do I deny her success.

Deen's appearance on The Next Food Network Star makes sense as it's her network, I must suppose.

The last two weeks of this series  have been very interesting.

Viewers are now into discerning the contenders, their flaws, their expertise. The challenges have been very interesting and, if nothing else, it's been a bit of a hoot keeping the three mentors evenly-keeled that the series goes on with a close to equal number of contenders to mentors.

I'm not saying there's cheating, or fixing. But I can't help but believe this is somehow factored in. The Next Food Network Star is as much about Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Giada DiLaurentis and, in turn, The Food Network itself. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but I'm jus' sayin'.

At the beginning of July the contenders were in attendance at some sort of beach party. They were divided into three teams. Each team was to come up with a product and sell it on a food truck.

It was this episode which had Paula Deen but also her new husband, dear Lord, now there's a fellow with NO on-camera personality I slap hand to God that Paula Deen's now so damn famous she makes boring famous! Maybe she'll mention my Blog but probably not, I'm thinking.

Malcolm was sent home. Michelle, one of the more interesting contenders I think, had lots of crab shells in her crab meat. I'm from Maryland. That factoid is of major significance to folks like me.

The next beachy type of show had the contenders all having to do an on-camera presentation. They would make a dish, narrating the details the whole time. The cute thing here is that some sort of mishap was programmed in the scene as the contenders did their presentation.

Martie and Yvon were the top two with Ippy and Martita in the bottom two. Martita was sent home and it was her time.

So far Justin looks like the leader here. He's never been in the bottom few thus far and consistently gets raves from the judges.

Martie's not going to win this thing but Yvon is gaining ground. Michelle just doesn't look like an exotic "New England Cuisine" type of chef. Michelle strikes as more ribs and burgers type. To be an expert at New England cooking, whatever that is but I bet it's got clams in it, she'll have to put on a dress once in a while.

Just a suggestion.

Below all the posts on this Blog on this subject:

Food Network Star 2012 Begins; Let's Take a Look At How It Begins

Food Network Star 2012-Giada Still Gorgeous, Flay Still Nasty, Alton Still Snobby. The contenders are great.

Food Network Star 2012 "Dish". Current Contender Fan Fave, Meanest Mentor, More Gossip.

Next Food Network Star 2012-Next Food Network Star 2012-Is This Oprah Winfrey or a Cooking Contest?

Next Food Network Star can be seen on Sunday nights, Food Network, at 9pm.

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Next Food Network Star 2012-Is This Oprah Winfrey or a Cooking Contest?

Warning- POSSIBLE SPOILER INFORMATION ON NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR EPISODE AIRED 6/24/12.

I really do understand that camera challenges are important, that how a cook speaks to the camera, ie the viewers, matters when considering who to make the Next Food Network Star.

But goodness when a viewer tuned in to that sob fest episode aired on 6/24/12 I wasn't sure whether I was watching Oprah Winfrey or The Next Food Network Star.

Emily, cute Emily, with her white eyeglasses, ribboned red lips and curved eyeliner, Emily, who could pass for Betty Boop, spent the whole program sobbing and telling us viewers that she couldn't talk about her life, she just couldn't.

The idea was for the remaining contenders to prepare "one bite" of some dish that would encapsulate their food style and all that they are.

That's a very tall order for just one bite of food.

There was also a 90 second camera challenge that would have the contenders "delving deeper" into just who they are.

So okay, when a fellow cooks up a batch of steamed crabs we expect him to be from Baltimore or somewhere near the Chesapeake Bay. I get that the background of the cook speaks volumes of their expertise. I would look wary at a batch of crabs steamed up by a cook whose roots are in Texas or some such.

But I really don't need to know whether their parents were divorced or if the kids bullied them or when they lost their virginity.

It never was explained why Emily got all choked up over a command to reveal more of her background. All yon viewer knew is the thought of doing so caused her tears and sobs.

Goodness, why?

One contender did go into some long story about being set up by a group of friends who never showed up for an event as promised. I thought it was a real dumb story for a cooking contest contender to tell and it's not like this sad little snippet of her life created the beginning of a great casserole or anything. The moral of the story was something to the effect that she moved on and stayed brave and remained true to truth, justice and the American way.


Emily did get sent home as her camera time didn't quite do what the judges wanted. She was a cutie but damn her, I want to hear about how Mom used to call her names!

The week before this most recent episode sent cute Linkie packing. Linkie attempted to make some kind of churro for her team's kiosk in a food court challenge but it turned out a mess.

This was an interesting episode but dear Lord, who came up with that idea of forcing the contenders to add chopped liver to their kiosk offerings? That was so dumb and really took the charm out of that episode.

For now, look for Martie to go home soon because she keeps messing up. This pas week she came back big but my experience that comes the time for someone to go they somehow, some way, get a big week before the axe falls.

Justin still seems to be the contender to beat for Food Network Star 2012, lip gloss and all. Although that "bite" of his of stuffed dates, duck and bonito flakes sounded too bizarre to contemplate.

Below all links to Food Network Star on THIS Blog.

Food Network Star 2012 Begins; Let's Take a Look At How It Begins

Food Network Star 2012-Giada Still Gorgeous, Flay Still Nasty, Alton Still Snobby. The contenders are great.

Food Network Star 2012 "Dish". Current Contender Fan Fave, Meanest Mentor, More Gossip.


Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Food Network Star 2012 "Dish". Current Contender Fan Fave, Meanest Mentor, More Gossip.

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On the Next Food Network Star 2012 episode aired 6/3/12, the contenders were charged with preparing a dish for fashion week. The fashion connection was a bit clever but the challenge really involved the contenders updating old standby dishes such as ham with the proverbial cherry and pineapple and Shepherd's pie. This is a challenge that is presented every year on this competitor reality series, indeed most food competition series have this sort of challenge at least once.

First, couple of gossip items. So far, contender Martita is considered the favorite to win this thing. At least on the Food Network Site Blogs, not necessarily by this Blogger.

Alton is viewed as the toughest of the mentors. Emily is considered the most fashionable of the contenders. Michele is viewed as the one who looks most like Guy Fieri.

Couple of things about the update challenging. Emily's trick of pickling her marischino cherry is considered a bit of culinary genius, this for her update on the ham/cherry and pinapple update challenge. Cooks consider this garish red cherry very difficult to do much with for its extreme sweetness. Eric, who, alas, was sent home this episode, struggled to make fritters due to a spring roll he could bring to completion.




Finally, heh, there was the deconstructed stroganoff offering by contender Justin.

Just for giggles and grins, I include the recipe below. Any yon reader makes this thing, please send me a pic that the world may admire your handiwork.

I've watched enough of these cooking shows to know that so-called "deconstructing" of a recipe is considered haut cuisine, the sign of a chef extraordinaire.

The concept involves taking all the ingredients in a recipe and using them in some other fashion that would involve having these ingredients separate from incorporation in the recipe, but as distinguishable parts of a separate menu offering.

Pineapple upside down cake, for example, might have the cake part on the side, the pineapples mixed with brown sugar and butter to the side, with the cherries perhaps incorporated into a small salad. This might not be the best example but I am winging it.

It's something most home cooks would not likely ever do because, well why?

But for a chef trying to make a stellar impression to a bunch of judges? It's almost always considered a sort of cooking genius.

So Justin took the ingredients for Beef Stroganof and made some sort of checkerboard looking foodstuff. Check out the recipe for doing this. Also check out the picture.

Deconstructed beef stroganoff
Ingredients
2 cups beef broth
3 teaspoons agar agar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 shallots, diced
2 packs mixed mushrooms
4 ounces dark Russian beer
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
8 ounces beef tenderloin
Olive oil
Truffle salt
Ground black pepper
1 package mushroom tagliatelle
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons beet juice
2 tablespoons vodka
16 small mushroom caps, for garnish

Directions
Chill a small baking sheet (1/4 sheet pan) in the fridge.

Combine 1/2 cup beef broth with the agar agar in a bowl and let sit.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the vegetable oil and add the shallots, mushrooms, remaining 1 1/2 cups beef broth, beer, salt and sugar. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Add the moistened agar agar and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Pour onto the cold baking sheet and chill in the fridge until it forms a solid gel.

Slice the beef tenderloin into 1/4-inch-thick medallions and pound as thinly and evenly as possible.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over high heat and sear the beef slices on one side. Sprinkle with truffle salt and black pepper. Cook in batches if needed, adding more oil if needed. Transfer the beef slices to a large plate or baking sheet and place in the freezer until ready to serve.

Cook the pasta. Drain and rub with olive oil.

In a bowl, mix the sour cream, beet juice and vodka. Chill until ready to serve.
Slice the chilled beef into perfect squares, 1-inch-by-1-inch. Do the same with the now solid mushroom gel.

Plate the pasta flat, 2 to 3 strips per plate should suffice. On top of the pasta, arrange a 3-by-3 grid of mushroom gel and beef squares. Garnish with beet sour cream and mushroom caps.

This recipe was created by a contestant during a cooking competition. The Food Network Kitchens have not tested it for home use, therefore, we cannot make any representation as to the results.

The challenge for the episode aired 6/10/12 had Guy Fieri, he being a former Food Network Star himself, hosting the competition.

The show began on a serious note, I must suppose to add some gravitas to the contest. I thought it a bit dumb. This is a cooking show for God's sake, not Love of Life. Beginning scenes had the mentors sitting all close and comfy like with their charges. I had to laugh when Giada responded to one of her contender's laments of issues with such as accents with her own sad story of a childhood where she was bullied. Come on! The woman's beautiful and she comes from money! Now I know bullies are everywhere but dear Lord, if I know I'm beautiful and I go home to fancy abodes filled with fine artifacts, well I'd get over it.

After this soap opera beginning, the teams were challenged with:Alton-Halloween, Giada-big game day, Bobby-cooking for kids.

For some reason, Alton's team came up wih some weird sort of combo of "healthy" food and I'm still scratching my head at their food choices. The contenders were also, as a team, do a live presentation of their challenge.

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I thought the healthy food concept for a Halloween theme to be a bit dumb. Justin made, I'm not making this up, fried sardine bones. Seriously. And the judges loved them! Judson did the vegetarian chili, which the judges thought a bit ho-hum. Emily showed us how to make canned jelly or whatever. All I saw was her filliing up a canning jar with something, putting on the lid, and dropping it into a water bath.

Alton's team's live presentation was really bad, disjointed and poorly timed.

Giada's team prepared some really great food and did a terrific job on their live presentation. Their challenge was big game day, and no this did not mean preparing tigers, lions and bears. It was a tailgate kind of concept, feeding the crowd on the day of the big football game.

Giada's team prepared teriyaki hamburgers, tortillas, wings and football cookies consisting of two chocolate chip cookies with a sandwich filling, the cookie sandwich iced to look like a football.

Their presentation was playful and flowed very well.

Bobby's team was charged with preparing meals for children and they came up with a breakfast, lunch and dinner thing, with one juice recipe that was, eh, green.

The breakfast of some sort of ill-advised blender drink by Nikki was not well received by the children. A whole wheat pizza was prepared as well as a "spaghetti" made with squash instead of noodles and chicken tenders served with different dips that would allow the children to use the skewered grilled chicken as a pen to paint their plates with the various sauces. This was Malcolm's contribution and the judges thought he should have used his vantage point as a father in his presentation, that he blew what was a good opportunity.

Alton's team threw a dart at a map of the United States. This week Alton's entire team was in danger of elimination in that Giada and Bobby's teams were BOTH declared safe.

Wherever the dart landed the contenders had to prepare a dish from the state in which it landed.

Martie's dart landed in Pennsylvania when she was aiming at her native south.

The four elimination cook-off meals included a steak from Justin loaded with accompanying carbs , Emily made a chicken noodle with an Arizona accent made in a pressure cooker, Martie messed up her presentation, her dish being some sort of mushroom filled with cream cheese. Judson presented a dish from Arkansas, catfish, only a non-fried version of it as part of a story of his 115 pound weight loss.

JUSTIN SENT HOME

Below other posts on this Blog on Food Network 2012

Food Network Star 2012-Giada Still Gorgeous, Flay Still Nasty, Alton Still Snobby. The contenders are great.Food Network Star 2012 Begins; Let's Take a Look At How It Begins

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Food Network Star 2012-Giada Still Gorgeous, Flay Still Nasty, Alton Still Snobby. The contenders are great.

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So since the last article on the Next Food Network Star- the contenders have had to visit eateries in the New York area and fashion dishes similar to the restaurant and area of their visit. The contenders have also had to prepare a sweet snack with the ingredients in a picnic basket that were a surprise. Finally, the contenders served meals by the runway during New York's "fashion week".

For the restaurant visits, it's intriguing because the Food Network mentors went to areas and eateries that are in line with their own heritage. Giada's team went to Little Italy. Alton's team went to the Jewish lower east side. Flay's team went to Harlem, a place where barbecue is king.

The contenders were charged with preparing a meal based on their visit and describing the result.

Brandy Kissed Chocolate Mousse with Coconut Crumble by Linkie

Alton's team came up with puffed pastrami (Martie) and matzo meatloaf (Emily). Bobby's team concocted some catfish sliders (Michele), and a cheese turnover with a side of espresso caramel (Eric). Giada's team produced a fish serviche (Martita) and a batch of ricotta cannoli(Linkie).

It's difficult to believe that political correctness run amok to the point where reality cooking food shows have contenders tossed for using politically awkward verbiage. But Kara got the boot and she did refer to a cook at a restaurant as "black" which she later awkwardly changed to "African-American". Not saying that's why Kara got the boot but she was the one sent home.

I don't much like the challenge which include a bunch of weird ingredients that have the contenders trying to make something from mismatched foods.

One team's basket, for example, included kumquats, hershey kisses, graham crackers, tomatoes and pancetta. This was Alton's team and while there was no official team winner, judges Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson did mention that in their opinion Alton's team did the best.

I think it a big waste of time to watch someone cooking something with hershey kisses and tomatoes with kumquats. No sane person will likely ever make such a thing and I do enjoy learning from these shows.

The contenders still did yeoman's work with the weirdness and some intriguing results came from the FN kitchen, to include fried popcorn(Josh), some sort of Japanese dish called "tampuda"(Ippy) and cupcakes with fried pancetta (Emily).

Josh, the rock musician cook, finally ran out of time on this series. He's given awful presentations, served oily soup and been up for elimination twice.

Some of the Food Network Star Bloggers suggest Nikki is the one to watch on this series. However Nikki was put up for elimination by Bobby on the picnic basket desert challenge so I'm not sure she'll run away with this thing.

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All of the mentors have had a contender eliminated, leaving each now with a team of four each. It's almost too convenient.

Eric got the boot on the fashion runway challenge of making new dishes from old standbys.

I'd suggest viewers keep an eagle eye on Ippy and Linkie because, first, they deserve a break with those names. But these are the two contenders that I note have received profuse praise from the judges for either their food or their presentation, sometimes both.

It's early yet so these predictions are suggested with a whisper. Both of these contenders are on Giada's team and yes, I do expect her team to win this.

Keep an eye out for Justin on Alton's team as well. Justin won ten thousand bucks on the 6/3/12 fashion runway challenge. He's one to watch.

Food Network Star 2012 Begins; Let's Take a Look At How It Begins

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

Food Network Star 2012 Begins; Let's Take a Look At How It Begins

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So The Next Food Network Starhas begun and we're cool with the format. You got to smile, though, for the only Food Network Star that became much of anything was Guy Fieri, current host of Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives". Guy also has a couple of commercials under his belt. He was a great contender on The Next Food Network Star of 2010 and he's proof that stardom can be plucked from the Great Unwashed.


There is a new sort of format this year, borrowing a page from The Voice.

Three Food Network Celebrities: Giada De Laurentiis, Alton Brown and Bobby Flay, have chosen their team from the contender pool. There wasn't all the drama of The Voice, of course, but the main similarity is that these three celebrated cooks will be leading their teams and eventually one will win.

In fact I do have the composition of each celebrity chef's team:

Alton Brown
===========
Christie-caterer for movies
Martie-oldest person in contest
Judson-wears bowties-
Emily-loves the 50's era
Justin-youngest of group-has restaurant

Giada
==========
Phillip….IPPY-Hawaiian
Yvan-from Venezuela
Linkie-from South Africa, wedding culinary artist
Josh-Sushi chef/rock and roll chef
Martita-sexy, home chef

Bobby Flay
===========
Malcolm-41-private chef for celebrities
Kara-owns catering company
Michelle-executive chef
Eric-winery chef, quit his job for this
Nikki-loves to grill

I've included some notes that struck my fancy about each contender.

The task assigned to the teams for this, the first Next Food Network Star episode of this season, was to totally create a restaurant for each team. They were charged with choosing a name and a menu. Each contender would present their dish to the judges at their restaurant.

To entice whoever the hell gets invited to these things and for sure I should get an invite, each member of each team would present a short summary of their restaurant and the type of food to be served. After three presentations of the teams' restaurant and food type to be served, all the invitees, which did not include me, chose their restaurant and entered the appropriate door. Attendees would be filling out questionnaires about the dishes served and the winning team and best dish would be picked from this pool of votes.

Having the contenders create a sort of hype of their restaurant was a good idea in that it helped the judges envision the contender's ability to express his or her self, a very important trait in a cooking show as one would expect.

Bobby's team's restaurant was called "Tasting Space" and the contender leader was Nikki.

Alton's team's restaurant was called "Due South" and Emily was the contender leader.

Giada's team's restaurant was called "Blu" and featured something called California Cooking.


It would turn out that Bobby's team came in top place. Since Bobby's and Giada's teams were in the bottom two, each Food Network celebrity had to pick one of their team's contenders to face an elimination cookoff.

Alton put contender Cristie on the chopping block to compete against Giada's choice to throw under the bus-Josh the rock and roll chef.

It ended up with Cristie getting tossed and thank goodness.

Yes it's early in the episode's season for me to have such a dislike of a contender but the fact is that Cristie got tossed for pretty much the same reason as why I so disliked her.

The judges declared Cristie to come off as a bit angry and indeed she did.

First, come on, such as "cooking light" goes over like the proverbial lead balloon on cooking shows. "The Chew's" Daphne Oz is that show's resident food police and I'm willing to bet money that she was told to lay off the lectures. People do not watch cooking shows to learn how to cook light. Maybe they should, but they don't. It's that old leading the horse to water. If you put it on TV but nobody will watch, what good is that?

That was strike one. Strike two, may God forgive me, but this woman came off as such a judgemental fussy liberal sort who would get mad because she has all the answers and was going to show us heathens how to live and eat properly.

Of course as this thought crossed my mind I kind of mentally chided myself. "Pat, too much politics in everything" I thought.

But they did, the judges remarked how angry she seemed and I then mentally smiled.

Poor liberal Cristie, she said what appeared to be her anger was really her passion.

Heh.

Well they all say that, don't they?

At any rate, I don't much like Bobby Flay but he manages to stay in there don't he? I've never seen Flay cook up anything especially unique; his claim to fame is BBQ, what's the big challenge in that? Giada, well she's so beautiful it ought to be against the law. Watch any show Giada cooks on and note that always her blouse is cut down to here….pointing to my belly button. I always wonder why she doesn't cover up where you don't want hot grease to go but she's got it all. So what the hell is she doing cooking?

So the Next Food Network Star is off. When the contenders are culled down to around eight I will cover it every week in this Blog. Until then check in and see what we might have to say as the mood hits us.

For Blog posts on Food Network Star 2007 click here.

For Blog posts on Food NEtwork Star 2009 click here.


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