Spoilers!
It hasn't even been a week since the season finale of Top Chef, and I'm already into a new show. It's a rebound -- something new and exciting to occupy me for now, and who knows what it could turn into? A brief fling? A multi-season love affair? I feel so giddy.
So just to clarify: Last night was my first evening spent with The Next Food Network Star. I'm going to be writing recaps for the rest of the season, but my experience with the show is limited to one episode, plus all of the online content. That means that all you veteran watchers should feel free to help me out whenever possible with details from past seasons, etc. And if you haven't seen the show, start watching Sundays at 10 p.m. EST and we can learn together!
The show allows contestants to compete for their own show on the Food Network. I'm not going to run through all of the contestants individually, but you can check out all of their bios here.
For the mini-challenge this episode, the contestants had to show off their culinary points of view with a dish featuring one special ingredient: the potato. The dish had to be creative, tasty, and an expression of the contestant. It didn't take long for me to realize that the contestants are no Top Chefs. Initially, I was like, how on earth could these people possibly be on the Food Network? Their food isn't cooked! But I graciously decided to just accept it and move on. The contestants are funny and interesting, so it's okay with me if their culinary skills aren't out of this world. I have to say, though, that Kelsey's gratin with pancetta looked poisonously raw. I like her though -- she reminds me so much of Lo from The Hills. Does anyone else see that? Even Aaron's bacon-wrapped potato and Adam's cheese fries, which the judges seemed to like, didn't really appeal to me. And this was really kooky: Jennifer made a mashed potato pizza, and tried to pass it off as low-carb. I love crazy pizzas as much as anyone (fruit, chocolate, fig, whatever), but I found this one a bit too much. Poor girl was nervous out of her mind.
Moving on the to the second challenge, the contestants had to create their own packaged food product in a jar and market it to 50 buyers from food stores across the country. Essence of Emeril-style. This totally got me thinking about a product that I would jar for myself. I'm still deciding between a chunky berry french toast/pancake/waffle topping and perfect cream cheese frosting.
Anyway, the contestants headed to the food store to pick out the ingredients for their jarred selves. Nipa nabbed all of the cayenne pepper in the store for her sweet and spicy peanut seasoning (two ingredients: cayenne and sugar), leaving Aaron with none for his apple cider vinaigrette. This sorely disappointed him, since cayenne was his secret ingredient. After the contestants whipped up their products, they presented them to the food buyers and guest judge MARTHA STEWART. Lisa and Kelsey flipped. Lisa literally proclaimed her love for culinary goddess, and Kelsey couldn't stop talking about the fact that she served sloppy joe's/jane's (her product was an all-purpose sauce) to Martha Stewart. Ms. Stewart isn't really a sloppy anything kind of gal, as she made clear by requesting a fork with her sample. I think that the fact that Kelsey felt embarrassed about serving her sauce to Martha says something about the quality of the product itself. In other news, Adam, who created a smoke rub, broke out his harmonica and sang to Martha Stewart on his knees. Other contestants were more forgettable, though Ms. Steward certainly inspired some odd behavior in many of the contestants.
In the end, the judges (Bobby Flay and Food Network honchos Susie Fogelson and Bob Tuschman) liked Lisa and Adam, and Martha liked Aaron. Lisa's deal is that she likes high-quality ingredients, Adam is the BBQ guy, and Aaron likes BBQ too. The contestants are really into drilling their "personalities" into the camera. The judges sent home Jeffrey, the soul-food guy, because his soul-food salt rub lacked flavor. Perhaps my favorite part of the entire experience was watching his exit interview online with Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet, who is one of my personal foodie heroes and inspirations. His blogging is one of the reasons I began watching the show to begin with. Adam, if you ever read this, just know that I love you like Lisa loves Martha Stewart.
So first impressions: Lisa's good, though I'm afraid she'll overwhelm herself and make a serious error. Aaron is awesome, ditto Adam. The judges are right that Shayne and Nipa need to step up their energy, and Kelsey needs to cool hers. Jennifer is a bit forgettable, but I could really see her developing. Now, you share! What do you think of the show?
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-16-2008 @ 9:55AM
R. P. McMurphy said...
To me it's almost unwatchable. I watched the first 10 minutes and it's just way too "reality" (unrealistic) for me.
And the judges are almost as bad as Gail on top chef....ugh.
http://randallpmcmurphy.blogspot.com
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6-16-2008 @ 10:51AM
doodoolemonque said...
I did watch one episode last night, my first, in which one of the contestants ran away from the judges. Literally. Then, they let her stay! I can't wait until she gets her own show....you'll be on the edge of your seat wondering if she'll run, or will she able to finish the show!! How exciting! Oh please. And that character Robert Levine was involved, too. I guess these shows were shot before his resume fudging was revealed and they couldn't excise him from the episode. And of course, they couldn't produce a show without Bobby Flay, who apparently has incriminating photos of someone, and appears on the network without surcease.
I will say this, the original season produced Guy Fieri, who I do enjoy. He's an original in the sense that Julia Childs was; an out of the box personality with a natural way with himself and the audience. I can't vouch for his cooking skills, but its always funny to see him paired with one of those stiff, "something-up-his-butt" Food Network co-hosts. To his credit, Fieri does not talk down to these professional stiffs, and he does not change his own delivery to match theirs. He was born for this stuff, but I do not see another like him in this batch of contestants. To the contrary, aside from little Miss Run-a-way, there is simply nothing there.
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6-16-2008 @ 10:58AM
boss sauce said...
This show is pure hoax-- the end of last season was literally unbelievable. Blech.
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6-16-2008 @ 11:07AM
laura said...
the original season did not produce Guy Fieri, Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh were the winners of the first season which was in 2005. They had a show "party line with the hearty boys" Guy was from the second season.
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6-16-2008 @ 11:45AM
b said...
This is really a bad show in so many ways. It seems like rather than getting a seasoned cook/chef, they're looking for qualities and personality of someone you'd find hosting the Home Shopping Network / QVC.
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6-16-2008 @ 1:07PM
GL said...
I find this seasons cast to be embarrising.
I'll still watch it and hope one of them grows on me. I thought it would be Lisa because I think she has some skill, but the Martha bit was unnerving.
For the record, Fieri seems forced and fake to me. I'll take another Flay show any day.
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6-16-2008 @ 1:18PM
doodoolemonque said...
I stand corrected. Thank you. I have to say I do not know the other two you mentioned, but I also stand behind my opinions re: Fieri and most of the Food Network stiffs.
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6-16-2008 @ 1:40PM
Kathy said...
I'm recapping TNFNS too: http://minxeats.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Next%20Food%20Network%20Star
I'm just watching it for the laughs.
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6-16-2008 @ 3:02PM
Alex said...
It is something to watch during the summer, but regardless it is a pretty bad show. So far this season is keeping consistent with last season: somebody cries each and every episode.
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6-16-2008 @ 3:28PM
lizandrsn said...
..I like that the Producers work to make each season a little different from the previous seasons.
..Winning this competition is no guarantee that a hit show will follow. With the exception of Guy, where did the other winners end up? They may have won a show, but not the viewers. I can only imagine that Food Network is pressuring the Judges for a real winner that will really connect with their core demographics -- otherwise it's just The Bachelor with groceries.
..Many of the Network's stock of talent (Giada, Paula Deen, the Neeley's) would not have made it to the small screen if they had had to audition via TNFNS. It must be terribly difficult to show their culinary confidence as well as win over the Judges (who are stodgy and snide at times). Does Bobby Flay ever enjoy the process without attempting to steal a recipe for one of his restaurants? Shesh!
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6-16-2008 @ 10:22PM
patrick said...
this show ranks with the fox version of hell's kitchen: awful. and guy fieri survives because the food network is so out of touch with reality that it envisions him as the epitome of cool. spiked blonde hair? hell yes! I saw my daughter's boyfriend with that haircut a decade ago! Let's hire him!
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6-17-2008 @ 3:09AM
Bernie B said...
One thing about last season and something JAG said about Food Network not catering to more minority cooking. I'd have to agree. Where's the Asian, Cuban, African, etc.. ethnic cuisine that isn't already over-represented on their cable channel?
There's a lot of food out there to be discovered, but Food Network doesn't seem to want to break out of regional US cooking [Americana, Italian, Tex-Mex, Southern, Creole/French]. At least they have Alton Brown who gets outside of the box.
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6-18-2008 @ 12:30AM
thorswitch said...
I actually enjoy the show - in part because it can be so unintentionally funny at times. Last season was really screwy with the whole JAG debacle - hopefully they did a bit better job vetting contestants this time around!
I was initially surprised to see Robert Irvine on the show, but then realized that the his scandal broke in like late February, so I'm pretty sure they had already filmed the episode (and several after that) before it came to light.
Recently, I read that Amy, last season's winner, was offered a renewal for her series, so I'd guess she got decent enough ratings as far as the network was concerned. She turned them down, however - IIRC, she felt it would take too much time away from her family.
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6-18-2008 @ 1:32AM
AnniesNYeats said...
I'm recapping this show as well: http://www.annienewman.typepad.com
This show is emblematic of the best and worst of the Food Network. If you feel that Food Network lowers the standards of real chefs, you won't like this show; the contestants are rarely accomplished cooks, and, like Guy Fieri, it's their personalities which are important. On the other hand, they do have to have some food knowledge, and be able to prepare simple dishes without hurting themselves.
If you like the brashness of Food Network personalities and the spin which the network places on old-fashioned instructional shows, you'll like The Next Food Network Star. The challenges are interesting and the contestants' reactions are broad. Thomas "deadpan" Keller, the dignified and brilliant leading American chef of the day, would flunk out in the first round.
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6-20-2008 @ 7:19AM
Ilaynay said...
"It seems like rather than getting a seasoned cook/chef, they're looking for qualities and personality of someone you'd find hosting the Home Shopping Network / QVC."
Well, yes. The problem here is that they're looking for a television chef, not a restaurant chef. Thus, they need someone who can host a show and be engaging and sell the idea of their food. Since you can't taste the food you're viewing on TV, they don't really need someone who has great cooking chops. As long as it's a good concept (that could be properly executed by someone who was able to cook correctly) and looks good on camera, it doesn't matter if the chicken's pink on the inside or whatever. Finding a seasoned chef is not really the point of this competition, and I'm not sure it even pretends to be. (I mean, come on. One of the competitors this year is eighteen years old. If they were looking for "seasoned" he wouldn't have made it *into* the interview process, much less through it.)
Frankly, I'd rather have someone on TV who's interesting to watch, and let the seasoned chefs stay in the restaurants cooking food for people to actually eat.
Personally, I'm with Kathy. I'm just watching it for the laughs. I wouldn't dream of taking this (or pretty much any reality TV) seriously. I don't expect shows like this one to actually get the winners anywhere or give them any particular advantage in their chosen industry; Fieri is a notable exception to the rule. Since I have such low expectations, it's easy to be pleased with the show.
On a final note, I can never see Lisa smile without thinking of little anime girls. Her eyes just squish all up and the heavy eyeliner and mascara make them into little lines with lashes at the end. If she wins, I hope her show comes with a competent makeup artist who can teach her all about how sometimes less is more.
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6-23-2008 @ 9:48AM
Rosemary Marshall said...
After the horrible episode of last night (6/22/08) I definitely will NOT be watching anymore. Where on earth did they get these "wanabee chefs"? It was just appalling! Reality TV is just "BLECH". Guess I will just curl up with a good book.
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7-05-2008 @ 7:51PM
BroomallBabe said...
Let's face it. I'm a dork. I'll watch any cooking competition. I'm rooting for Aaron because he is a neighbor, well far away, but he's got a dynamite smile and seems to know how to cook. I am so grateful Nipa, who had a undeserved opinion of herself, is gone. And I've gotten to like Lisa. You're right about the judges, they want a personality. I loved the hearty boys and found the gourmet next door boring. Why didn't they keep Paul and train him like they trained Giada. I cracked up when he said, "Plummy" and it still tickled me.
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7-07-2008 @ 2:44PM
Ron said...
I am beginning to think the show is rig and a favorite is picked on ay one. The July 6 show was a farce. One contestent literally shut down during the 4 minute presentation (the Dutch Boy Haircut girl) and the panel fawns all over her. This weeks loser was given a kid to work with that I am not sure was even alive--just stood there and pouted when Shane tries to engage her. Then during the presentation the judges acuse him of not rememberingthe kids name - all he did was call her "his little sous chef and they draw the conclusion that he didn't remember. I'm not sure that even if he had used the kid'snameshe would have responded. If I remember how the show started the Flay only said the contestants had to come up with something the kid would like to eat. I already have it figured out, I know who the winner will be just by the way the"jugdes" look for ways to cut someone out of the competition. After all the show is really about the number of commercial;s they can subject you to - I could prepare a four course meal during each commercial segment. I doubt if I will watch the show to its conclusion, it is farce.
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