The show The Next Food Network Star has a formula. It starts out with a set number of contestants and over the course of weeks, all the contestants are eliminated, save one. That last person standing wins a deal to make a 13-episode series for the Food Network. However, this season, the execs at the Food Network seem to be messing with the formula a bit. Not only did they advance three contestants to the final round, now they've announced that finalist Adam Gertler (famous in Philly circles for his short-lived restaurant The Smoked Joint) is also going to be getting his own show. Called Will Work for Food, he'll be learning what goes into a variety of food industry jobs and passing this knowledge along to the viewers. Examples of the kinds of employment opportunities he'll be investigating include potato chip inspector, shark feeder and dog-food taste-tester. The show premieres on September 30 at 9:30 pm.
[via The Philadelphia Inquirer]










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-04-2008 @ 5:26PM
KF said...
Great title. I guess that means that Lisa, they "really, really didn't like you."
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8-04-2008 @ 5:43PM
Kat Kinsman said...
I'm so pleased! He was incredibly appealing on camera, and while he might not have the cooking chops that the rest possessed, I can easily see him filling a Marc Summers-style food culture role.
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8-04-2008 @ 7:06PM
Hungover Gourmet said...
Isn't this already a show on another channel? I distinctly remember watching a show where the host works at various food industry jobs.
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8-04-2008 @ 11:01PM
doug said...
nice! I was hoping that he would win but when he nor lisa won i was so bummed.Its nice to see that the food network could use him on a show in some fashion. lisa was to upscale for me to relate to..to polished..adam was more relate able to me and i enjoyed watching him.arron, if that was his name,the other guy who won,was just so uncomfortable in front of the camera and that made me uncomfortable to watch him. I was so surprised that he won.
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8-04-2008 @ 11:49PM
kindageeky said...
Food network doesn't care about foodies, unless Alton Brown is involved (Good Eats, ICA), I'll pass.
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8-05-2008 @ 10:15AM
DeWitte said...
That's interesting. You'd link Lisa would have some kind of recourse now, as it does seem the littlest bit unfair to her that two people got their own shows. I liked all three of them in different ways - at least you can't accuse Lisa of dumbing down her food.
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8-05-2008 @ 10:28AM
Pyrofish said...
That show sounds like it belongs on Discovery not Food network. I guess they need to compete on multiple fronts, but it doesn't sound like a show I'd watch. I think I would have enjoyed watching the more complex food that Lisa was cooking. Despite her Vulcan haircut, and lack of eyes while smiling, I wouldn't have held it against her food ;-)
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8-05-2008 @ 12:57PM
Bernie B said...
One thing that became clear during his stint on TNFNS is that Adam oozes with personality. The Food Network has had some pretty lackluster hosts in the past and casting Adam in a Hosting capacity makes a lot of sense.
He'd be great hosting a re-launch of Ready, Set, Cook. Assuming any of you are old enough to remember it.
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8-05-2008 @ 1:11PM
Gary said...
Excellent! He should have won the Next Food Network Star to begin with. He is easily the most watchable of the 3. I dont know how Lisa even made it to the finals. She was annoying and always looked like she ate something sour. Aaron is too hard to understand and NOT good in front of the camera.
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8-05-2008 @ 2:09PM
Dr. L. said...
FN has learned that they can screen for new, young (cheap!) talent, and fire the expensive old talent. Except for Rachael Ray, who has a no talent.
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8-06-2008 @ 1:18PM
Melinda said...
The interesting thing is that Adam actually got a better deal than he would have had he won TNFNS!
Aaron's show is on Sunday mornings/early afternoons--a time when FoodNetwork tends to run repeats of their more popular shows OR shows that no one has heard of.
Adam, on the other hand, has landed in Primetime! It looks like his show will follow Food Detectives, which I think is one of the better shows on the Food Network (especially considering that it doesn't actually involve *cooking*. Of course, more and more Food Network shows are food documentaries and not actually cooking shows).
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8-06-2008 @ 2:25PM
brian said...
So... Food Network has really given up on the cooking shows, huh? They now have a food mythbusters and a food dirty jobs. Why not just rename themselves Discovery Food?
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8-09-2008 @ 6:12AM
Michael said...
Lisa was just a really odd case... She seemed to have more skills than Adam or Aaron, but she just seemed unlikable. Even at the end with her "If I can master this at 13, then you can now" just seems condescending. Then she tops it off by saying she's so happy for Aaron because "he and his family really needed this". She's just strange...so much so that I can't help but wonder if she's a made up character!
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8-24-2008 @ 4:02PM
Andrew said...
Agreed with Michael about Lisa - it just didn't click (too bad). While Aaron may have been more knowledgeable about food, Adam's concept was much better. Question though: did they take Adam's concept show and move it to Aida (which sounds very similar) or did they already have that one in the bag?
If the latter, then they pretty much already had their mind made up on Aaron.
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8-24-2008 @ 7:08PM
Andrew said...
Food Network up here in Canada has some awesome shows that Food Network US would do well to copy.
Our Cooking with Chefs series totally rocks for cooking. Chefs make 3-4 dishes in a 360 studio, giving tips and tricks. All dishes revolve around one basic concept or ingredient.
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