Food TV

Last week I wrote an article on my blog, Literary Illusions, about my thoughts on the Next Food Network Star. I had my favorite in the bottom three. I think this week only ended up reminding me why my favorite was who he is. For me, the show had some serious ups and downs, but before I get into those immediate thoughts that are rolling around in my brain, why don’t we go over what happened during the show.

Tonight’s show was all about the possible stars learning about the media. As the media presence is a big part of being on Food TV, the three contenders got to go through a day of media training/excursions. The day started with the Ron and Fez show, which airs on XM Radio. Each contestant went into the show, was asked some questions, and got to make a quick and easy snack out of some incredibly random foods that just happened to be in the studio (If anyone has ever seen a craft services table then you know what I’m talking about). The rules were pretty simple. The contestants needed to go in, market themselves and the show, respect their fellow contestants, and offer a good taste of who they were.

Amy went in first. She was quick on her feet when she made a bagel with bologna and cheese sandwich. She managed to be both professional and personable. While she has that sense of gourmet-Paris snobbery about her, she did well on the radio, as more of the mom and less of the gourmet shined through. The judges felt she was confident and personable, as well.

 JAG came on and was laid back according to the Food Network media relations experts. His performance was steady and I think it worked out well. There was a somewhat sticky situation at one point when he pointed out that Food TV does not have as big an ethnic following as he would like, but he did his best to go on without causing any trouble. The judges felt dissed, but he explained that it had little to do with his feelings towards Food Network. During his cooking moment, he made up a sliced doughnut with apples and a shot of some fresh squeezed orange juice.

Rory was last on the radio lineup. She managed to fall into every trap you could imagine when it came to interviews. In fact, one of the first questions she had to face was who she thought would be easier to beat. After a moment of thinking she felt Amy would be easier to beat because JAG had his entire “ethnic backing” going on. Personally, I felt that her dissing both of her co-contestants was a bad idea. Her food for the show was some impromptu crushed up fortune cookies with maple syrup and apples that were heated in the microwave. The guys didn’t like it.

Amy was listed as the winner for that round by the judges, but they would soon be moving on to phase two. The second phase was an interview and photo session with Star Magazine. Rory seemed incredibly excited about being in Star, which I thought was a little odd since it’s a pretty notable rag sheet rather than a reputable magazine.

While in the magazine interview JAG seemed very reserved. It was obvious that he didn’t want to answer questions that were too deep into his past and I cannot say that I blame him. However, when the interviewer brought up things he wasn’t sure how to answer because he didn’t want to, it seemed like he was clamming up. The photo shoot turned out excellent. From the looks of it, he had fun and so did the others involved. There were some great shots fired.

Rory was next. She went for the big and bold personality, which she obviously has. They asked her something about being pretty and a star and her response was something about looks not mattering. However, earlier in the season, I remember her stating that it never hurt to use your looks in a positive way to sell your food while wearing a skimpy top that showed off massive cleavage. I believe that was when they were at the game selling food to fans. Additionally, her photo shoot looked a little on the body sales side, too. I don’t know if it’s just me or she has an overly arched back, but every time they caught her in a pose, it looked like she was sticking her chest out on purpose.

Amy was the last one to be interviewed and her main appeal was that she was very open and genuine in her actions. She came across as a mom, which is excellent when you’re trying to appeal to the home cook.

Again, the winner seemed to be Amy, but these challenges were nothing compared to what was coming up. The third and final challenge of the day was worth the majority of the points in deciding who would stay and who would go.

The last challenge would allow the three to appear in front of a live audience on the Rachel Ray show. Each contestant would have five minutes to cook their signature dish. In this time, they also needed to engage Rachel as the host, excite the audience, promote their style of cooking, and mention the Next Food Network Star.

Like at XM Radio, Amy had a chance to go first. She made some overly complicated (so it seemed) egg dish. The problem with Amy was that she goes through these mom phases and these gourmet cliché snotty French phases. It’s obvious that she loves Paris since she’s mentioned it several times, but in the end when she works to over-complicate her food it hurts her ability to have the home cook relate to her. That is exactly what she did on the show.

Sure, she can call it all fancy schmancy, but home cooks see it as more than your typical fancy food fare. They see it as too much for the every day event, and part of the reason for this was the she seemed to add the Paris back story and frou frou to everything she did this season. In the end, she pointed out she was the Gourmet next Door, but she felt like she was the Gourmet in Paris and everyone else was still here. Rachael tended to lead her through the entire show and help her through everything so in the end Rachael was engaging Amy more than the other way around. However, she did story tell (too much about Paris) and she promoted the show and herself, which was good.

Rory was second in the lineup. She was making grilled strip steak, sugar grilled asparagus (which were done ahead of time), and some potatoes that were Texas style. She gave a few tips, including one on cooking with Cedar Shingle planks on the BBQ. She was the opposite of Amy in the fact that she just overpowered everything on stage and ended up seeming like a good old fashioned Texas tornado. At one point, Rachael jumped out of the way when Rory was cooking and was often seen trying to jump into the “Rory Show” because Rory wasn’t giving her much room or availability to be part of things. Another interesting tip, obviously a humorous one at that, was that nothing makes fat taste better than more fat (I am sure that is going to help the obesity rate in the U.S.)! She made some herb butter and recommended that home chefs throw whatever herbs they had in their kitchen in the bowl. As someone who knows quite a bit about cooking and has worked in restaurants, I don’t know that I would agree with that, as so many herbs just don’t go together, but I will say that if you placed her food next to Amy’s in this competition I would have picked Rory’s this time minus the herb butter, of course.

Finally, JAG was up and ready to cook. He came out blazing and it was obvious, if only for that moment that Food Network might have a star on their hands. JAG captured the audience, included Rachel in such a great way, and he talked about the food so the viewer knew what was going on. In honor of Rachel, JAG named one of his sauces (extra virgin olive oil and annatto seed, which turned it red) EVOO-Red, which Rachael loved. There was such a dynamic essence about him while on Rachael that I felt an Emeril vibe from him, which was a very good thing that not many chefs have to offer. While he also forgot to promote the show his larger than life presence really helped him to steal it instead.

JAG really managed to win this one. The question then became whether his performance would be enough to keep him in the top two.

During the evaluation, the judges felt that Rory did not include Rachael enough and that her inconsistencies proved to be a big problem. Rory felt she over thought things, which affected her food point of view and her cooking, but when the judges requested consistency, Rory cut them off to tell them that she could give them what they wanted. Bobby pointed out that Rory felt that he was hard on her and despite that, out of the three he was going to ask her to stay. That left Amy and JAG with one of them going home.

On Rachael Amy went back to frou frou according to the judges. Her dish was more complicated in sound then it was in reality and they weren’t sure why she chose to sabotage her food in that way. While the audience used to be able to relate to her, with the over-gourmet vibe she becomes extremely unapproachable. However, Amy promised that she was the Gourmet next Door and not the snooty French girl that she played on television.

Finally JAG was up. Rachael felt he did an amazing job. The judges felt that he was incredibly unpredictable. Every show caused the judges to learn plenty of new things about JAG and he really was fascinating, to the audience and to the judges. However, they also felt he was hard to understand because he tried to hold back on his past. On the good side, Chef Flay commented that at least 90% of JAG’s food had been amazing.

In the end, Amy was sent home because her food was just too fancy and that made it inaccessible to the average home cook.
That was when the bomb dropped. A black screen came up and explained that JAG had lied about some things and the Network had found out about them. Apparently, JAG claimed that he had been in Afghanistan during his stint in the armed forces and that he had graduated from culinary school. He was worried that this would affect the network poorly and his reputation would hurt them. In the end, he was a Marine, he did not serve in Afghanistan, and while he did go to school, he didn’t finish. JAG decided to do the noble thing and step down from the competition. The judges wished him all the best and accepted his bowing down from the competition.

As my heart was sinking at the prospect of having Rory on my beloved Food TV Network (because this meant she won by default right?), an unpredictable and potentially unwanted glimmer of hope (if you can call it that) emerged. The judges called in Rory and she was informed that JAG had bowed out of the competition. The shot they decided to show of her reaction made it seem like the wheels were churning in poor, little, blonde, Rory’s head. For an instant, it seemed like she thought she had won, although, would it have really been winning if she didn’t have any competition in the match? However, the judges decided to let Amy come back to compete against Rory. The judges agreed that Amy’s food was good and she deserved a shot.

I have to say, this outcome really bummed me out. I liked JAG a lot and while it was wrong of him to lie, this is a food competition, and that is what I have always tried to look at the most. Would I eat the food? Was it accessible for someone like me, who might be deemed the average cook? JAG’s food always blew me away and I loved his energy. I don’t feel that Amy or Rory fit the bill as a Food Network star. In the end, out of lack of choice, I will vote for Amy and hope that she wins, mainly because I don’t feel that Rory’s brash and abrasive behavior is anything I want to see on a Network that I watch more than any non-movie network on cable.

The Next Food Network Star, Food TV, Amy Finley, JAG, Rory, Rachael Ray, Reality Show