Food Network Star

by Ian Jackman

  What is the biggest number of people the Hearty Boys have ever cooked for?

  Dan: The catering arm of the company regularly caters a holiday party for one of the largest buildings in downtown Chicago so that’s about 5000 people.

  Accessible is the word you use to describe your business and your food. How has that concept evolved over the years?

  Steve: We look at every item on our menu at Hearty with an eye to accessibility. I’ve been focusing for years on craft cocktails and have developed an impressive cocktail list. But I’m not looking at it in the same way as some of the elite spots that are making their own bitters and tonic. Everything I serve at Hearty needs to be able to be explained to my guests in such a way that they know they can make this themselves. Education is a very important part of the dining experience for me; I want to open something to you that you haven’t had before and make you feel empowered that you could do this as well.

  Does one of you cook more than the other at home?

  Steve: Hell, yes. And the same one tends to do the dishes too. I’m blessed.

  Season TWO

  With Season One winners Hearty Boys Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh launched, Season Two introduced eight new finalists and settled on the three-person Selection Committee that has remained in place through Season Seven: Food Network execs Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson teamed with network superstar chef Bobby Flay. “The reason that I’ve had some success in food television is because I am passionate about what is in front of me,” said Bobby. “The food is the most important thing. If you remember that, the other stuff becomes easy.”

  “The judges have good chemistry. We are really respectful and loving to one another, which makes it wonderful for me and quite a unique experience.”

  —Susie Fogelson

  THE FINALISTS

  1. Carissa Seward. Carissa grew up on a dairy farm in Washington State. Devastated by her mom’s death in 2003, she asked herself, “What do I love?” She applied to the ultra-prestigious Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. To her shock she was accepted, so she sold up and moved to France. To Carissa, the kitchen can be fun, sexy, and interesting; her POV: “Simply Delicious, Simply French.” Standing in a bikini on the beach, Carissa told us, “I want to bring some of this heat into your kitchen.”

  2. Andy Schumacher. Once he realized that his true love was cooking, Andy moved to New York to attend culinary school. But with a young family—fiancée Carrie and daughter Sienna—he needed a steady income and left his position as a line cook for a desk job. Andy brought to the show his energy and knowledge. “I can cook a mean steak and make ’em laugh too.” His POV: teaching basic techniques of cooking by “Bringing the Restaurant Home.”

  3. Guy Fieri. Guy’s mantra—“I like to live big, laugh hard, and cook wild”—came with the POV “Off the Hook and Out of Bounds.” His wife, Lori, was eight and a half months pregnant when the show filmed, and they already had a son, Hunter. Owner of three restaurants, Guy had an “extremely powerful personality . . . like a steamroller. He just makes things happen,” said Lori. Guy agreed: “I don’t really have an on or off switch. I’m goin’ or I’m sleepin’,” he said. “If I was food, I think I’d be lasagna. Multilayered, meaty, a little cheesy, a little spicy—and I feed everyone.”

  4. Evette Rodriguez. Evette was chosen by fans through videos posted on the Food Network website. Puerto Rican, a mom, married with four kids, Evette grew up speaking Spanish at home. “I love to cook with spicy Latin flavor.” She hadn’t enjoyed being in the kitchen because feeding the family was a serious business—until one day she realized it wasn’t a chore at all. Now cooking is her passion.

  5. Reggie Southerland. From behind the counter at the Comfort Cafe, presenting his bounty of baked goods, Reggie beamed his positive energy. “If it’s cookies or pie, I’m your guy,” said Reggie. “I think my personality is going to win me the show.” Reggie was bringing to the contest his comfort food, presented in a very chic, modern way: “Southern Boy, City Style.”

  6. Beth Raynor. Beth, a self-proclaimed food nerd, was shown on TV reading cookbooks. In 2001 she was running her own catering business when the dot-com bust put paid to her dream job. Temporarily. Next Food Network Star gave her the chance to get back to cooking full-time, the missing piece in her life. “I’m going to help you get fresh in the kitchen,” said Beth. Her mission: “Healthy full-flavor meals with fresh local ingredients.”

  7. Jess Dang. Born in Vietnam, Jess came to the United States at age two. She attended Stanford and worked sixty hours a week at a consulting firm, cooking when she got home. Jess’s view of her strengths: She’s a quick learner and receptive to feedback. “I’m bringing spunk into your kitchen,” she said.

  8. Nathan Lyon. Multitalented Nathan went to culinary school after his mom asked him what he would do if money wasn’t an issue. Cooking was his passion. He was also trained as a personal trainer and a stained-glass artist who worked two food-related jobs: at a jazz restaurant owned by Herb Alpert and at a stand at the local farmers market. This informed his POV of seasonal cooking: “From the Market to Your Table.” Nathan was forthright and confident: “Food is very sexy. I love food, competing, attention, the camera. . . . I will win this competition.”

  THE FIRST CHALLENGE

  In an uncharacteristically gentle first challenge, new finalists were presented with a brown paper bag containing something they particularly liked to cook with: Guy with an onion; Andy, a piece of pork; Nathan, a bottle of red wine; Reggie, figs; Beth and Jess, shrimp; Carissa, beef; and Evette, potatoes. The task was to make a dish showcasing themselves. Beth quickly won the prize for first knife wound, and the demo revealed her falling prey to other familiar hazards, especially running out of time.

  “I’m a bit of a perfectionist and like to take my time to make sure I understand all the components of anything I’m trying to learn. I think that makes me a good cook, but I wasn’t prepared for the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants pace in production. I was a communication and media-arts major in college and have done a bit of on-camera work. It was nothing like the frenzied pace of Next Food Network Star, which was more like the tornado scene in The Wizard of Oz.”

  —Beth Raynor

  Reggie thought he’d nailed it with his fig salad, and Guy looked like he’d been on TV for years. “He’s so strong,” said Susie. Nathan’s bulgogi was way too complicated (“It looks easier on TV”), and Jess didn’t enjoy her first experience on camera: “I think I kind of lost my head.”

  what is BULGOGI?

  Bulgogi is a Korean dish of thin-sliced marinated beef flavored with soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar and often eaten with rice in a lettuce leaf. As Nathan demonstrated, it takes much longer than five minutes to prepare.

  Knife Skills

  If the first challenge seemed too easy, it was. In walked the Iron Chefs: Masaharu Morimoto, the original Iron Chef Japan, Mario Batali, and Bobby Flay.

  “What’s going to happen next, Elvis?”

  —Guy Fieri

  Masaharu Morimoto’s challenge tested finalists’ knife skills for accuracy, consistency, speed, and beauty, while Mario Batali wanted them to deconstruct and describe a dish and Bobby Flay judged presentation. Morimoto asked everyone to dice an onion, cut a carrot into julienne, and filet a fish.

  Filleting the fish was not a highlight for most finalists. Beth gave up. “Basically, she doesn’t have any knife skills,” Morimoto commented. To talkative Reggie, Morimoto critiqued: “You are trying to use your mouth instead of your knife.” Evette, who had never handled fish before, was lost from the start.

  “Honestly, I was very green. My husband and I had four children to care for at the time; my budget was always pretty tight and I had not seen such a beautiful fish in its entire, wholesome form. I was taken aback. I did not know how to fillet a fish and I was fearful of destroying it.”

  —Evette Rodriguez

  Chefs Batali and Flay were kinder and gentler to the finalists, even joking a
round at times. To Guy Fieri, whose hands and wrists were decked out in bling, Bobby Flay said, “We’re trying to figure out whether you want to be a cook or a jeweler.”

  The elimination room was a Season Two innovation, a darker room suited to cutting finalists. But today, after the critiques, there was no drama. “We don’t know anyone well enough,” said Susie. “We’re not going to eliminate anyone.”

  THE SELECTION COMMITTEE

  “CBS Productions knew they wanted at least one Food Network executive on the judging panel, since the person was going to work for the network. So a lot of executives auditioned, and Susie and I were chosen. I was shocked by this development. Sitting with Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, and Susie on camera is enough to humble anybody’s ego. I have been in this business for thirty years now but behind the camera my whole career. I’ve worked in a lot of jobs. I worked for several years for Diana Ross in several roles, as her assistant, writer, script reader, and in film production. I worked at ABC News as a producer on Good Morning America, and I was an agent for a couple of years. So I spent a lot of time making other people look good on camera, and in my thirteen years at Food Network finding people I thought could be stars. It’s astounding to me when anyone recognizes me on the street or sends me a fan letter or even cares who I am. I’m like, ‘Oh, right, I forgot.’ There are millions of people who watch me on TV and know who I am.”

  —Bob Tuschman

  “For me it has been a labor of love to find our next star. . . . The being-on-television part, I think you can probably tell I have no sense of it. I don’t focus on it, I barely look at it. I just try to do the job I’m asked to do. I’m originally from L.A. I was a media planner at Chiat/Day advertising agency. Nickelodeon was one of our clients, and I loved the business of television. I went to Nickelodeon as a marketing manager and had a good run. Eleven years ago I came to Food Network.”

  —Susie Fogelson

  “I think Susie is the toughest judge. What makes her such a great marketer is that she is totally driven by her gut. She feels things very deeply, very immediately, and she’s very vocal; she’ll let you know exactly what she thinks. I am a little more measured in my tone and in putting together where I think someone is in the process.”

  —Bob Tuschman

  “It is the most personal journey a finalist will ever go through. I think it is an unbelievable gift to have people like Bob, Bobby, and me, people who are arguably at the top of our game, doing an intensive boot camp with them. You couldn’t buy that. If you like this business, here is a famous chef-restaurateur who has made it on TV. Learn from him. He is here to help you. Here is Bob, who green-lights shows and knows what success looks like, and me, who takes off from the show and hopefully creates the stars. We really are here for you, to make you great.”

  —Susie Fogelson

  Nuts and Bolts

  No one is better equipped to show finalists how to do television than Rachael Ray, with multiple shows on the network, more than a dozen cookbooks, and a magazine. Rule Number One for television: Never stop! For their next challenge, in episode two, the finalists had to get comfortable with the off-putting TelePrompTer that scrolls the script. You have to have your head on a swivel, following the stage manager’s direction as to which camera to address. Rachael was able to embellish the lines she was given; the finalists struggled to keep up.

  Nathan believed that armed with Rachael’s advice he would be unstoppable, but she chided him for describing his meat geekily as “protein.” Who does that?

  Guy got the point and “kept going.” When he couldn’t find a can opener for his tomatoes, he said he simply didn’t use them. Good save.

  In the challenge, finalists had thirty minutes to prepare a dish to demo for five minutes on camera. Culinary producer Harriet Siew handed out breakdowns—the recipe instructions plus the chef’s movements and actions. Finalists had to set up a mise-en-place—the prepared ingredients they would need—along with any swap-outs. (A swap-out is a finished step in the recipe prepared ahead of time by Food Network cooks.)

  Andy said he should have had more ingredients cut up before his demo so he could have spent more time talking. It was Andy’s first demo, said Bob, but the food—“It’s good.”

  CURRY CREAMED CHICKEN

  with Couscous Salad

  Recipe courtesy Andrew Schumacher

  Yield: 4 servings • Prep Time: 20 minutes • Cook Time: 25 minutes • Ease of Preparation: intermediate

  COUSCOUS SALAD

  1¼ cups couscous

  1½ cups chicken stock, boiling

  ½ cup raisins, chopped

  ½ cup chopped pitted kalamata olives

  1 medium shallot, minced (about ¼ cup)

  3 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped

  3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

  2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

  Kosher salt

  Freshly ground black pepper

  CURRY CREAMED CHICKEN

  4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts (about 8 ounces each)

  Kosher salt

  Freshly ground black pepper

  1½ cups chicken stock

  1 tablespoon curry powder

  ½ cup heavy cream

  8 sprigs fresh cilantro, for garnish

  1. COUSCOUS SALAD: Put the couscous in a medium bowl and pour in the stock. Cover with aluminum foil and let sit for 10 minutes. Uncover the bowl and fluff the couscous with a fork. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to incorporate. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and keep warm.

  2. CURRY CREAMED CHICKEN: Meanwhile, season the chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. In a wide saucepan, bring the stock to a simmer over medium heat, then lower to maintain the simmer. Add the chicken breasts, cover, and cook for about 6 minutes. Flip the breasts and cook for 6 minutes more. The chicken will be done when it is firm to the touch (you may cut one open just to be sure). Remove from the pan and set on a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm.

  3. Turn the heat to high and reduce the stock until 2 tablespoons remain, about 10 minutes. Stir in the curry powder, then add the cream. Cook for 2 minutes, until thickened slightly.

  4. Divide the couscous salad among four plates, top each plate with a chicken breast, and coat the chicken liberally with the cream sauce. Garnish each plate with 2 sprigs of cilantro.

  Out of Time

  Next up was Jess Dang with a dish she said she had prepared a million times but never on camera for a panel of judges. With only five minutes to complete the demo, she ended up with her pound of ground chicken still uncooked. “I felt devastated,” she said, and predicted she’d be going home.

  “My Asian Bolognese is a recipe from my mother, and it is absolutely delicious and foolproof (as long as there isn’t a timer and cameras around to make you nervous!). My mother’s version uses ground chicken (though beef, turkey, or pork are also fine) but I need to find a way to make this dish for my vegetarian husband. . . .”

  —Jessica Dang

  ASIAN BOLOGNESE

  Recipe courtesy Jessica Dang

  Yield: 4 servings • Prep Time: 20 minutes • Cook Time: 15 minutes • Ease of Preparation: easy

  1 pound ground chicken

  1 teaspoon salt

  ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

  2 tablespoons soy sauce

  1 tablespoon cornstarch

  2 tablespoons cold water

  4 medium-size vine-ripened tomatoes

  ½ pound firm tofu, cut into ½-inch cubes (1⅓ cups)

  1 tablespoon olive oil

  2 garlic cloves, minced

  1 scallion, thinly sliced

  Jasmine rice, for serving (optional)

  1. Place the chicken in a medium-size bowl and season with the salt and pepper. Set aside.

  2. In another bowl, mix the soy sauce, cornstarch, and water and set aside.

  3. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil, and prepare an ice bath. Carve the tops out of each tomato.
When the water boils, add the tomatoes and cook for 20 to 30 seconds. Place them immediately into the ice bath and let them sit for about 2 minutes. Drain and peel, then cut into quarters.

  4. Place the tofu in a microwave-safe serving dish and heat in the microwave for 1 minute. Drain off the excess liquid and transfer to a serving platter.

  5. Heat the olive oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the garlic. When the garlic starts to brown, add the chicken. Using a spoon or spatula, break the chicken into small bits. Cook until it is no longer pink and begins to brown. Remove from the wok. Return the wok back to medium-high heat and cook the tomatoes, breaking them up a bit with a spoon, until they are juicy and very soft, about 5 minutes. Return the chicken to the wok, and raise the heat to high, getting the wok as hot as possible. Move the chicken-tomato mixture out to the sides of the wok, forming a donut. Give the cornstarch sauce a couple of stirs and pour it into the center of the wok. Cook for about 30 seconds, until the sauce begins to boil and thicken. Mix the sauce with the chicken-tomato mixture and stir-fry for another minute. Pour over the tofu and sprinkle with the sliced scallion.