Ian Jackman
William Morrow An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Bumps in the Road While Jess said of Guy: “He’s just rollin,’ ” he had a different view of his pasta demo. “Run- ning in cowboy boots,” he said. “It was not smooth.” Bob agreed, saying that he made it seem so complicated.
c hiP otle Pasta
Recipe courtesy Guy Fieri Yield: 4 to 6 servings ❚ Prep Time: 10 minutes ❚ Cook Time: 10 minutes ❚ Ease of Preparation: easy
2 tablespoons olive oil 1. In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over high heat. 4 hot links, sliced on the bias into Add hot links and sear until browned, about 2 minutes. 6 pieces Add the shrimp and cook until pink. Lower the heat to 20 (21/25) shrimp, deveined, medium. Stir in the cream, Chipotle Sauce, salt, and shelled, and butterflied pepper. Add the cooked pasta and cheese and turn off 1 cup heavy cream the heat. Toss to combine. 3 ⁄4 cup Chipotle sauce (recipe follows) 2. Serve in a pasta bowl, and garnish with the diced 3 ⁄4 teaspoon sea salt tomato, scallion, and more of the grated Parmesan. 1 ⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 pound penne, cooked ChIPotLe SAuCe: Combine all of the ingredients in a
1 blender, purée, cover, and refrigerate. ⁄4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish ❚ Yield: 1 cup 1 ⁄4 cup diced fresh tomato, for garnish
1 ⁄4 cup chopped scallion, white and some green, for garnish “guy was made for the camera. You can’t deny it. guy is really fun to watch. As his friend, I’ve enjoyed watch- ChiPotle sauCe 1 ing his career skyrocket over the years, and whenever ⁄2 cup barbecue sauce
1 he’s in L.A. shooting one of his shows, we still make ⁄4 cup canola oil time to meet up. I don’t know how he does it. The guy 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed is a machine.” lemon juice —Nathan Lyon 2 tablespoons chipotle paste
1 ⁄2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 ⁄2 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1 ⁄8 teaspoon cayenne
1 ⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper
50 FOOD NETWORK STAR 50 FOOD NETWORK STAR tHe ResuLt
The two finalists left standing, Reggie and Guy, teamed up with Bobby Flay to cook a reunion feast for all the finalists. “I look at Bobby Flay like a general in the food army,” said Guy. Back in Silver Lake, Reggie’s food had gotten bigger and bolder since Next Food Net- work Star. He now featured an Orange Cinnamon Cayenne/Black Pepper cookie inspired by Bobby Flay. “This is such a turning point for me,” he said. Guy, meanwhile, was opening a new restaurant in Sacramento and getting to know his new son, Rider, born eleven days after he got back. His older son, Hunter, said, “I’m really excited. I want to see my dad win.” Once again, Emeril made the big reveal. “The people’s choice: Guy Fieri.”
“Knowing guy outside of TV, he’s still that same cool dude. He’s got his arm round your shoulder talking about a sports team. He’s been able to take his very gregarious per- sonality and take it into a restaurant and talk to someone about the food they make. He’s made that transition very smoothly. guy just makes you want to watch whatever it is he’s doing. Whatever he’s doing is the coolest thing to be doing because it’s guy doing it.” —Duff goldman
“The birth of my sons, that’s the top. This is right up there.” —Guy Fieri
74 FOOD NETWORK STAR SEASON TWO 75 SeASOn twO eLiminAtiOnS
★ JeSS DANg: “I honestly don’t think you can have a very fulltime job and EPISoDE Two be a great chef. You can be a great home cook, but you’ll never be able to First Elimination compete with all the passionate chefs who’ve made a commitment to the craft. I’ll continue to just cook on the side and throw great dinner parties, and that’s enough for me right now.”
★ Beth RAyNoR: “[As a chef at Saffron Lane in San Francisco] I’ve developed EPISoDE ThREE a concept around the kind of food I know and love and want to share with Second Elimination a much larger audience. My formula is based on keeping things healthy yet incredibly flavorful, simple yet elevated, and as organic and seasonal as pos sible. So far, so good!”
★ eVette RoDRIguez: “I feel very strongly that one not need have a culinary EPISoDE FouR degree to work in the industry. What is truly needed is to have a strong work Third Elimination ethic. The rest: genius, or otherwise, will come. A thirst for knowledge will ensure you are constantly learning and you must cook all of the time!”
EPISoDE FIvE ★ ANDy SChuMACheR: “I felt like I was doing good in the competition, I had Fourth Elimination a good shot . . . a chance to do something I would never do otherwise in my life. It was fun. When I see my family I’m going to give them hugs and kisses.”
★ NAthAN LyoN: “The competition taught me how to think on my toes under the most difficult of conditions. Thankfully, on my cooking shows [see EPISoDE SIx chefnathanlyon.com], even though I may cook eighteen halfhour cooking Fifth Elimination episodes in nine consecutive days, or even twentyfive cooking episodes in five consecutive days (no joke), I always know ahead of time which of my recipes I’ll be cooking, and under what conditions I’ll be preparing them. On Next Food Network Star, we never knew anything, ever.”
★ CARISSA SeWARD: “The entire process was really challenging both men tally and physically. I think once you get it, the process gets a lot easier and EPISoDE SEvEN you’re more able to be yourself, to relax and enjoy what is happening to you Sixth Elimination and around you and take it all in and appreciate the experience. It was tough, but nothing worthwhile comes without a lot of hard work and effort so I didn’t mind.”
★ ReggIe SoutheRLAND: “People have been incredible, stopping me on Runner-up the street, stopping their cars while I’m walking the dog. It’s been great. . . . I learned so much from so many people.”
NEr N I
W W guY Fieri
I
N
★N Guy’s first series,Guy’s Big Bite, premiered on June 25, 2006.
E r Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives premiered on November 4, 2006.
74 FOOD NETWORK STAR SEASON TWO 75 GiadaAmy Finley: De Laurentiis: a Q&A A Q&A
Did you find the mentoring fun to do? Oh, I would not have made it. You really have to drop everything and then think extremely It’s always nice to help people attain their strategically. It’s hard. dreams . . . Only one person wins, but it’s nice to help the others along the way. Do you think the challenges are a fair test of what someone will face on tV? Was that a more intense involvement for you with the finalists? Those challenges are really set up to see how creative you are. To be a chef and on the Food It was more of a oneonone involvement men Network you need to be able to be creative. toring them, being able to sit down with them Like on Iron Chef you do not know what ingre in their house and actually chat—about feel dients are coming your way, and you need to ings, about the competition, and about what be able to adapt to whatever is given to you. I thought they could work on. Some listened, some didn’t. you’ve created a great many recipes for your shows—is it difficult to remain Can you empathize with what the creative in the kitchen? finalists are going through? Yes. You get writer’s block. That’s why I think the Yes! I can’t even imagine how they do it! It is challenges that are set up for Next Food Net- incredibly difficult and stressful, and must be work Star are so important, because they really extremely hard on their families. It’s like an in do prepare you for this job. tense tenweek therapy session and you never get a break from the therapy! We can all em pathize, I think. Can you ever forget about the camera being there? And you’ve done Iron Chef so you Yes. But it takes practice, practice, practice. I know what that’s like! tell them to practice talking to themselves in the mirror! Iron Chef is probably the hardest thing I have done on TV. It takes incredible focus and energy, preparation, and skill. Plus you Do you think it’s possible to learn how have to talk to the camera, and look like you to look natural on tV or do you just are having fun . . . and of course, you want to have “it”? win! I am still scarred by the fact that I didn’t You can learn to be comfortable in front of the win! camera but it can take years, so on Next Food Network Star we are looking for someone who how do you think you’d have done has at least that glimmer of having it, knowing if you’d competed on Next Food it will come with time once you are in front of Network Star ? the camera more.
248 FOOD NETWORK STAR SEASON SIX 249 GiadaAmy Finley: De Laurentiis: a Q&A A Q&A
Do you ever get nervous being on tV?
Yes, I always get nervous for the first shot of the day, then as the day goes on, it gets easier and easier.
What’s the hardest part of being on tV?
I think the hardest thing about being on TV is thinking on your feet. You can learn every thing else but being spontaneous and being organic at the same time takes a lot of energy and is harder than you think.
Was it difficult to be part of the decision-making process?
It’s agonizing, because you never want to send anyone home. Especially when you get down to the last six finalists—they are all good, and at that point you are just nitpicking, they are all talented and deserving of a show at that stage.
In Season three you saw Nikki cook- ing in heels and told her, “I cook in flip-flops . . .” It’s important to be com- fortable in the kitchen.
I just don’t think it’s very realistic to cook in heels. Part of having a show on Food Network is to be real, and it’s dangerous in a kitchen to be in heels!
248 FOOD NETWORK STAR SEASON SIX 249