Season 7 of 'The Next Food Network Star' stars tonight at 9pm!

[DVC-Don]

Originally Posted by Angelhalo
We absolutely CANNOT STAND Penny!!!! What a horrendous person!

She has to go, what a hateful person. Sexy kitchen? I mean sex in the kitchen is fine with me, but not while cooking! Someone could get hurt!

 

[Meriweather]

Go away, Penny. She made me cringe.

Like Orchid, Vic.....and a couple of the other guys. Hopefully they get better on camera.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

FN did drop the "the" and "next", Bob Tucshman said it was cleaner

And I think he's wrong. It doesn't explain what the show is about... and since they're always so adamant about the contestants knowing their point of view and reflecting that throughout their cooking, I think they dropped the ball on this. It sounds too much like they're trying to compete with Top Chef, which I don't think they need to do at all. And, they're still using the whole phrase in their advertising because they kept the "Who is going to be...." thing. Now they're incorporated "the next" part into the slogan. So I will continue to call it by it's real name

I loved that the show opened in front of Grauman's theater and we got to see the stars

It took me all of 12 seconds to hate Penny. She's even worse than that horrible Debbie Lee. And I remember early on that season one of the guys (I think it may have been Teddy, but I could be wrong) made a disparaging comment about Melissa and the judges nailed him to the wall for it.

I don't particularly like Alicia, but that does not mean I'm going to be happy watching someone act wretched toward her for absolutely no reason. I like the idea of her show (guilty pleasures).

Right from the start, my favorites are Orchid and Whitney.

Also thrown in there are Vic, Jeff, Katy (I want her smores recipe)... and I can't help but like Justin.

I love watching the season progress and changing my mind about people. But not Penny. Ugh.

Oh... and I thought the promo challenge was completely unfair.

 

[Lanshark]

I don't remember that much drama in previous years that soon into the process. Can't stand the sex pot. Anyone who has to use the word sex that many times while explaining their culinary point of view should be in ANOTHER service industry. I guess was Penny.

 

[TwingleMum]

I also can't stand Penny. She has to go. Does she go up to Alicia afterwards and say nice job on the pears ....No. Ungrateful witch. I also thought she sabatogued the pears by letting them boil.

I didn't like Howie at all. I'm really glad he left I thought he was really selfish.

 

[Missy1961]

I like a lot of them, except the guy that went home & Penny. I think Juba has some potential, but I couldn't watch him do the on camera stuff. Orchid is my favorite so far, I really like her & her food seemed good too. I wasn't too fond of the dark haired Justin, but that's just me I think.

 

[Missy1961]

And it won't shock me if Penny sticks around for a while. They always like to have someone we all hate last a long time.....

 

[TwingleMum]

Lets pick our final 3 and see how we do

1. Orchid
2. Whitney
3. Vic

 

[onelilspark]

I like Whitney a lot. She's my favorite for the season. Orchid's fine, but a bit bland for me.

 

[dishwithlish]

Ditto!

Hi this is Alicia from Food Network Star:
I had no idea Penny attacked me so much until I watched the premier of the show...YIKES! She really came off poorly the first episode and I think tonight she looked less evil and was portrayed as really competitive. It's hard not to google the show after it airs....Just like its hard to not scratch a mosquito bite but I do that too sometimes. You should check out my blog dishwitlish.com Have a good night! Alicia

 

[dishwithlish]

Hi it's Alicia from Food Network Star. Penny came off like a horrible person but she wasn't AS bad as it seemed ...check out my blog dishwithlish.com for more details xx, Alicia

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

Awesome!!!

Well, I still dislike her. Her personality is not endearing. If they're editing the show to make it seem more dramatic, that's all well and good but it's not going to make me like her.

I don't think I like the double elimination thing. But I guess there are so many contestants they need to whittle it down somehow. I was not at all expecting the outcome that we got at the end. I was hoping, out of the three of them, that it would be Chris.

After last night I really, really like the dark-haired Justin. Not sure what it is about him, but I like him a lot!

 

[book_junkie]

I think they kinda had to take off "The Next" off of the title because out of 6 completed seasons, they've really only had one "Star": Guy Fieri- the man is the reason people compete for this thing, they want what he has, the shows, the cookbooks, the merchandise line....

Problem is, he's been the only one out of the 6 seasons:

Season one winners: Dan Smith & Steven McDonagh- Party with the Hardy Boys
Season two: Guy Fieri
Season three: Amy Finley, The Gourmet Next Door, which only had 6 episodes and then she dropped it, supposedly due to personal issues (this was also the season with the controversy over the contestant from the military and they brought Amy back after she quit and she ended up winning it. It's also the LAST time they allowed voting for the Next Star- after this it was entirely up to committee)
Season four: Aaron McCargo, Jr.- Big Daddy's House (this season also has Adam Gertler- Will Work For Food and Kid in a Candy Store but he wasn't the winner and hasn't gotten consistent ratings)
Season five: Melissa d'Arabian- Ten Dollar Dinners (which also Sandra Lee does so it gets confusing...)
Season six: Aarti Sequeria- Aarti Party (this season also had Tom Pizzicia who does Outrageous Foods)

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, no - next is always next It's not as if they were calling it "Best" or any superlative. I still remember some cable network had America's Funniest Mom - and then tried a second season. Even Top Chef, which I love - how many people can be "Top"?

And there's a difference between star and celebrity. Aaron is great now that he's not so frantic Guy just has a different personality. And Melissa's and Sandra's shows are different. Sure, theyre both budget, but Melissa is cooking for four for under $10 while Sandra is cooking, period, on a budget.

 

[fairestoneofall]

Guy truly is the only star they've found. but i think everyone knew it the minute they saw him. i think i read that even the Food Network people knew he had something special.

 

[Plannin'Shannon]

New episode tonight at 9! Looks like a dessert challenge. Right up my alley.

 

[LilyWDW]

Guy truly is the only star they've found. but i think everyone knew it the minute they saw him. i think i read that even the Food Network people knew he had something special.

I LOVE his new cookbook! It has a great section at the front that talks about his family, how he got into cooking, how he opened his own restaurants, how he got on Food Network... Some really cool information.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, based on the judges' comments, I'm not surprised that person went home. Disappointed, but not surprised. Couple of people from the other team I would've liked to have seen go - but noooo, just because their overall team won.

 

[Angelhalo]

We were glad to see that person go home and not surprised. Way too emotionally unstable. There are two people on the other team I would have liked to have seen gone first though just because they're so obnoxious.

Also, I don't like the editing this season. I'd bet money that they got to explain why they made the decisions they made for example the pancake instead of the churros etc. Like hey, I know it was horrible but it wasn't my first choice, it happened because yada yada yada. Bob says those judging panels sometimes last for hours so I'm sure they talked about those things but we never saw it so we're left yelling at the screen saying well she didn't MEAN to make horrible pancakes that have nothing to do with her hispanic culture! Let her explain!

 

[snykymom]

We were glad to see that person go home and not surprised. Way too emotionally unstable. There are two people on the other team I would have liked to have seen gone first though just because they're so obnoxious.

Also, I don't like the editing this season. I'd bet money that they got to explain why they made the decisions they made for example the pancake instead of the churros etc. Like hey, I know it was horrible but it wasn't my first choice, it happened because yada yada yada. Bob says those judging panels sometimes last for hours so I'm sure they talked about those things but we never saw it so we're left yelling at the screen saying well she didn't MEAN to make horrible pancakes that have nothing to do with her hispanic culture! Let her explain!

I was happy with the results too. Made me nervous, too!

I'm sure that they explained the issues they had. But come on - she knew she was making churros. Shouldn't she have been responsible enough to make sure she got the oil? And if she didn't, shouldn't she have checked in time to do something else? As they've said many times, a star chef needs to be able to roll with the punches, and think and create on the fly. Like with Orchid getting canned oysters - OK, if they don't have fresh oysters, make something else! There was little excuse either for the pancakes or the milk shakes. I know they were on Duff's team, but they should have channeled a little bit of "What would Robert do?"