Food Network's June 2015 Programming Highlights

Photo - Food Network

Here are some of the highlights of the Food Network programming scheduled to air on the channel in June:

• Season 11 of Food Network Star begins on Sunday, June 7th, but you can already watch the first episode if you want.
• Premiere episode of Craziest Restaurants in America on Wednesday, June 3rd
• Premiere episode of Top 5 Restaurants on Monday, June 15th where the top 5 restaurants in categories such as burgers, steakhouses, and BBQ joints are revealed.
• New Primetime episodes of American Diner Revival, Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guilty Pleasures, Mystery Diners and Guy's Grocery Games.
• New Daytime episodes of Daphne Dishes, Giada at Home, The Kitchen, The Pioneer Woman, Southern at Heart and Trisha's Southern Kitchen.
• Not on the press release but premiering in June is Cake Wars on Monday, June 29th.  It is pretty much Cupcake Wars, but with cakes instead and Ron Ben-Israel is a judge.

Press release with episode descriptions and air dates is below:

Food Network Star Season 11 Episode 1 Now Available To Watch

The eleventh season of Food Network Star is scheduled to begin on Sunday, June 7th, but you can currently watch the first episode for free multiple ways.  I have Comcast cable, and it is available for free On Demand (I did TV Shows A-Z, then picked show Food Network Star).  Also, the Food Network site has the episode available, but you will have to enter your cable provider information.  If you have a different cable provider such as Direct TV, Verizon, etc. leave a comment to confirm if the episode is available on demand there as well.

The first episode of Food Network Star introduces the contestants and they are then challenged to produce a 30-second introductory video and serve a dish to 100 people at a food festival.  They are judged by Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Bob Tuschman, Susie Fogelson, and a People editor.  I will not spoil anything in this section, but lets just say I think there will be a new "most-hated" Food Network Star contestant this year.


If you are interested in who will be hated and who was eliminated during the first episode continue reading/scroll down.  Also, if you want more information about this season, visit this post.

Chopped All-Stars Winner Crowned Tonight

Photo - Food Network

Tonight at 10pm ET on the Food Network is the Chopped All-Stars finale where the winning chef will receive $75,000 for the charity of their choice.  The four chefs who will compete are Art Smith, Anne Burrell, Michael Psilakas, and Jet Tila.

• Art Smith won heat 1 against Madison Cowan, Eric Greenspan, and Brian Malarkey
• Anne Burrell won heat 2 against Hung Huynh, Mary Sue Milliken, and Dale Talde.  With 1 Food Network personality against 3 Top Chef competitors, that may not surprise many.
• Michael Psilakas won heat 3 against Cat Cora, Antonia Lofaso, and Marcel Vigneron
• Jet Tila won heat 4 against Rocco Dispirito, Lee Anne Wong, and Fabio Viviani

On tonight's finale, the competitors find something purple and something fishy in the appetizer basket. In the entree round, they have to deal with a seafood tower, and in the dessert round, they have to deal with a very hot pepper and a cookie cake.

This post will be updated with the winner after the episode airs.(Winner after the jump)

American Diner Revival Starts Tonight - Robert Irvine Not Happy About The Show

American Diner Revival starts tonight at 10:30pm ET on the Food Network.  The show had a pilot in January 2015, and a six episode season was picked up.  Amanda Freitag and Ty Pennington help struggling diners across America with the help of local residents.  Amanda and Ty get the diner owner away from the restaurant for 24 to 36 hours and do the makeover while the owner is away.  The first episode is at The Diner in Norman, Oklahoma, and the restaurant has already been on Food Network's Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.

A few weeks ago, Robert Irvine tweeted out sarcastically, "Let's try to remake restaurant impossible and call it diner revival"

A fan told Robert to be nice, to which he responded, "No annoys me"

A fan also called Robert out by saying Restaurant Impossible was pretty much taken from Kitchen Nightmares, and Robert denied that.

 

Robert also claimed an 80% success rate, which we know isn't true (below 50%), but that number is always inflated by him.

It doesn't seem like American Diner Revival has anything to do with struggling restaurants, but is more about the makeover.  I guess there is a time constraint which is similar, but do you think Robert has anything to be annoyed about?

Tootie's Texas BBQ From Restaurant Impossible Has Closed

Tootie's Texas BBQ in Cathedral City, California, which was featured on season 8 of Restaurant Impossible has closed.  The restaurant is marked as 'Closed' on Yelp and their Facebook page has been taken down.  One review on Yelp said they closed on February 10, 2015.

You may remember that the Tootie's owner Eileen passed away in May of 2014.  Despite Eileen's passing the restaurant stayed open, however the most recent Yelp reviews had a lot of complaints.  A lot of people complained about the restaurant running out of food, the food being bad, and that the restaurant was always closed at random times.

Tootie's Texas BBQ is the fifth restaurant from season 8 (2014) of Restaurant Impossible to close and the Restaurant Impossible Update Page has been updated with this information.

Abudanza From Restaurant Impossible Has Closed

Photo - Food Network

Abudanza in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, which was featured on season 9 of Restaurant Impossible has closed.

The restaurant had a small fire at the end of March, where there was minimal damage.  They were supposed to open again a few days later, and may have, but they confirmed in April on Facebook that they were closing.  It appears the fire was not the reason for the closure.  Abudanza's commercial kitchen and restaurant equipment is now going up for auction on May 28th.

It appears that their Abudanza Express location is still operating as their Facebook page still advertises specials.  The Express location was opened after the Restaurant Impossible makeover.


You may remember this episode due to their son LJ having an incurable disease called ROHHAD.  This will be the third restaurant from season nine (2014) of Restaurant Impossible to close and the Restaurant Impossible Update Page has been updated with this information

UPDATE - According to the GoFundMe page for LJ, he passed away in April 2016.

Cutthroat Kitchen: Evilicious Winner Crowned Tonight

Photo - Food Network

Tonight at 10pm ET on the Food Network is the Cutthroat Kitchen: Evilicious finale where the winner will take home up to $50,000 in cash.  Matthew Grunwald was the winner of Heat 1, Sammy Monsour was the winner of Heat 2, Jenard Wells was the winner of Heat 3, and Yaku Moton-Spruill was the winner of Heat 4.  They will now face off against each other for the grand prize and will have to face challenges such as making meatballs in a ball pit, dinner on a seesaw, and harvesting coconuts from a tree to make macaroons.

Whether you like Matthew Grunwald or not, be prepared to see more of him as he will be competing on the upcoming season of Food Network Star that premieres in June.

This post will be updated when the episode airs with the order of elimination and the winner of Cutthroat Kitchen: Evilicious.

Restaurant Impossible - The JuJu Bag Cafe Update

Photo - Food Network

Tonight on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in New Orleans, Louisiana to makeover The JuJu Bag Cafe.  In following with this seasons odd-themed places, the location is actually half cafe and half barber salon.  The cafe looks like a cluttered living room and has no commercial kitchen equipment, and the Restaurant Impossible team has to renovate both a restaurant and a barber salon.

As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about The JuJu Bag Cafe to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant: Impossible):

Sandra Lee Reveals She Has Breast Cancer

Photo - Food Network

This morning in a tearful interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, Sandra Lee revealed that she is battling breast cancer.  She found out on March 27th just after completing a photo shoot with People for their Most Beautiful issue.

Sandra Lee said that the doctors found the cancer early and that her treatment plan has already included a lumpectomy and she is gearing up for a second surgery.  She will also have radiology for six to eight weeks and the doctors have recommended a mastectomy.

Sandra did the interview as she wanted to bring attention to the importance of getting screened no matter what age you are.

This diagnosis comes at a time when Sandra was already in the spotlight.  She has recently launched a margarita line called Cocktail Time, was named in People's Most Beautiful issue, rescued a baby seal (really), and has supposedly reached a deal with ABC to start a new lifestyle show on the network.

Here is hoping to a speedy and full recovery for Sandra Lee.

Restaurant Impossible - Caffe Positano/Tornatore's Pizzeria Update

Photo - Facebook

Tonight on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine and his crew are in Orlando, Florida to makeover Caffe Positano.  This is a unique episode as Robert ambushes the restaurant and the owners supposedly do not know that Restaurant Impossible is coming.  This is done to try to get a truer picture of why the restaurant is failing.  During the makeover the name of the restaurant is changed from Caffe Positano to Tornatore's Pizzeria.

As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Tornatore's Pizzeria to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant: Impossible):

Food Network's May 2015 Programming Highlights

Photo - Food Network

Here are some of the highlights of the Food Network programming scheduled to air on the channel in May:

• The season finale of the Cutthroat Kitchen: Evilicious tournament on Sunday, May 17th where the winner can win up to $75,000.
• The series premiere of American Diner Revival with Ty Pennington and Amanda Freitag on Friday, May 22nd at 10:30pm.  They makeover struggling diners with the help of locals.  It seems like they didn't get a very favorable time slot for this series.
• The series premiere of Guilty Pleasures on Monday May 25th, where Food Network stars reveal their best kept food secrets and their locations.  It sounds very similar to Best Thing I Ever Ate.
• The season finale of Chopped: All-Stars on Tuesday, May 26th with the winner getting $75,000 for their charity.
• The season finale of Spring Baking Championship on Sunday, May 31st with the winner getting $50,000.
• New Primetime episodes of Beat Bobby Flay, Cutthroat Kitchen, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy's Grocery Games, Mystery Diners, and Restaurant: Impossible
• New Daytime episodes of Farmhouse Rules, Giada at Home, The Kitchen, The Pioneer Woman, Southern at Heart and Trisha's Southern Kitchen
• Also, Food Network Star begins in June.

Press release with episode descriptions and air dates is below: