Food Network Star Episode 9 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Twitter

On tonight's episode of Food Network Star, the four remaining finalists first had to do a live report on location while visiting popular food trucks.  Sabin Lomac was on hand to help Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis judge the first challenge.  The judges felt Matthew did the best and he got an advantage on the second challenge.

On the second challenge, the finalists had to film their own special called "Up Your Game (Day)" where they had to demo a special game-day dish while facing challenges along the way. Matthew's advantage was being able to pick the dish that he had to cook and also assigning others their dishes. ESPN's Jamele Hill and Jayme Sire (who will be a floor reporter on Iron Chef Showdown) helped Bobby and Giada judge the challenge.  Jason and Matthew were determined winners of the challenge and were safe from elimination.  In the end, the judges decided that Amy would be eliminated and sent to compete on Star Salvation.


On Star Salvation, David Rose, Cory Bahr, and Amy Pottinger competed for a chance to rejoin the competition. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and as is normally the case with the last episode of Star Salvation, there was a cliffhanger at the end.  David was eliminated, so either Cory Bahr or Amy Pottingeer will rejoin Matthew, Rusty, and Jason next week and will have a chance to be the next Food Network Star. 

Iron Chef Showdown Coming To Food Network

Alton Brown posted a video (below) on his Facebook and Twitter pages announcing a new Iron Chef series called Iron Chef Showdown.  Iron Chef America didn't air for quite some time on Food Network, but in April 2017 Iron Chef Gauntlet premiered and Stephanie Izard ended up winning the competition to become an Iron Chef.  Even with a newly crowned Iron Chef, there wasn't any official announcement that Iron Chef the show would be returning until now.

Iron Chef Showdown will be a "fresh take on fan-favorite Iron Chef America," but it isn't too clear from the video or this article on foodnetwork.com what will be different.  Alton Brown will be the host and Mark Dacascos returns as the chairman.  Also former ESPN Sportscenter anchor Jaymee Sire will be a floor reporter.  The Iron Chefs that will be on the show include: Bobby Flay, Jose Garces, Michael Symon, Alex Guarnaschelli and Stephanie Izard.  Iron Chef Showdown will premiere in late 2017, but there is no official date yet.

Food Network Star Episode 8 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Food Network

On tonight's episode of Food Network Star, the remaining contestants had to take some inspiration from Josh Denny and his show Ginormous Food.  They were each assigned a food to make and had to make it 'ginormous.' Amy won this challenge and got some extra mentoring from Bobby and Giada as a 'prize.'

The finalists then had to stream a 15-minute meal from start-to-finish while viewers were supposedly cooking along.  Alex Guarnaschelli (Alex1310) was there to try to follow along with the presentations and cook the same dish.  She also helped Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis judge the contestants.  Bobby and Giada declared Jason, Matthew and Rusty safe and Cory and Amy were up for elimination.  In the end, they decided that Cory did worse and he was sent to compete on Star Salvation.

On Star Salvation, Addie Gundry, David Rose and Cory Bahr competed for a chance to rejoin the competition. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and the judges eliminated Addie from Star Salvation.  Addie Gundry will not be rejoining the competition and will not be the next Food Network Star.

Worst Cooks In America: Celebrity Edition Cast Announced

Photo - Multivu

A new season of Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition will premiere of Food Network August 23rd at 9pm ET/PT and the cast has just been announced.  It will be Anne Burrell and Rachael Ray mentoring and the celebrities appearing on this season include:

• Nora Dunn - Actress, comedian (Saturday Night Live)
• Carmen Electra - Model, actress. Known for being on Baywatch, in Playboy, and married to Dennis Rodman and Dave Navarro.
• Erik Estrada - Actor most known for role in CHiPs
• Vivica A. Fox - Actress in many films - most notable - Independence Day
• Perez Hilton - Celebrity gossip blogger
• Carson Kressley - TV personality/designer - best known for role on Queer Eye 
• Sean Lowe - TV personality who was on the Bachelorette and was also on The Bachelor.
• Melissa Peterman - Actress best known for being on Reba.

The celebrities will compete for $25,000 for a charity of their choice.  What do you think about the cast this year?  How many celebrities out of the eight do you know?

*More detailed bios about the contestants from the press release can be found here.

The press release from multivu is below:

Damaris Phillips Getting Bigger Role On Food Network

Photo - Instagram

Damaris Phillip's show Southern at Heart ended in early 2016 after five seasons on Food Network.  Ever since then, she has been appearing on other game shows as a judge/competitor such as Guy's Grocery Games, Bakers vs. Fakers, Kids BBQ Championship (co-host), and Beat Bobby Flay.

It appears that Food Network will be giving her a more prominent role moving forward.  This weekend a pilot called Super Southern Eats is airing with her as a co-host.  It airs Saturday night at 9:30pm ET, Saturday at 12:30pm ET, and Friday at 5pm ET with the show description stating:

"Damaris Phillips and Rutledge Wood kick off the most delicious road trip in central Georgia, where the Southern staples shine. They find an unbelievable breakfast at a gas station, where they devour legendary sausages, fried pork chops and lard-filled biscuits. Then, they hit up a BBQ joint in the college town of Athens, Ga. where smoked pork is the star before stopping at a legendary Atlanta institution to see how they've been making fried chicken for generations."

On Instagram, Damaris said the show is actually produced by Guy Fieri, so it will probably have similarities to Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. (Link)

Besides this show, Damaris Phillips and Bobby Flay will be coming out with a new talk show.  Bobby Flay said in an interview with Fox News, "Later this summer, I’m filming a new show and it’s a day time show for Food Network with Damaris Phillips and it's going to be a talk show talking about food. It’s not even named yet but I’m pretty excited about it!"

The show apparently has a working title of Bobby & Damaris (Link), but nothing is official with that show title.  Looking at Damaris' Instagram, it appears there was some filming done in June with Bobby Flay in the Hamptons, but I don't have confirmation if it is for this talk show.  Katie Lee posted the above picture around the same time and said, "Always great when you get to work with friends.!"

Damaris seems to be one of the few winners of Food Network Star (season 9) that actually gets decent air time on Food Network.

UPDATE 7/25/2017 - It looks like Food Network decided to move forward with Super Southern Eats after looking at the ratings.  Damaris Phillips and Rutledge Wood have photos and videos on social media that show they are already filming new episodes.

Food Network Related News and Links

Photo - Belovedshirts.com

Here is some recent news involving Food Network shows and chefs/personalities from the Food Network:

• There is a disturbing Guy Fieri swimsuit for sale (pictured) that has been making the rounds on the internet. The company selling them has many similar ones, such as a Donald Trump one and a hairy chest swimsuit. (Link)
• Guy Fieri will have a new show called Guy's Family Road Trip in August, where he travels around with his family in an RV. (Link)
• Great Food Truck Race is returning for another season that starts August 20th. (Link)
• Giada De Laurentiis just launched a new line of pasta sauces, seasonings, and chef's tools with Williams Sonoma. (Link)
• Ree Drummond will begin filming the 17th season of Pioneer Woman very shortly.  This is one of the highest rated shows on Food Network and their highest rated daytime show. (Link)

Here are a couple financial related Food Network links:

• The stock for Scripps Network Interactive (Symbol: SNI), who owns networks such as Food Network, jumped almost 15% today due to reports that Discovery and Scripps are in merger talks. (Link)
• Bobby Flay announced that he would be going public with his burger chain restaurant Bobby's Burger Palace.  He will attempt to raise $15 million for expansion in an initial public offering and the stock symbol is expected to be FLAY. (Link)

For some reason, there is a lot of recent Food Network real estate news:

• Ayesha Curry and her husband Steph Curry are selling the house where Ayesha's Homemade was filmed. (Link)
• After more than a year on the market, Bobby Flay actually raised the price of his New York condo that is for sale.  It was a strategic decision by his real estate agent, and perhaps it worked as the listing made news. (Link)
• Katie Lee just listed her Hampton's home for sale for $5.5 million. (Link)
• Ina Garten also has a New York City condo on the market for $2 million that was listed in March 2017. (Link)

Food Network Star Episode 7 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Food Network

On tonight's episode of Food Network Star, the remaining contestants had to make a traditionally slow cooked meal in only 30 minutes.  Also that meal had to be portable and you needed to be able to eat it with one hand.  Jason won this challenge and got had the advantage of being able to pick his team for the second challenge, which was a challenge based on Food Network's show Beat Bobby Flay.   The teams were Jason, Rusty and Matthew vs. Amy, David, and Cory.

Anne Burrell was a special guest judge on this challenge and each team had to cook a dish making tomatoes the star of the dish.  Jason's team ended up winning and they were all safe from elimination.  Amy, David, and Cory then had to compete against Bobby Flay and beat him to stay in the competition.  They each prepared their signature dish, while Bobby had to make all three of their dishes in the same amount of time.  Cory was the only chef to beat Bobby Flay, so he was safe.  Amy's score was closer to Bobby's score, so it was David Rose that was eliminated and sent to Star Savation.

On Star Salvation, Trace Barnett, Addie Gundry, and David Rose competed for a chance to rejoin the competition. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and the judges eliminated Trace Barnett from Star Salvation.  Trace will not be rejoining the competition and will not be the next Food Network Star.

Food Network Star Episode 6 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Food Network

On tonight's episode of Food Network Star, the remaining contestants finally got to do an individual challenge and had to make their best potato dish and then host a summer social for a crowd.  Amy won the first challenge and got to pick which summer social theme she would take and got to assign everybody else their theme.  Tiffani Thiessen was there to help Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis judge the summer social challenge.

The judges decided that Rusty and Jason did the best job on the challenge and they were considered safe.  That meant any of the five remaining contestants could be eliminated.  In the end, Addie Gundry was the one eliminated and sent to Star Salvation.


On Star Salvation Toya Boudy, Trace Barnett, and Addie Gundry competed for a chance to rejoin the competition. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and the judges eliminated Toya Boudy from Star Salvation.  Toya will not be rejoining the competition and will not be the next Food Network Star.

*This post was not sponsored by Lipton

Food Network Star Episode 5 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Food Network

On tonight's episode of Food Network Star the remaining contestants were once again divided into teams for the first challenge.  They were split into pairs and had to create a meal on a budget and document their meal on an Instagram Story.  Hannah Hart, who will have a show premiering on Food Network in August, was there to help judge this challenge with Bobby and Giada.

Addie and Matthew won the first challenge and got some advice from Bobby Flay and Giada as their "prize."  For the second challenge, the contestants went up against their teammates and had to do a problem solving segment similar to the show The Kitchen in front of a studio audience.  Sunny Anderson was there to help Bobby and Giada judge this challenge.

The judges picked winners for each pair, which were Jason, Matthew, Rusty, and Amy.  Also Addie and Corey were considered safe.  This meant that David and Cao were the bottom two for this week and it was decided that Caodan Tran would be sent to compete on Star Salvation.


On Star Salvation Toya Boudy, Blake Baldwin, Trace Barnett, and Caodan Tran competed for a chance to rejoin the competition. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and the judges eliminated two contestants from Star Salvation - Blake and Cao. Blake and Cao will not be rejoining the competition and will not be the next Food Network Star.