Holiday Baking Championship Winner Crowned Tonight

Photo - Multivu

Tonight at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network is the season finale of Holiday Baking Championship where the winner will take home $50,000.  The three remaining finalists competing for the prize are Jennifer Barney, Stephany Buswell, and Joshua Livsey.  In the preliminary heat, the contestants have to grab two last minute holiday gifts and combine them into a dessert.  Then in the main heat, the contestants have to create a 12 Days of Christmas dessert that illustrates a line from the song.

Jen Barney's parents rented out a theater to watch the episode tonight and invited their whole town in a newspaper advertisement.  Who knows if that means she won, but we will have to watch the episode to find out.

I will update this post with the winner of Holiday Baking Championship after the episode airs.  Continue reading to see the winner.

Iron Chef Episode Where Bobby Flay Supposedly Quit Didn't Air As Scheduled

Photo - Twitter

On this past Wednesday night (December 13th), Food Network was supposed to air an episode of Iron Chef Showdown that featured Bobby Flay, but it did not air.  The episode was going to be the episode where Bobby Flay supposedly quit Iron Chef by revealing a t-shirt that said it was his last battle.  Bobby supposedly chose a t-shirt as he knew it would be hard to edit out of the show.  This episode was on the schedule all week and was being advertised, but when it got to Wednesday night at 9pm an Iron Chef Showdown episode with Stephanie Izard was on Food Network.

No advanced warning was given by Food Network that this episode would be moved/postponed, but Alton Brown responded to some fans on Twitter (pictured) saying it was his fault because he "didn't finish voice over patches in time."

Tory Miller, one of the chefs competing on the episode, actually had a watch party the night of the episode and everyone there watching was disappointed when the episode wasn't the one he competed on.  He even received no advanced warning of the postponement. Tory Miller also had a sold out $125 six-course meal planned Sunday for 100 people which was celebrating his appearance on the show.  He had planned to still have that dinner, but it looks like he has rescheduled.

This makes you wonder what kind of plans Food Network has for this episode of Iron Chef Showdown.  Are they doing heavy editing to edit out the original audio or the t-shirt?  Will they move this to the season finale and allow Bobby to quit for drama?  Or will it just be a normal episode?  We will have to wait and see, but when this episode has an air date, I will update this post.


UPDATE - A commenter below said the episode was released on Amazon Video the day the episode was originally scheduled to air.  He said it seems that Food Network was able to edit it where you couldn't see the t-shirt.  This makes you question Alton Brown taking the blame for not having voice overs done.  John Besh is a judge on this episode, so perhaps Food Network wanted more time to think about that.

Also on January 3rd, Food Network, Alton Brown and others on the show were all tweeting about the Iron Chef Showdown finale, so it seemed like Food Network decided not to air the Bobby Flay episode.  However, the episode is now scheduled to air on January 10th at 9pm ET.

UPDATE  2 - The episode aired, and Food Network edited out John Besh totally.  He was on the episode when it aired in Canada and when it was released on Amazon video.  Also, there were no signs of Bobby Flay's t-shirt.  More details with screenshots from the episode.

UPDATE 3 - Bobby Flay confirmed in February 2018 that he did quit Iron Chef with his t-shirt stunt and that Food Network wasn't thrilled about it.  He confirmed they had to black out his t-shirt, which was supposedly pretty expensive to do.

Mario Batali Is The Latest Celebrity Chef Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Eater New York released a story today where four women came forward to accuse Mario Batali of inappropriate touching over a period that spans at least 20 years.  Eater New York did dozens of interviews to validate these stories which include an employee accusing Mario Batali of repeatedly grabbing her from behind and holding her tightly against his body. "Another former employee alleges that he groped her and that, in a separate incident, he compelled her to straddle him; another alleges that he grabbed her breasts at a party, though she no longer worked for him at the time."

After details of these accusations came out, Mario Batali stepped down from his restaurant empire and ABC's The Chew has asked Mario to step away from the show while they "review the allegations that have just recently come to our attention."

Mario is quoted in the Eater article stating, "I apologize to the people I have mistreated and hurt. Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused to my peers, employees, customers, friends and family."

After these stories surfaced, other chefs began to weigh in on Twitter such as Anthony Bourdain and Tom Colicchio.  Tom Collicchio said that "no one should be surprised."  He later explained Mario Batali's behavior was well documented in Bill Buford's book Heat.

Earlier this month it was announced that Mario Batali would be returning to Food Network with new episodes of his hit show Molto Mario.  Six episodes were already filmed and they were scheduled to be on Food Network in early 2018.  Food Network hasn't commented on these allegations yet, so we will have to see if the new episodes of Molto Mario are ever shown.

UPDATE - Variety is reporting that Molto Mario's return is on hold and has a statement from Food Network that says, "Food Network takes matters like this very seriously and we are putting relaunch plans for Molto Mario on hold."

UPDATE - ABC has officially fired Mario Batali from The Chew.

Guy's Big Project Winner Crowned Tonight

Photo - Multivu

Tonight at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network is the season finale Guy's Big Project where the winner will win their own Food Network food road show.  The final two contestants on the show are Zane Caplansky and Rashad Jones. On tonight's show, Zane and Rashad will make their pilots with Guy Fieri who then sends them to Food Network to decide who will get their own show.

Airing right after the finale is an hour special of Guy's Big Project that has the description of "After an unexpected outcome, Guy Fieri reveals what comes next."  Also a more detailed description of the episode says, "In this one hour special, see the pilot from the winner of Guy's Big Project, which demonstrates their particular passions and the skills that they learned over the course of the show from host and mentor Guy Fieri."

I will update this post with the winner with the winner after the episode airs.  We will have to see if the winner actually gets a show or just the pilot that airs after the finale.  The ratings for Guy's Big Project were pretty low for a Sunday night show on Food Network, so that could play into the decision making.

Continue Reading to see winner

Worst Cooks In America Returns January 7th - Anne Burrell vs. Tyler Florence

Photo - Multivu

Worst Cooks in America is returning to Food Network on Sunday, January 7th at 9pm ET/PT and this season will be Anne Burrell vs. Tyler Florence.  Anne and Tyler will each lead a team of cooking-challenged recruits and the contestant who makes the most impressive transformation will win $25,000 and bragging rights for their team mentor.  Worst Cooks in America is one of the highest rated shows on Food Network, so no surprise that it is returning for another season.

Anne Burrell has been on every season of Worst Cooks in America and has competed against Beau MacMillan, Robert Irvine, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, and Rachael Ray.  Tyler Florence is trying to beat Anne after losing to her two years ago on Worst Cooks in America.

The competitors this year are: Brandon Arroyo (Cleveland, Ohio); Steven Crowley (New York, New York); Kayrene Curtis (Rocky River, Ohio); Jonathan Farhat (Livermore, California); Lily Frey (Anaheim Hills, California): Asaf Goren (Los Angeles, California); Robyn Hayden (Charleston, South Carolina); Sylvia Jefferies (Charleston, South Carolina); Hazell Mckenzie (Brooklyn, New York); Priscilla Nguyen (Hattiesburg, Mississippi); Skyler and Spencer Nick (Wauconda, Illinois); Kevin Pettice (Charlotte, North Carolina); Shatima Ruffin (Yorktown, Virginia); Sharon Shvarzman (Staten Island, New York) and Lacey Stout (Owasso, Oklahoma).

If you are interested in reading the contestant bios, episode descriptions, or reading the press release, here is a link with all of that info.