Food Network Star Season 14 Winner - Poll

Photo - Food Network Twitter

Season 14 of Food Network Star is down to the final three contestants and each of them have filmed their pilot.  Manny Washington's pilot was directed by Duff Goldman, Jess Tom's pilot by Robert Irvine and Christian Petroni's by Sunny Anderson.  We got glimpses of what their pilot is about, but the full pilots will not be shown until next week's episode.  This makes it so it is hard to determine who did the best or what their pilot is even about until next week.


There is always a poll on this site to determine who people are rooting for to win Food Network Star.  So vote below to let everyone know who you want to win and feel free to discuss in the comments. Last year Jason Smith was the overwhelming favorite in the poll and ended up winning the competition.

UPDATE - BOTH Jess Tom and Christian Petroni were named winners.

Food Network Star Episode 8 Elimination

Photo - Food Network Twitter

Tonight on Food Network Star, the final three contestants were joined by the winner of Star Salvation to make there be four finalists again.  The winner of Star Salvation was Jess Tom and she rejoined the competition.

For the challenge on tonight's episode, the four contestants had to cook a dish that displayed their culinary style and the eliminated contestants were there to serve as sous chefs.  Manny had Samone, Christian had Palak, Amy had Harrison, and Jess had Rebekah as their sous chef.  The final three then had to present their dish to the camera.  Previous Food Network Star winners Tregaye Fraser and Jason Smith were there to help Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay judge the challenge.  The judges decided that Amy Pottinger would be the finalist eliminated and she did not get to shoot a pilot.


The three finalists who shot pilots were Christian Petroni, Manny Washington, and Jess Tom.  The pilots were directed by Sunny Anderson, Duff Goldman, and Robert Irvine.  Robert Irvine directed Jess's pilot, Sunny Anderson directed Christian Petroni's, and Duff Goldman directed Manny Washington's.

The winner of season 14 of Food Network Star will be revealed next week.  I will have a poll up shortly to see who everybody is rooting for to win although there is no actual voting by the audience this year.

UPDATE - Here is a link to the poll.

The Great Food Truck Race Season 9 Preview and Spoilers

Photo - Multivu

Tomorrow night at 9pm on Food Network is the season 9 premiere of The Great Food Truck Race. This season is in the Southwest and will have seven food truck teams who are competing to win a $50,000 grand prize. The six-episode season has stops in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Yuma, Coachella Valley and then back to Los Angeles for the finale.


The food trucks competing are:

• Buns N’ Thighs – Chicago, Illinois (Marla Nones, Victoria Elena Nones, Ian M. Sherwin)
• Chops’ Shop – Pearland, Texas (Sonia Buckelew, Bryan Soliz, Sandra Soliz)
• Heroes on a Half Shell – Frederick, Maryland (Clinton Sheron, Danni Sheron, Donna Sheron)
• Just Wing It – New York, New York (Steven Crowley, Kevin Pettice, Sharon Shvarzman)
• Mobile Moo Shu – Detroit, Michigan (Michelle Gautier, Chelsea Smith, Marley Vanderbrook)
• New England Grill – Newport, Rhode Island (Kevin Des Chenes, Christine Hurley, Ed Gallagher)  
• Sassy Soul – Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington D.C. (Lauren Carson, Paris Henry, Parris Jewel).

More information about season 9 of The Great Food Truck Race such as team bios and pictures can be found at multivu if you are interested.

One interesting thing this year is that one of the teams (Just Wing It) has three contestants from Worst Cooks in America.  I am guessing people will question the legitimacy of both Worst Cooks in America and The Great Food Truck Race because of this.

When filming The Great Food Truck Race, the food trucks advertise their locations on social media (which are later removed) and local newspapers do stories on the race while it is filming. This makes it possible to determine the order of elimination down to the final two trucks. This year I do not have each elimination as there wasn't as much media coverage, but I do have the final two trucks.  If you are interested in the final two, continue reading.  Obviously it is a spoiler, but it just reveals the final two trucks and not the winner.

Food Network Star Episode 7 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Food Network Twitter

Tonight on Food Network Star, the four remaining finalists had to first make a "share worthy" dish that could go on Food Network's Facebook page.  Anne Burrell was there as a special guest to help film the demo video.  The contestants acted as producers and had to communicate with Anne through a wireless earpiece to guide her through a demo.  Anne, Bobby and Giada decided that Amy created the most buzzworthy shareable dish and earned an advantage in the next challenge.

On the second challenge, the finalists had to host a live "in the kitchen" show with special guest Ree Drummond.  Amy was able to pick her topic for her live show and also got to assign everybody else their topic.  Manny made the blunder of calling Ree Drummond Ree Thompson during his live show, but that wasn't enough to get him sent home as he and Christian were considered safe.  Bobby and Giada then decided that Palak Patel would be the contestant eliminated.


On Star Salvation Chris Valdes, Harrison Bader, Jess Tom and Palak Patel were competing. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here. As is always the case with the last episode of Star Salvation, the winner was not revealed.  We will have to wait until next week's episode to see who won Star Salvation and will rejoin Food Network Star.

Robert Irvine's Talk Show Has Been Canceled

The Robert Irvine Show, which was a talk show that aired on The CW, has been canceled.  The daily talk show started in September 2016 which was shortly after it was confirmed that Restaurant: Impossible was canceled.  The Robert Irvine Show lasted two seasons and production of the show stopped earlier this year.  The show will continue to air on The CW until it is replaced by The Jerry Springer Show in September.  The Robert Irvine Show Facebook page has been taken down and reviews for the show were pretty bad.

We will have to see if this will translate into more work on Food Network for Robert Irvine.  He is already coming back to compete against Anne Burrell on the next season of Worst Cooks in America which starts on Sunday, August 12th.

Food Network Star Episode 6 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Twitter

Tonight on Food Network Star, the remaining finalists had to first update one of their family favorites with a culinary twist.  While they are cooking their updated dish, they also have to film an Instagram story while they cook.  Blogger and host of Girl Meets Farm Molly Yeh was there to help Bobby Flay and Giada judge the first challenge.  The judges decided that Manny was the winner of that challenge and he got an advantage in the 2nd challenge.

On the second challenge, the finalists had to cater a five-course VIP dinner for the 20th anniversary celebration of Shark Night at an aquarium.  Manny was able to choose which course and star ingredient he wanted for this challenge as his advantage.  Katie had the salad course with clams, Palak had soup and yellowtail, Christian pasta and black cod, and Amy had entree and squid.  Man vs. Food's Casey Wells helped Giada and Bobby judge this challenge.  The judges decided that Christian and Amy did the best and were safe from elimination.  They then let Katie Dixon know that she was the contestant eliminated from this episode.


On Star Salvation Chris Valdes, Harrison Bader, Jess Tom and Katie Dixon were competing. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and the judges also decided to eliminate Katie Dixon from Star Salvation. Katie Dixon will not be rejoining the competition and will not be the next Food Network Star.  Next week will be the last week of Star Salvation.

Food Network Star Episode 5 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Photo - Twitter

Tonight on Food Network Star, the remaining contestants were in Hollywood and in the first challenge had to cook dishes inspired by the movie Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation.   Actress Fran Drescher was with Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis to help judge the contestants on the challenge.

For the second challenge, the remaining contestants were paired up and had to give their take on new Food Network titles: Ooey Gooey, Cheat Eats and Stacked Snacks. It was decided that Amy did the best for the first challenge, so she had the advantage of picking the title of her show and was also able to pick the teams.  Everybody was judged by Bobby, Giada, and guest judges Loni Love and Alex Guarnaschelli.

The judges decided that Katie, Palak, and Manny did the best in the challenge and they were all safe.  It was decided that Jess would be eliminated from the competition and she was sent home and to Star Salvation.

On Star Salvation Jason Goldstein, Chris Valdes, Harrison Bader and Jess Tom were competing.  This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and the judges decided to eliminate Jason Goldstein from this episode. Jason Goldstein will not be rejoining the competition and will not be the next Food Network Star.

Food Network's July 2018 Programming Highlights

Photo - Multivu

Here are some of the highlights of the Food Network programming scheduled to air on the channel in July.  There are a lot of new series premiering this month:

• The season premiere of Ridiculous Cakes on Monday July 9th at 10pm.
• A new series called Triple D Nation that starts Friday July 13th at 9pm.  In this series Guy Fieri revisits some of his favorite places from Diners, Drive Ins and Dives to see how they are doing.
• A new series called Comfort Food Tour with the Grill Dads starting Saturday, July 21st at 8pm.
• The season 9 premiere of The Great Food Truck Race on Thursday, July 26th at 9pm.  I will get a preview together before the season starts.
• A new series Ultimate Summer Cook-Off premieres Sunday, July 29th at 10pm. It is hosted by Eddie Jackson and has Demaris Phillips as one of the judges. Six competitors compete for a $25,000 prize.
• A new season of Chopped Grill Masters starts on Tuesday, July 31st at 9pm and has a regional theme.
• New primetime episodes of Beat Bobby Flay, Dallas Cakes, Food Network Star, Guy's Grocery Games, Iron Chef America, and Wedding Cake Championship. 
• New daytime episodes of Trisha's Southern Kitchen, Baked in Vermont, Giada on the Beach, Girl Meets Farm, The Kitchen, and The Pioneer Woman. 

A press release with episode descriptions and air dates is below:

Food Network Star Episode 4 Elimination - Plus Star Salvation

Tonight on Food Network Star, the remaining contestants had to cook a dish to show how much they had progressed.  The contestants then had to film a one minute segment presenting their dish and they found out that they had to critique themselves.  During the second challenge, the contestants were split into two teams and they had the task of judging and critiquing Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis after they made a dish of their own.

The bottom two from each team had to compete in a sudden death cook-off where two contestants would be eliminated.  Amy, Harrison, Adam, and Palak were all in the bottom four and they had to make the dish they critiqued from Bobby and Giada.  The judges decided that Harrison Bader and Adam Gertler would be the finalists eliminated from Food Network Star and they went on to compete on Star Salvation.



On Star Salvation Jason Goldstein, Chris Valdes, Samone Lett, Rebekah Lingenfelser, and Harrison Bader were competing.  Adam Gertler wasn't on there for some reason, maybe because he was on Comeback Kitchen. This episode of Star Salvation can be watched here, and the judges eliminated two contestants from Star Salvation - Samone Lett and Rebekah Lingenfelser.  Samone and Rebekah will not be rejoining the competition and will not be the next Food Network Star.