I spoke with Jennifer today by phone and I asked her about her experience as a contestant on The Next Food Network Star.
She was at home with her young daughter and I could hear her in the background playing. Lyric still thinks Mom is a star and it was fun for her to see Mommy on TV.
We discussed how many of the viewers watching seem to think that participating wouldn't be that difficult. Jennifer assures me that it is very difficult. And while she is very happy to have been given the opportunity, she wishes they had been given more time to complete some of the dishes. 45 minutes isn't enough for anyone to create meals that normally take far more time. But she realizes much of this is done simply to make the show more exciting. She knows she would have benefited from having more time to expand her culinary training as well as working to become more comfortable in front of the camera. But she mostly wishes she had stepped up to take more of a leadership role and stopped apologizing.
After talking to her I have a greater idea of what a show from Jennifer would have been like. She really wanted to give the moms out there some new ideas about cooking for their children and visit some places that have something popular with the consumers and show us how to make it at home. I felt her ideas for the show were good, but I don't think we really saw her ideas explained on camera. Many of the things they tape don't make it to the final one hour show and Jennifer did seem to have less time in front of the camera than some of the others. I came away from this discussion thinking that if they would just shoot a pilot episode of what each contestant really wanted to do with their own show, we would have a better idea of what they would have to offer to in an individual series of their own. I don't think we get an accurate picture of their abilities from how fast they can cook something they normally wouldn't make. Many of the judges were critical of Jennifer's food being bland, but if you are cooking for a child, bold flavors often aren't accepted by children. So if they are genuinely looking at the culinary point of view for what their show would be about, it might be better to consider she would be focusing on things children would eat.
Most of the time the contestants got along well but they also got on each others nerves occasionally. Lack of sleep and the stress of trying to keep up was a factor in causing some friction. Some were more controlling and the others not wanting to be controlled.
Would she do it again? No. She again stated she was very happy to have been given the chance to participate, but the format and set up of this kind of competition really doesn't give them the chance to display their own ideas. She isn't giving up, she still has hopes for her ideas. She also shared with me and is allowing me to share with all of you that she is expecting another child. I wish her well, and I enjoyed talking to her very much.
I really enjoy this show, but I think it's tough to see people who have so much hope not find success. But I guess that also makes it interesting.
Suzie 
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