The Dishing with Donna Show: TV Never Tasted So Good!

It's the new season of "THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR"!!! My favorite competition show!! Don't get me wrong all you Top Chef fans .... that is a very close second. Maybe my first and a half favorite show. But since I personally know the most important judge, Bob Tuschman, on The Next Food Network Star, and have had many personal conversations with so many of the Food Network faces who appear on the show as well . . . . . I have to be loyal and say that this is the best show ever! Since I still have not succumbed to TiVo yet, I am therefore glued to the tv on Sunday nights again and I've got double the enthusiasm this year because Atlanta has 2 finalists competing head to head to win the coveted prize of winning their OWN SHOW on Food Network and becoming a famous star! Hence the name "The Next Food Network Star" ... which I will now be referring to as NFNS throughout this blog. (probably a no brainer, but that's for the skimmers!)

Last year - funny story - Senior Vice President of Food Network Programming and also Judge on NFNS, Bob Tuschman, came onto my show for the second time that season to discuss the building anticipation as it was wrapping up to the Final 4. Our Atlanta finalist, Jamika Pessoa, got so close! I was rooting for her all along of course. But Bob asked me a question, on air, and he asked "So Donna, who do you want to win??" -- Now, please keep in mind that the recording of the show had already wrapped a couple months beforehand. Everyone involved is basically contracted to keep all details a secret. So Bob already knows who wins the whole shabang and the finale has already been taped, edited, and ready to air for quite some time. He knows I don't know! And he won't tell me. So I blurt out there ... with such style ... (yeah right) ... "I don't care who wins as long as it isn't that Melissa woman. I cannot believe I'm still having to watch her! How has she made it to the Final Four???? I mean really, c'mon!"

-- Yeah. She won. If you watch the Food Network, then you know her from her hit show, "10 Dollar Dinners with Melissa D'Arabian". Yep! That was me and my big mouth. What do I know!

But Guy Fieri also got his fame and fortune by winning Season 2 of NFNS. Aaron of "Big Daddy's House" won Season 4. And now .... season 6 just began!! Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Atlanta's very own BRIANNA JENKINS & HERB MESA!

(and me). Both Brianna and Herb came on my radio show this past weekend to discuss the premiere of NFNS and they're individual experiences going through the auditioning process and then the craziness of the first competition! With the help of the one and only, princess of Food Network - Giada, these two characters got to show off their personality as well as their culinary talent. - Unlike Kevin Gillespie, Hector Santiago, Richard Blais, or even Eli Kirshtein ... neither Brianna nor Herb own their own restaurants. Instead, they successfully work for themselves as personal chefs, caterers, teaching cooking classes, and still so much more! In Herb's case ... he is a personal trainer too. He's got two definitions for meat! ;-)

It was a pleasure meeting both of them. They each have so much energy and charisma and spunk, I could have kept talking to them for hours! I laughed out loud when Brianna told the story of how Herb was just "one of the girls" from day one, walking in with his animal print bags ...... luckily, his wife is also a big fan.

Go check out your Georgia Food Network stars and see their pictures, read their bios, and learn about their culinary expertise at http://www.foodnetwork.com/ Watch THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR every Sunday night at 9:00pm. This first premeire episode last weekend had both Brianna and Herb looking strong one minute ... and needing improvement the next. They both sailed past elimination ... which means, more weeks to watch our hopefuls grow better and better and sharper and sharper. With their larger-than-life personalities ... let's see what the world has in store for them!

( I think I should host the show. Move over Giada .... Dishy is on her way!!!)