Housewife 2.0 Gets Recalled

Alas, poor Jen, we hardly knew you.

On the Season 5 premier of The Next Food Network Star, Jen Isham—Housewife 2.0, she called herself—was sent home.

Let's recap:

The 10 contestants we divided into two teams, and given the task of creating a menu for a party commemorating the 16th anniversary of the Food Network (FN). The guests were many of the Food Network personalities and executives, as well as other famous guests.

Both teams made beef tenderloin (yawn!) and then the individuals on the team made their dishes. Melissa d'Arabian made an apple tart in a way that she never had before, and the results impressed everyone. Everyone else's food—even the things that were cooked well—lacked any real imagination. Leading that lack of imagination was a green bean dish that, Masaharu Morimoto said could be found at any supermarket. That, my friends, is a culinary face-slap.

Although Jen's cooking in this episode was pretty pedestrian, should she have been the one to go home? Maybe. Maybe not.

If I had a vote, I would have sent Debbie packing. First of all, she lied about coming in under budget for their food shopping. But Debbie wasn't done. She came up with the great idea of taking store bought angel food cake, dicing it up, and slopping (yes, slopping) some toppings on it. I don't believe that cleaning crew would have been impressed by this. The FN personalities certainly weren't. One of my favorite moments of the episode was when the Ace of Cakes himself, Duff Goldman, looked at what was about to be offered and said "You're going to serve me cake"? This would be like giving Thomas Kinkade an Elvis on black velvet painting. The biggest issue here is that she didn't really even try. When the judges asked who was responsible for the angel food cake, Debbie said it was the whole team. It wasn't.

Remember when I said this show is about more than just food? It's about personality. It's about inviting someone into your home. People certainly don't want to watch people they don't trust. Debbie lost the trust of the judges lying about the budget, and her team over the cake. Because this competition is about more than the food, I would have sent her packing.

Random Thoughts:

One thing I don't like about shows like The Next Food Network Star is people getting eliminated the first day/episode. It's a new environment, new equipment, new...everything, and I don't think you always get a good read on your talent pool right away. I would prefer the judges eliminate two contestants in the second episode, weighing out what they observe over two competitions.

The judges were fairly pointed in their criticism, but avoided being snarky. I hope that continues.

A man will win this year. There are some good ladies, but the men have more formal experience, and the challenges they face will tend to favor experience and training over personality, even though personality is supposed to be almost as important. It's not right, but again, I repeat myself.