Making Donuts on Live TV Is a Nightmare
Years of watching the Food Network didn’t prepare me to compete on one of their shows
Like many, many others, I was sucked into the world of cooking around the time the Food Network burst on to the scene. The year was 1995 and I was a chunky 14-year-old girl obsessed with watching Bobby Flay make his treats on TV.
My parents had long since given me the nightly task of making dinner, and through the magic of the Food Network, I was able to expand my repertoire outside of chicken fingers.
With the help of Julia Child, Jacques Torres, and Sara Moulton, I was exposed to all kinds of new and exciting dishes that my Betty Crocker Cookbook did not offer. I was suddenly able to branch out into things like casseroles (without cream of mushroom soup) and homemade pasta.
Needless to say, I gained a lot of weight that year.
Eventually I discovered Emeril Lagasse, and I was blown away that someone from my neck of the woods could make it big. Fall River, Massachusetts has two famous people, and one of them is an ax murderer. So seeing Emeril on the screen was kind of a big deal, and it was because of him that I chose Johnson & Wales University to give all my money to later in life.
