The Great Food Truck Race - Season 17

The Great Food Truck Race season 17 airs Sunday nights at 8pm ET/PT on Food Network starting June 30, 2024.  This season of The Great Food Truck Race is named "Games on the Gulf" and has a Gulf of Mexico theme with stops in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Last season had a David vs. Goliath theme where food truck pros competed against rookie teams.  This season will have all rookie teams who have never operated a food truck. There will be nine food truck teams competing for the $50,000 prize and the season will be eight episodes long with some of the episodes being two hours in length. 

The nine teams competing on season 17 are: 

• Argentina's Empanadas (Wichita, Kansas) - Carolina Freeman, Paola Mentis, Chad Freeman
• Bao Bei (Washington DC)  - Kevin Hsieh, Cody Hoover, Zakary Keres
• Cooks with Passion (Atlanta, Georgia) - Andrew Bernadine, Terry Jones, Jasmine Smith
• Down to Get Tacos (Gilbert, Arizona) - Karina Wollangk, Kiana Wollangk, Oz Gudino
• Fishnet (Baltimore, Maryland) - Ferhat Yalcin, Uswa McDowell, Keyia Yalcin
• Kalye (New York, New York) - Rob Mallari-D'Auria, Barry Jacinto, Mark Besanna
• Plates on Deck (Davenport, Florida) - Ken James, Ziomara Taveras, Samuel Jenkins
• SOLA Po'Boys (Los Angeles, California) - Serrano Barnes, Barenese Butler, Randy Butler
• Wally's Waffles (Chicago, Illinois) - Wally Strzepka, Maggie Strzepka, Joe Caiafa

Something new for this season is that the teams are divided into "Stars and Stripes" squads with the top sellers each week awarded gold, silver and bronze medals that come with a cash bonus. The season finale for season 17 of The Great Food Truck Race is on Sunday, August 4th and I will do another post for the finale.

Ciao House Winner - Season 2

Sunday night at 8pm ET/PT on Food Network is the season 2 finale of Ciao House where the winning chef will win a chance to train with master chefs across Italy. The two remaining chefs competing are Ivan Barros and Austin Cobb, however they are allowing eliminated chefs a chance to compete again, just like they did last season.  So someone who has already been eliminated may have a chance to win Ciao House season 2.  The season finale will be two hours long.

The episode description for the finale states:

"The two remaining chefs are stunned when some unwelcome guests arrive at the villa. Judges Alex Guarnaschelli and Gabe Bertaccini choose the winner of Ciao House, who will receive an immersive culinary education with renowned master chefs across Italy."

I will update this post with the winner of Ciao House Season 2 after the episode airs. 

Continue reading to see who got back into the competition and who won Ciao House season 2....

Ciao House - Season 2

Photo - Warner Bros. Discovery

Food Network's Ciao House airs on Sunday nights at 8pm ET on Food Network and returns for it's second season on May 19th, 2024.  The prize for winning is once again "an immersive culinary education across Italy, training with renowned Italian master chefs."  Alex Guarnaschelli co-hosts the show with Gabriele Bertaccini and and the series will be ten episodes long (a lot of back-to-back episodes) with the finale on Sunday, June 23rd.  While the first season had 10 chefs competing, this season there will be 12 chefs competing and they are listed below.

• Ivan Barros (Los Angeles, California)
• Zev Bennett (Miami, Florida)Maria Bregatta (Burlington, Vermont)
• Austin Cobb (Playa Grande, Costa Rica)
• Devan Cunningham (Phoenix, Arizona)
• Tiana Gee (Los Angeles, California)
• Hanna Haar (Montauk, New York)
• Drew Keane (Chicago, Illinois)
• Shannon Odom (Haico, Texas)
• Jan Parker (Tacoma, Washington)
• Phuoc Vo (Tampa, Florida)
• Stikxz Williams (Queens, New York)

They will compete against each other as individuals and in teams to prove their mastery of Italian cooking techniques and dishes.  Each week, new teams are picked and someone from the losing team will be eliminated.  In the finale, the final two chefs will prepare a three-course fine dining experience. 

Feel free to discuss season 2 of Ciao House in the comments and I will do another post for the finale.

UPDATE - To see who won Ciao House Season 2, visit this post.

 

24 in 24 Season 1 Winner

Tonight at 8pm ET on Food Network is the season 1 finale of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing where the winning chef will take home $50,000 and a trip to Hawaii.  The four chefs remaining are Marcel Vigneron, Chris Oh, Mika Leon and Carlos Anthony. The finale will be 1 hour long despite previous episodes being 2 hours and the chefs must cook the best dish of their lives.

If you haven't been following, below are the chefs that were eliminated in each episode:

• Episode 1 -  Marc Quinones, Viet Pham, Matt Jordan,Airis Johnson, Michael Toscano, Chad Rosenthal,  Aarthi Sampath, Danielle Lee, Emilie Rose Bishop, Declan Horgan, Charlie Ray, and Elizabeth Falkner. 
• Episode 2 - Vijay Sadhu, Josephine Clemens, and Gabriella Baldwin 
• Episode 3 - Camille La Caer, Christopher Ingram, and Kess Eshun 
• Episode 4 - Martel Stone and Chris Dodson

The final 24 in 24 episode description states, 

"The four remaining chefs have survived 20 challenges and beat out 20 other chefs to arrive at this moment. In the final hours, hosts Michael Symon and Esther Choi revisit an old challenge where the chefs must cook the best dishes of their lives. Whoever can stave off the final daggers of exhaustion and impress a superstar panel of judges will walk away with a $50,000 prize and an unforgettable trip to Hawaii."

I will update this post with the winner of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing after the episode airs.  Also, it was announced earlier this week that 24 in 24 was renewed for a 2nd season, so this is a show that will be returning to Food Network.

Continue reading to see who won season 1 of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing......

Spring Baking Championship Winner - Season 10

Monday night at 8pm ET on Food Network is the season 10 finale of Spring Baking Championship where the winner will take home a $25,000 prize.  The four remaining bakers competing for the prize are Robert Gonzalez, Steven Tran, Alex Bonnefoi, and Nickey Boyd.  Nickey and Alex were in the bottom two at the end of the last episode, but they decided not to eliminate anybody. 

Tonight's episode description states:

"The remaining bakers get ready to walk down the aisle for the biggest spring celebration of all -- the finale! Host Jesse Palmer puts two bakers head-to-head in a wedding-inspired challenge based on "something borrowed" recipes from the other competitors. Then, the finalists take on "something old" recipes provided by judges Duff Goldman, Kardea Brown and Nancy Fuller."

I will update this post with the season 10 winner of Spring Baking Championship after the episode airs.

UPDATE - The final episode will air next week.  A lot of the time there is a double episode for the finale, but this year that wasn't the case.  Alex Bonnefoi was the contestant eliminated at the end of the episode on April 29th.

The episode description for the finale states, 

"Host Jesse Palmer prepares the top three bakers of the season for their big day! He challenges them to create ornate wedding cakes inspired by stained glass windows, and judges Duff Goldman, Kardea Brown and Nancy Fuller decide which over-the-top baker is worthy of $25,000 and the title of Spring Baking Champion."

Continue reading to see who won season 10 of Spring Baking Championship.....

24 in 24: Last Chef Standing - Season 1 Discussion and Eliminations

Food Network's newest show premieres Sunday night and is called 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing. This is a competition show where 24 chefs will take on 24 food challenges for 24 consecutive hours until there is only one chef remaining.  The prize for winning the competition is $50,000 and a trip of a lifetime.  Michael Symon and Esther Choi will be hosting the competition while the judges will be Eric Adjepong, Maneet Chauhan, Scott Conant, Stephanie Izard, Jet Tila, Bryan Voltaggio, Michael Voltaggio, and Brooke Williamson.  The season will be eight episodes long with the finale airing on Sunday, May 12th.

There are a lot of familiar faces competing on the show from shows such as Food Network Star, Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, Tournament of Champions, etc.  The chefs competing are: Carlos Anthony, Gabriella Baldwin, Emilie Rose Bishop, Josephine Clemens, Chris Dodson, Kess Eshun, Elizabeth Falkner, Declan Horgan, Christopher Ingram, Airis Johnson, Matt Jordan, Camille La Caer, Danielle Lee, Mika Leon, Chris Oh, Viet Pham, Marc Quinones, Nadine Charlie Ray, Chad Rosenthal, Vijay Sadhu, Aarthi Sampath, Martel Stone, Michael Toscano, and Marcel Vigneron.

I will track the eliminations for each episode below after they air, so spoiler alert if you do not want to know the eliminations.  I will also do a post for the finale and you can discuss this season of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing in the comments.

*Side note - Food Network already had a show called $24 in 24 where Jeff Mauro had a budget of $24 to eat for a day in different cities.

Continue reading to see the eliminations from 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing.....

Tournament of Champions (TOC V) Season 5 Winner

Sunday night at 8pm ET on Food Network is the two-hour season 5 finale of Tournament of Champions. There are four chefs remaining who are competing for bragging rights and a $150,000 prize. The final four chefs are Jet Tila, Britt Rescigno, Maneet Chauhan, and Antonia Lofaso.  Maneet Chauhan won season 2 of Tournament of Champions and Jet Tila was in the final four of the last three seasons. Britt was also in the final four last season and Antonia Lofaso was in the final four in the first season.

For the semi-finals of season 5, Jet Tila will face Antonia Lofaso and the winner will represent the West in the final matchup.  Maneet Chauhan and Britt Rescigno will face off with the winner representing the East in the final matchup.  The two winners of those match-ups will face off in the finale to determine the winner of Tournament of Champions season five.

Here is a previous post about all of the matchups and outcomes for season 5 of Tournament of Champions, but below is how the final four got to this point:

• Jet Tila beat Brian Malarkey 84-82, Carlos Anthony 79-79 (won tie breaker), and Mei Lin 82-79.
• Maneet Chauhan beat Nini Nguyen 83-76, Eric Adjepong 86-83, and Tobias Dorzon 86-84.
• Britt Rescigno beat Jonathon Sawyer 78-74, Marc Murphy 84-80, and Amanda Freitag 83-80.
• Antonia Lofaso beat Casey Thompson 92-83, Michael Voltaggio 84-82, and Kevin Lee 85-81.

I will update this post with the winner of the final three match-ups after the episode airs and you can discuss this season of Tournament of Champions in the comments.

UPDATE - Continue reading if you want to know who won the final matchups and season 5 of Tournament of Champions.

Spring Baking Championship Season 10

Spring Baking Championship season 10 airs on Food Network on Monday nights and this season is once again hosted by Jesse Palmer. The judges on the show are also the same as last year - Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman, and Kardea Brown.  This season will be 11 episodes long with a two-part finale and there are twelve bakers competing this year.

The twelve bakers competing for the $25,000 prize and a feature in Food Network Magazine are:

• Sandro Arotinco
• Michael Bass
• Nickey Boyd
• Alexandre Bonnefoi
• Katelyn Boutilier
• Sabrina Courtemanche
• Rochelle DeSouza
• Robert Gonzalez
• Zoe Ma
• Anna Simeonides
• Steven Tran
• Ericka Wells

Feel free to discuss Spring Baking Championship season 10 in the comments and I will do another post for the final episode.  The final episode where the winner will be crowned is set to air on May 6, 2024 and the bakers will be creating a wedding cake as the final challenge.

UPDATE - To see who won Spring Baking Championship season 10, visit this post.

Kids Baking Championship Winner - Season 12

Photo - Food Network

Monday night at 8pm ET on Food Network is the season 12 finale of Kids Baking Championship where the winning baker will take home the prize of $25,000 and a feature in Food Network Magazine.  The final two episodes will be played back-to-back and the winner will be revealed after the 9pm episode. The four remaining bakers going into the final episodes are: Lila Smethurst (age 11; San Antonio, TX), Tasi Savage (age 12; Kona, HI), Levi Dubner (age 13; Boca Raton, FL) and Oscar Stowell (age 12; Ross, CA).

The first episode description states, "It's school spirit day, and the theme is tie-dye! Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman challenge the kid bakers to make tie-dyed doughnuts and ice cream with two different flavored swirls. It's a lot of color, a lot of flavors and a lot of fun as the four remaining bakers compete for the three spots in the finale. When the day is done, one baker will go home."

The final episode description states, "The finale erupts with fun as the top three kid bakers face the final challenge, science fair volcano cakes. Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman ask the final bakers to make a cake that's not just delicious, it also has to look like a real volcano and erupt like one too! The baker with the best all-around volcano cake will win $25,000 and be crowned the Kids Baking Champion!"


I will update this post with the season 12 winner of Kids Baking Championship once the episode airs, whether that is this week or next week.  Feel free to discuss the final episodes and the season in the comments.  Valerie Bertinelli has announced that Food Network did not ask for her to return for future seasons, so this may be the last time she is on the show.

Continue reading to see who won season 12 of Kids Baking Championship.....

Tournament of Champions Season 5 Bracket and Winners

Tournament of Champions season 5 starts on Sunday, February 18th at 8pm on Food Network and 32* chefs are competing for the biggest prize yet of $150,000.  While the main tournament doesn't start until February 18th, there are qualifiers that will air on Wednesday, February 7th and 14th where 16 chefs are competing for the four 8th seeds of the main tournament.  

The chefs competing in the qualifiers for the 8th seeds are:  Aaron May, Adriana Urbina, Bruce Kalman, Claudia Sandoval, Chris Scott, Demetrio Zavala, Kevin Lee, Gerald Sombright, Ilan Hall, Justin Sutherland, Leah Cohen, Maria Mazon, Michael Reed, Nini Nguyen, Pyet Despain, and Ray Garcia.  There are eight chefs from the East and eight chefs from the West and there will be four winners of 8th seeds to join the actual tournament (2 for East and 2 for West).

The chefs competing in the main tournament East bracket include: Eric Adjepong, Karen Akunowicz, Kelsey Barnard Clark, Maneet Chauhan (season 2 winner), Tobias Dorzon, Tiffani Faison (season 3 winner), Amanda Freitag, Jose Garces, Stephanie Izard, Marc Murphy, Britt Rescigno, Jonathon Sawyer, and Dale Talde (plus the 2 qualifier winners).

It is important to note that there are only 13 chefs named for the East bracket and when you add the 2 qualifiers, you only get 15 instead of 16.  The obvious speculation is that Darnell Ferguson was involved in Tournament of Champions which was taped before his arrest.  He has been involved in every season to date, so there is no reason to believe he was not involved in this season.  It will be interesting to see how they edit the show if that is the case, but I would expect he didn't make it far if they didn't do any re-filming.

The 16 chefs competing in the West bracket include: Carlos Anthony, Shirley Chung, Mei Lin (season 4 winner), Antonia Lofaso, Crista Luedtke, Brian Malarkey, Shota Nakajima, Joe Sasto, Adam Sobel, Casey Thompson, Jet Tila, Michael Voltaggio, season 1 champion Brooke Williamson (season 1 winner), and Lee Anne Wong (plus the 2 qualifier winners).

Simon Majumdar and Justin Warner will once again be providing the play-by-play analysis of the competition, and Hunter Fieri will again be following the action backstage with interviews.  The judges this year include Donatella Arpaia, Scott Conant, Cat Cora, Rocco DiSpirito, Susan Feniger, Lorena Garcia, Carla Hall, Michael Mina, Eric Ripert, Marcus Samuelsson, Nancy Silverton, Ming Tsai, Michael White, Jonathan Waxman, Geoffrey Zakarian and Andrew Zimmern.

This post will be used to track the winners for each episode, so come back after each episode to see who won the matchups on Tournament of Champions and to discuss the episodes.  Also, the Tournament of Champions season 5 bracket will be added here once it is revealed. The finale will air on Sunday, April 7th where the winner will be crowned and awarded $150,000.

UPDATE - The Tournament of Champions season 5 bracket has been revealed and it is below:

Photo - Food Network

Continue reading to see who won the matchups in each episode......

Food Network's Darnell Ferguson Arrested for Assault, Strangulation

Photo - Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections

Food Network's Darnell Ferguson was involved in a January 2nd incident that involved his estranged wife.  She told police that Ferguson forced his way into her house, threatened to kill her and choked her until she passed out.  TMZ also reports that she told police she eventually lost consciousness, and when she regained consciousness, she claims that Ferguson ripped off her shorts and demanded to see her privates.  He allegedly took her IDs an credit cards and left.

The charges Darnell Ferguson faces include burglary, strangulation, assault, terroristic threatening, menacing, criminal mischief, and theft of a stolen debit or credit card.

On January 19th, his lawyer gave a statement to People saying, "Mr. Ferguson continues to maintain his complete innocence and is confident that when all the facts are made public, he will be exonerated. While (Thursday’s) hearing was preliminary, a number of new details were introduced by the Louisville police that begin to paint a clear picture of the events of January 2, 2024."

The grand jury hearing is scheduled for the week of February 19th, so there will be more updates after that.

After news of the arrest, Food Network pulled all episodes of Superchef Grudge Match from airing on the network and removed it from all online and on-demand platforms. The newest season of Superchef Grudge Match had just started, so chefs that competed on that show may never get to see their episode air.  It should also be interesting to see how Tournament of Champions is edited as Darnell always competes in that and the new season is starting soon.  

I will try to update this post after the grand jury hearing in the middle of February with any new developments.