Food Network Star Winner Crowned Tonight

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Tonight at 9pm ET on Food Network is the season 13 finale of Food Network Star where the winner will be announced. The final three contestants are Cory Bahr, Rusty Hamlin, and Jason Smith. On the episode tonight, we will get to see each of their full pilots as well as the top moments of the season. A poll on this website reveals that people are overwhelmingly rooting for Jason to win with approximately 80% of the vote, followed by Cory at 17%, and Rusty at only 3%. Judging by the comments on that post, it seems that while people are rooting for Jason, people either love him or hate him.  Also, remember the winner is no longer determined by viewer voting, so it could be anybody that wins.

There is no guarantee that the season 13 winner of Food Network Star will get a show, so we will have to see if anything is announced for the winner on tonight's episode.

I will update this post once the winner is announced and will also update the post with any information about the winner's show (if there is one).

Continue reading to know the winner (Spoiler):

Food Network Star Season 13 Winner - Poll

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Season 13 of Food Network Star is down to the final three contestants and each of them have produced their pilot. Cory Bahr, Rusty Hamlin, and Jason Smith all produced traveling show pilots and they probably didn't have any say in what to do for their pilot.  This was more of a final challenge than the contestants actually filming a show that they envisioned for themselves.

The full pilots will not be shown until next week's episode, so it is hard to even determine who did the best or what their pilot is even about.

There is always a poll on this site to determine who people are rooting for to win. So vote below to let everyone know who you want to win and feel free to discuss in the comments.  Last year Tregaye had the least amount of votes in the poll, but ended up winning the season.

UPDATE - Jason Smith ended up winning.

Food Network Star Episode 10 Elimination

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On tonight's episode of Food Network Star, the winner of Star Salvation was revealed and rejoined the competition.  Cory Bahr won Star Salvation and joined Jason, Rusty and Matthew for the first challenge.  Each of the contestants had to cook the dish of their lives and had help from contestants already eliminated from the show.   Former Food Network Star winner Eddie Jackson was there to help judge this challenge.  The three contestants who had the best dishes got to film a pilot for a show and the pilot was directed by Guy Fieri.

The judges determined that the final three would be Cory Bahr, Rusty Hamlin, and Jason Smith. They each shot traveling type pilots with the help of Guy Fieri.

Next week the winner of Food Network Star will be announced and we will see if there are any plans to actually produce a show with them involved.  I will have a poll up shortly to see who everybody is rooting for to win although there is no actual voting by the audience this year.

UPDATE - The poll is now up if you want to vote.

Food Network Star Season 13 Contestants - Where Have You Seen Them?

This Sunday at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network is the start of season 13 of Food Network Star. As is usually the case, you will probably recognize many of the contestants from other reality shows on Food Network and other channels. Here is a list of the Food Network Star contestants for this season and where you may recognize them.  Also listed is their POV from the Food Network Star Talk blog.

• Cory Bahr (Monroe, LA) - Chopped season 12 (won). POV - seasonal, regional, as local as you can get. Just keeping it simple, stupid.
• Blake Baldwin (Flemington, NJ) - No previous reality television appearances.  POV - healthy cooking can be delicious without being difficult.  This is due to his weight loss after college.
• Trace Barnett (Brilliant, AL) - No previous reality television appearances. POV - budget-friendly, schedule-conscious and very consistent with Southern fare, but in a lighter, fresher way.
• Toya Boudy (New Orleans, LA) - Guy's Grocery Games: Impossible, also has a YouTube cooking channel.  POV - Cajun and Creole cuisine made simple.
• Addie Gundry (Lake Forrest, IL) - Cutthroat Kitchen (won Halloween special), Cutthroat Kitchen Time Warp tournament. POV - easy, elegant entertaining - all things food and beverage that are easy to make yet elegant to serve for any entertaining occasion.
• Rusty Hamlin (Atlanta, GA) - Rusty's RockFeast: Backstage With Zac Brown Band on FYI.  POV - Southern-inspired chef with Louisiana Cajun Creole roots who goes around the country and does what I call cooking off the cuff — whatever’s local and whatever’s coming out of the ground, the sea, the refrigerator, the cabinets is what we’re going to make an amazing meal with.
• Suzanne Lossia (Detroit, MI) - Cutthroat Kitchen (won), Also has authored a book.  POV - Turning Middle Eastern into American flare, turning it into an American way of looking at it.
• Nancy Manlove (Texas City, TX) - Cutthroat Kitchen (won), Cutthroat Kitchen Time Warp Tournament. POV - Nanna in the kitchen.
• Amy Pottinger (Honolulu, HI) - No previous reality television appearances, but tried out for Food Network Star season 11 according to this video. POV - Exploring new culinary worlds and growth is within anybody’s grasp.
• David Rose (Atlanta, GA) - No previous reality television appearances. Has done work with Big Green Egg and also has done local news food segments.  POV - French-Jamaican-Southern fusion.
• Jason Smith (Grayson, KY) - Holiday Baking Championship (won). POV - country bling - take old, dying country recipes, and I bring them back to life and make them modern, elevated and fancied up a little bit.
• Caodan Tran (Dallas, TX) - Cooks vs. Cons. Has also tried out Amazing Race and Food Network Star in the past (link).  POV - Vietnamese-inspired with kind of flavors and touches from California and Texas

You will obviously recognize the Food Network Star: Comeback Kitchen winner as they have previously competed on Food Network Star.  If I have missed any appearances on any shows, let me know in the comments and I can update this post.

If you are interested in learning more about the contestants, their bios from the press release are available here.

As always, visit the site after each episode airs to discuss the episode and who went home.