Food Network Addict Review: Melissa d'Arabian's 'Ten Dollar Dinners'

Melissa d'Arabian won The Next Food Network Star last Sunday, as you know, and her show Ten Dollar Dinners premieres tomorrow, Sunday the 9th, at 12:30pm ET. Unlike last year's winner, Melissa and her show pretty much remained under wraps until the big reveal. And, luckily, the first episode was pretty good! She managed to not kiss any raw meat.

Melissa's first episode, titled "Perfectly Priced Parisian," sounded very similar to season 3's winner Amy Finley's show The Gourmet Next Door when I first got it in the mail. (I already pointed out the recycling of Amy's blue tiles, and now after watching I'm pretty sure she also got Amy's old oven. So green of Food Net!)

While Melissa and Amy do have some similarities (both are moms who have lived in France), Melissa comes across as much more polished and TV ready than Amy ever did. There was some debate as to whether or not Amy ever wanted to be on TV or not; with Melissa there's no question.

The big change for Melissa's show is that all her meals are supposed to feed 4 people for $10. Considering that spoonfuls of some of Ina Garten's French dishes cost $10 or more, Melissa will surely have to think creatively to stay under budget.

Budget or not, the food is pretty good in this first episode. Her potato, bacon, and gruyere torte looked delicious and is obviously the "big ticket" item in the meal, as the rest of the meal consists of a green salad with mustard vinaigrette and what she calls an applesauce granita, which is nothing more than applesauce and a squeeze of lemon frozen in a pan and scraped into a glass like a granita. (She does end up topping it with a yogurt maple sauce.)

Compared to the other budget cooking shows on Food Network (Sandra's Money Saving Meals comes to mind), Melissa's food actually looked pretty appetizing. She made me want to try that torte, which is something I don't really think after watching a lot of shows on Food Network (truth be told).

I don't particularly like the little "mini-interview" thing that they threw into her show, like they do on Down Home with the Neelys. You know, where the host takes a little time to talk to an off-camera person about the recipe or a "special story" or about how a homemade crust makes you feel "warm and special inside." Still, Melissa manages to pull them off without making them entirely unbearable.

That's not to say Melissa comes across as a pro in the first episode. She calls her $10 dinner a "lunch" twice and occasionally trails off while talking. (There are a few awkward pauses here and there... which I guess is better than non-stop, irrelevant talking.) I know there must be a million things running through your head while taping your first episode of your first TV show, so I'm giving her a pass for a while. (She's light years ahead of some hosts on their first eps.)

While capitalizing upon a trend-right, in-the-moment feeling in America (we still recessioning?), Ten Dollar Dinners, by its very nature, runs the risk of not having a very long shelf life. How long 'til inflation raises those dinners to $11.25?

Watch tomorrow and let me know what you think.

Another Sign of Recession? Ten Dollar Dinners Recycles from Gourmet Next Door

Melissa D'Arabian's new show Ten Dollar Dinners is promising a lot by keeping every episode's meal for 4 under $10... so are we surprised that they saved a bit of money by reusing the same blue tiles from Amy Finley's 2007 show The Gourmet Next Door?


They were only used for 6 episodes, so what's the big deal, right?

5 Reasons Why Melissa D'Arabian Is Going to Win The Next Food Network Star

After watching last night's episode of The Next Food Network Star it become clear to me who is going to win this season's competition. I liked Debbie from the beginning, but never really thought she had a chance of winning.

Here are my 5 reasons why Melissa D'Arabian will be the next Food Network star:

1. Melissa Has the Best Story Arc


Producers love to tell a story and carefully construct what we see (and don't see) of each contestant. Remember how all of Melissa's flubs and screwups were heavily featured in the early episodes? We were lead to believe she consistently needed help from the other contestants just to finish in time, couldn't keep up with the professional chefs, etc.

Now, in the second-to-last episode, Melissa is seen as triumphant and adored by the judges and guests. Her cooking skills even garnered the approval of top chefs John Besh and Francois Payard, among others.

Jeffrey, on the other hand, has stayed pretty much consistent (which is what we hear from TUSCHELSON over and over) since episode 1. He's good but not great. He's not good on camera, and while he might bring in a new audience, I think Food Network is more worried about keeping another audience it already has. Which leads me to #2...

2. Melissa Could Reclaim the Audience Amy Finley Supposedly Had


Bob Tuschman told me in our May 2008 interview that Amy Finley's show The Gourmet Next Door "was actually a huge hit--she was one of the highest-rated in daytime for the six weeks she was on." As you know, Amy's story is that she left voluntarily after those 6 shows. While Melissa doesn't act all "here's some French food based on French recipes I learned while living in France," her cooking style does seem very similar to Amy's and I think her show would have a similar look and feel as Gourmet.

3. Rachael Ray Isn't Getting Any Less Rich


I feel like the more money Rachael continues to make with her daytime talkshow, magazine, and other deals, the less likely it'll be that she returns to Food Network--at least in the same cooking show host capacity we've grown to know her.

Rachael's two-year deal with Food Network is quickly coming to a close and I haven't heard anything about any new deals yet. While I'm sure some execs would like to try a show with Jeffrey Saad and get a new audience, it's much safer to go with something tested and known.

Several personalities have popped up over the years since Rachael's debut, but I don't think anyone has had the same kind of likability and star-power that Rachael has. The truth is, they might not ever find someone else who resonates the way she did... but that doesn't stop them from trying. Melissa, unlike Rachael & Sandra Lee, really is a mother and has the potential to appeal to that mom market they know are watching.

4. Melissa Tells a LOT of Stories

If 50% of a successful Food Network host is cooking ability, the other 50% might be the ability to tell millions of stories about yourself & your family. If you're cooking hotdogs, you better be able to instantly talk about the time your Grandpa once took you to a ballgame when you were 6.5 years old and you were wearing a brand-new ball cap and that you ordered 2 hotdogs and ate both of them and remember the smell in the air and how it's what you always think about whenever you make hotdogs... even if it's not true. ;-)

Melissa seems to have a better knack about this. Whether or not this makes her food any better is debatable.

5. It Just Makes Sense. You Never Thought She Was Going to Win.

I always think I'm being tricked when watching reality TV show competitions. From the beginning, Jeffrey seemed qualified, was described as a "Greek god," and just seemed like he was going to go far. Melissa on the other hand did not seem like she'd make it past the 2nd episode. I think that's part of the trick--never thinking they'll make it from week to week and then, suddenly, they win.

After all, I NEVER thought Aaron was going to win.

***************

What do you think? Is Melissa going to be on TV a week from Sunday?

LISA GARZA WINS!!!

Well, she may have lost to Aaron McCargo Jr. for the title of the next Food Network star, but Lisa Garza is a winner here at Food Network Addict!

Take a look at this list of the top 10 keywords people searched for when landing at this blog:


Strange how no one is searching for "Aaron McCargo Jr."

Even last season's "winner" Amy Finley (well, her show "The Gourmet Next Door") was in my top 10... twice!

Finally the Truth: No Season 2 for Gourmet Next Door

After many months of speculation, vague half-answers, and downright uncertainty, Amy Finley--season 3 winner of The Next Food Network Star--has finally come forth and said that there will be no more new episodes of her show, The Gourmet Next Door.


"I will not be back for another season. The producers offered me more shows, but with my family I decided it was time to move on to other projects," writes Amy on the new Where Are They Now section of NFNS's site.

"The lifestyle and obligations of a television personality – including cultivating the thick skin it takes to survive the harsh criticism and vicious personal attacks mounted by bloggers – just aren’t compatible with my goals or my family at this time."

Vicious personal attacks mounted by bloggers?!?! Surely she couldn't be referring to this post or this picture. I actually thought Amy's show ended up being pretty good, but it looks like her heart wasn't in it from the beginning:

"It’s hard to hold two conflicting emotions simultaneously: Happy for myself – though also terrified – and guilty because I felt I didn’t deserve to win. It was a very bittersweet victory. By the time I was announced the winner, family issues had also helped me determine that working in television was not going to be in my future."

Ummm... so you already asked to go home once, but stayed on. Then JAG dropped out and you were brought back. You still wanted to go home, but were then announced the winner. Crazy!

Too bad. I wish Amy, who's currently living in a small village in France, the best in all her future projects. Sorry it didn't work out!

The Bore-met Next Door

Okay, perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on Amy Finley's first stab at a regular cooking show on Food Network, but I had to the use the "bore" pun before somebody else did! (And if someone else did already use it, brava.)

It's not to say that Amy, winner of The Next Food Network Star season 3, was boring... more like the show just lacked any energy... or pizazz overall. It's sad to say this, but the thing that kept me watching the most were these super-elastic facial expressions Amy kept using.


I don't know how she does it, but pretty much any time she speaks her upper lip is pulled to one corner, while the lower is stretched to the other. I'm not making this up!

For those of you who actually watched, I think you can attest to this. This wasn't me trying to be clever and grabbing a shot where Amy was making a funny face. It's pretty much the standard throughout the entire show.

Her bistro theme was fine. She did the standard flank steak with red wine sauce (that I think she did on TNFNS), some cracked potatoes, and a pate a choux dough that she used for gougeres and profiteroles.

Amy kind of suffers from the same thing that plagued Giada early on, which is the inability to smile and speak at the same time. Now, as we all know, Giada is the QUEEN of this... but it must have taken some work. Those early videos of GDL were pretty dismal.

Amy's reactions, however, are spot on:



I'm not sure if this reaction came about because the sauce was, in fact, delicious or if she surprised herself by tasting the burning hot liquid before letting it cool. Anyhow, an "A" for Amy on that one.

The oven did trip her up, though. Poor thing.


That top bar isn't the handle, dear. We know you're new here, but come on:-)

Overall, a fine start. The food, so far, is definitely a change of pace for the network. I still think Ina is a lot better at making the viewer feel at ease with difficult French dishes than Amy is. Perhaps she'll get better with time...

...or they'll put her show on at a new time: 7:00 a.m.

right before the Hearty Boys.

Amy Finley Is Outside Your Door

Okay, she's not that close... but she's coming.

Season three's winner of The Next Food Network Star, Amy Finley, actually made out with a pretty good timeslot, Sundays at 12pm ET/PT (Giada's old weekend time!).


What? No cleavage? Evidently that's the only thing TV reviewers want to write about, so you better get on it, Ms. Finley! ;-)

“Amy’s infectious, easy going personality and approach to creating simple, impressive dishes will appeal to our food loving audience,” said Bob Tuschman, Senior Vice President, Programming for Food Network. “We couldn’t be happier with America’s choice as the new Food Network “Star” and we think Amy will fit in perfectly to our line-up.”

I may cry a bit now that Dave Lieberman's take on inexpensive gourmet has been axed, but I'll give Amy a shot. I'll have to get my hair curled into ringlets just for the occasion.

Her show, The Gourmet Next Door, premieres Sun., Oct. 14.