What's your favorite dish to make? That's so hard. My favorite dish to make is probably chicken fried steak, and I have a couple different variations of it. I have one where I take a chicken fried steak and cross it with a green chili sour cream enchilada. So it's chicken fried steak, or chicken fried chicken, and that sour cream green chili enchilada sauce and I call it Sexy-Mexy Chicken. It's really good. I'm going to post the recipe because, oh man, it needs to be explored by the rest of the universe.
You're from League City, but do you ever come into Houston to eat? Oh all the time! I was just there cooking.
Where were you? Susie Jimenez opened a restaurant called Trenza in town and she is the runner-up from Season 7. So, I just went and did her chef table the other night. She has been really taking me under her wing and it was fabulous. I love Indian food. She does this little play on Mexican and Indian because they are so similar. You're like no that won't work and then you realize they're so similar, it's easy to make it work, and she's an amazing chef anyway. She's high class. Like I had no idea. People still talk about her who are involved with Food Network Star.
Do you view any of the mentors/judges on Food Network Star as role models? Probably Bobby [Flay]. You know, people kept expecting that I would be just terrified of him, and I kind of was because he didn't choose me in Season 8. But what he did for me was so much more than that. I went home and got so much better, and I feel like that is a side of a mentor that we don't usually think about. We think about the person who just inspires us and all this stuff, but what about the people who tell you you need more work? And then you can come back and actually be a real competitor. So, it's kind of a grey area with him and me. I'm thankful that I got to come back because if he had chosen me for Season 8, I think I would have been the first to go home. I don't know what will happen this time, but I feel like he was the one that helped me dig deep and come back strong for season 10.
How does it feel to be on Food Network Star? It's just wonderful to be here. I'm from Dallas and I lived in San Antonio for a while and I really wanted to move to Houston because I spent all of my summers down here in Galveston and in this area. So, I am really proud that now I'm on the show, I'm the Houstonian from the show. I always wanted to be here and now I get to represent for a brief amount of time what we're like. I think it's really going to come out on the show, like Texans are different in really good, fun ways.
