by Chandra Clewley

 

The Next Food Network Star Season 6 is wrapping up, with three finalists left. Last night, Aria Kagan, who started out the gate as the favorite of everyone, was eliminated after she “failed to evolve” during the series. Aria, who’s point of view was always her family style approach, left her three year old son and family at home in Florida to tape the show. This morning, Aria, whose radiant personality always lit up the screen, spoke with Reality Wanted about her experience on the show.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted:  What inspired you to go on the show and how did that come about?

A. Aria Kagan: It was almost a year ago, I was in this place where I wasn’t really sure, I went to culinary school and I taught at Le Cordon Bleu for a few years, then I had Luca and I was with him for a few years and I felt a little lost. I really wanted to do things that I loved to do, and I asked a mentor of mine, “What do you think? What should I do?”  I told him I wanted my own cooking show and he told me to go get it. The next Food Network Star was doing auditions, and my mom bought me a ticket to Atlanta and said “Happy Birthday you are going!”

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted:  It seemed really difficult for you since you had to leave your son.

A. Aria Kagan: I felt a lot of guilt, but I wanted to set up a better life for Luca and I, but he was three years old, and when you miss a month and a half of your child’s life, I just felt a lot of guilt and then when I saw him on the eighth episode, I missed him so, so much and all I wanted to do was say “alright guys, it’s been fun!” I just wanted to go home and be with him.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: It seem like being a chef involves a lot of travel and moving?

A. Aria Kagan: I think it is something that allows you to explore different places and all you need are your own two hands. You can go everywhere, you can live in different places and part of being a chef is learning different cultures, different ways and styles of cooking. Anywhere in the world, I can find a job.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: You were the favorite in the beginning of the show. Do you feel like you lost traction or did circumstances get the best of you?

A. Aria Kagan: It’s almost like, being on a show like this, you work so hard to make sure you do everything that the judges want you to do. You respect them and their opinions but at the same time you want to stay on the show because you want the prize at the end. To be honest, I think I lost who I was and I lost my passion for why I was there. My true passion is to teach cooking but also to understand where your food comes from, farm to table, farm to plate, that to me is beautiful and when I started getting involved in family style, it is a great concept, I really believe in it but it wasn’t where my heart was and I felt like I lost myself in the process trying to please the judges.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted:  What was your favorite challenge of the season?

A. Aria Kagan: I really loved cooking at Frank Sinatra’s house. It was incredible, you walked into his house and you just felt the energy and you could imagine what happened at that house. I took Pigs In A Blanket, and that was more of my creative side, and I was able to take textures and recreate them, that was such a fun challenge.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: Who was your favorite celebrity chef that you were able to meet because of the show?

A. Aria Kagan: Besides meeting Giada (De Laurentiis) which was fantastic, I really enjoyed meeting Guy Fieri. He was really, really cool. He embodies what you can do with this career.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: So, what do you think happened last night?

A. Aria Kagan: Tom took a huge risk by doing things that were crazy and off the wall and it ended up being not so good, I also wanted to take a chance. I do understand what Iron Chef is all about and I get it, but also at the same time, not only are you doing Iron Chef, you are also competing for your own show. This was my one and last chance to show the judges my point of view. I decided to serve them something that was more about the show idea Family Style. I wanted them to feel like they were walking into my house and I was going to make them breakfast, and I wanted them to really imagine what the show was going to be about. I decided to go towards my point of view.  When I was commentating, I was having such a good time, I was with Herb and Paul, I got caught up in it. I was thinking before I knew what the ingredient was that I was going to make breakfast, so when it was bacon, it was good and bad. I kind of second guessed myself! I went with my gut instinct, I wanted to do breakfast for them and yes I should have incorporated the bacon more into it, but you are moving a mile a minute. Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: What would you have changed in your dishes?

A. Aria Kagan: I would probably do the same thing but incorporated bacon a lot more. I would have made a chocolate bacon ganache and I would have put bacon in the strawberries and I would have made bacon brown butter and put it over the bananas.

 

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: The judges always talked about the natural radiance that you have and that that cannot be learned and it is something that you are born with. What are you going to do with that now? What is next for you?

A. Aria Kagan:  that is the big question. I feel like that last chapter hasn’t been written for me yet. I started a blog, teaching is a passion and I love to teach so I have been doing these great cooking classes where we all cook together and then we all eat together. I still would love to have my own cooking show so I am working on that too, so we will see!

Catch an all new Next Food Network Star Sunday night at 9/8 c on Food Network.

(Image courtesy of Food Network)

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