by Allison L. Nowacki and Bryan J. Polk

It is summertime on Food Network and that means the return of The Next Food Network Star. In the two hour long gut busting season seven premiere there are immediate changes made apparent. The show has been rebranded from The Next Food Network Star to just Food Network Star and Giada De Laurentiis will not serve as the contestants one on one mentor but will act more as chef Bobby Flay's second in command.

This season, there are fifteen contestants cooking it out for their own Food Network show, a feature in Food Network Magazine, and the chance to go on the road with the Food Network Star book tour. Competing is Whitney (an engineer who then went to culinary school and shares a resemblance to Rachel Ray), Justin B (a fish monger, butcher, and cook), Juba (a private chef). Jyll (a performer who owns a catering company called Jyllicious Bites), Susie (a private chef with a catering business whose father came to America from Mexico), Justin D (a food blogger who loves all things food), Penny (a restaurant owner), Vic Vegas (an executive chef for a restaurant in a hotel in Las Vegas), Orchid (a BBQ restaurant owner who was not classically trained), Chris (a sous chef who graduated from French culinary school), Katy (a food and fitness lifestyle coach), Mary Beth (a lawyer turned food critic), Howie (a morning radio personality), Jeff (a former comedian and corporate chef) and Alicia (a former model who went to culinary school and is now a chef instructor).

All the contestants meet outside of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California and are greeted by Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis. They are told that their first challenge will be to cook a sophisticated breakfast in forty five minutes that shows their personality on a plate. Everyone seems to be very excited to be taking part in their first challenge and most dishes comes out as planned except for Vic who does not get his lobster on the plate in time for his country fried lobster slider with prosciutto hash and Chris who has undercooked chicken which he cannot serve with his wild veggie and pancetta frittata.

No self respecting competition would be complete without a curve ball and the contestants receive their first with the addition of a camera challenge where they will have one minute to present their breakfast dish and themselves on camera. Hitting it out of park is Orchid who is warm, inviting, and had very delicious food. She takes home the first win this season. Other positive on camera moments came from Whitney with her eggs benedict and instant likeability and Jyll with her saffron risotto and passionate view of food. The biggest strike out came courtesy of Juba who was not very good in front of the camera but his grits and egg dish was the favorite of the day. Howie got some criticism from the judges for admitting he was a novice and saying the word "basic" about fifteen times. Alicia got some flak for her unusual Missouri accent and Mary Beth was called middle of the road and border line mediocre.

The next morning, they all head to the Los Angeles Farmers Market where they will be split into five groups of three to shoot a promo directed by Alton Brown. They have their pick of any props they would like to utilize but will need to showcase all three of their shows in a cohesive and well rounded way. All of this needs to be accomplished within four continuous takes to get the promo in the can - which is no small undertaking. Every group, after some troubles, manages to complete their promos but each had an anchor dragging them down. The biggest road blocks for their respective groups are Howie, using most of the takes while short changing the rest of his group and Juba, who is the last to talk but keeps tripping over his words leading his team to start all over again. While most of the teams get on well together in the face of adversity, there is a brewing rivalry between Penny and Alicia who cannot stand working with each other. Unfortunately for them, these three person teams are sticking together for the next challenge.

Each team will need to work together to impress members of the press with a four course tasting menu. Each member will be responsible for a single dish as well as a dish that must be a team collaboration. They have forty five minutes and $200 to shop and then two hours to cook at the Food Star kitchen before moving over to STK restaurant for an additional thirty minutes. During the tasting, there is only one team that is clearly on the losing side of things. Every other group had put up good to great food and was mostly criticized for their promos except for the team made up of Vic, Jyll and Howie. They ran into the major problem of not plating all of their food. While cooking, Jyll was concentrating on the group dish and helping out Howie rather than focusing on her own marinated flat iron steak dish. Then, Jyll accidently knocked Vic's calamari to the floor in a head to head collision. The dish that did make it to the table, Howie's gnocchi, was just terrible to top everything off.

At the judging, it is the team comprised of Jeff, Juba and Orchid that takes home the big win. Orchid is once again singled out for her personality and good food while Juba is once again singled out for producing a delicious dish but really lacking in charisma. Jeff rounded out the entire group with his wit and consistency on the plate but he was advised to consider changing the name of his potential show about sandwiches to something other than Between The Buns. The team that is up for elimination, unsurprisingly, is Vic, Howie and Jyll. The judges' main issues were not being able to taste anything that Vic cooked and Howie not being appreciative of the help and sacrifice that Jyll gave him on top of not producing good food. The first casualty of Food Network Star is radio personality Howie. He may be a great character on the radio, but he just didn't have what it takes to cross that over to be The Next Food Network star.

The Next Food Network Star airs Sundays at 9/8c on Food Network.

(Image courtesy of Food Network)

You can catch more of Allison and Bryan on their weekly reality podcast at notmakefriends.com.