The stock price for being a bachelor who can cook is about to double as the Food Network's newest contender, Darrell "Das" Smith, works his mojo on the 6th season of the Next Food Network Star which started on Sunday, June 6. Smith, who is a culinary instructor in Beverly Hills and the owner of Chef Das Catering, is about to change up the game in hopes of capturing the title and his own cooking show.
Born and raised outside of Detroit, MI, cooking was the farthest thing on his mind while growing up. In fact, he admits to staying out of the kitchen with his attention devoted to sports. He attended Morris-Brown College in Atlanta where he started cooking as a student and with one thing leading to another and he eventually enrolled and graduated from culinary school.
Smith says that he is "a different type of person with a different style" and so it is only natural that his cooking is too. New Style American cuisine that is full of color and flavor and presented tastefully is what you can expect from him.
Now going into its fifth week, unfortunately Smith was eliminated from the competition on during week 4, but that doesn't mean that it is the last we will hear from him. If things had turned out differently and he had gone all the way, he said that his show would target the eligible bachelor.
A great idea for one such as himself who loves seafood and is not afraid to step out of his comfort zone to try something new at least once. The way he was told to look at it is that "nothing is nasty, it is just not to your liking." Spoken like a true chef who understands that there are different strokes for different folks and that is what makes the food world go round.
And speaking of the food world, contender Brianna Jenkins also joined this season's cast with a global approach to sweeping the title. Originally going to school for food journalism, her love for food changed her major and essentially her career. Born into a family of great chefs, she grew up spending summers in Pleasanton, Calif., sharing culinary moments with her aunt who is a chef.
Deciding to follow that same path, she attended and graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Cuisine Française in Paris and eventually returned to Georgia. Today she is the owner of Bouche a Bouche Catering serving cuisine that infuses her multi-cultural heritage (African-American, Italian, French and Irish) and also a chef instructor for the Viking Culinary Institute in Atlanta. Through her training and travels, she has developed quite an adventurous side to both cooking and eating with a love for fusing difficult flavors into one.
Jenkins heard about the casting call from a co-worker and notes it was all about timing. Although she noted that the process was a bit long, in the end she beat out thousands for the chance to have her own show and take her passion for cooking to the next level. "Unique with a global influence" is how she describes her show if she is crowned the Next Food Network Star. She notes that not everyone can travel the world and so that opens the opportunity for Jenkins to bring the world to them.
Although Food Network viewers won't see cooking from a bachelor pad anytime soon, there is still a possibility that they will be able to travel the world with Jenkins. The winner will be revealed on the final episode which will air on Sunday, August 15.
To catch the next episode and the remainder of the season, tune in Sunday nights at 9 pm ET/ PT. For information about the entire cast from this season's show, visit www.foodnetwork.com.