FOOD NETWORK CELEBS ON 'KATIE'

Last week a friend and I attended a taping of Katie Couric’s daytime talk show Katie to see the episode’s guests—Food Network’s resident food and wine expert, Ted Allen, and celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli, executive chef of NYC’s Butter restaurant. The Food Network stars were promoting their new show, America’s Best Cook, which is a competitive cooking show akin to Chopped—except instead of professional chefs, home cooks compete for the prize.

During the taping of the Food Network segment, three home cooks were challenged to present their best dishes to judges Allen, Guarnaschelli, and Couric—the winner: bacon-wrapped meatloaf (yummm!), which won out over vegetarian stuffed peppers and a coconut shrimp dish.

The Food Network celebs also demonstrated a couple of cooking tips:  1) Put a LOT of salt into the water before boiling pasta (it should taste like sea water)—this is the only way the pasta will absorb any of the flavor   2) Put a significant amount of oil in the pan when cooking fish fillets to keep the skin from sticking, and keep the skillet on the burner farthest from you to prevent splashing.

We weren’t able to take photos during filming, but I managed to snap a few shots before and after.

Katie Couric chatted with the audience prior to taping, and she was surprisingly funny, noting that she required “industrial-strength Spanx” under her wardrobe.

Katie is a self-proclaimed superfan of Chopped and was very excited about the Food Network segment. In fact, Katie competed in a special Chopped challenge in 2013, winning against former The View co-host Joy Behar.

Ted Allen takes questions from the audience after the show.

Crewmembers clean up the cooking set after the segment.

This episode of Katie airs Thursday, April 24^th at 3:00 PM EST on ABC. America’s Best Cook airs on the Food Network on Sundays at 9:00 PM EST.

#foodnetwork  #tedallen  #americasbestcook  #chopped  #katie  #katiecouric  #alexguarnaschelli  #butternyc  #tastingnewyork