Reality Show News

Dallas chef makes the cut for new season of Food Network Star

Say hello to Dallas' newest reality-TV star.

Photo courtesy of Food Network

Dallas reality show fans have a likable new contestant to root for on the latest season of Food Network's Food Network Star.

The series' 13th season premieres on June 4 with judges Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis and 13 competitors showcasing their cooking and on-camera skills to prove they have what it takes to become the next Guy Fieri.

Representing for Dallas is Caodan Tran, a former food blogger who owns a personal chef service. According to her bio, "Caodon didn't learn to cook until it became a life necessity as an adult. Raised in an ultra-competitive family, Caodan realized that cooking was the best way to learn about a culture without traveling. Caodan currently owns a personal chef service, doing everything from pop-up dinners to private dinner parties. Known for her fresh, clean, and simple approach to modern Vietnamese cuisine, Caodan considers herself hyper-ambitious and strong headed in a good way."

Sneakers website Chicks N' Kicks has already profiled Tran, and she recently launched a YouTube channel that she'll use to document her journey over the next few months.

A companion show called Food Network Star: Comeback Kitchen will give seven former Food Network Star finalists the chance to vie for a slot on the new season. And yet another companion series, this one web-only, called Star Salvation gives eliminated finalists a second crack at getting back on, much like Top Chef's Last Chance Kitchen.

Allison Page, program manager at Scripps Networks Interactive, says in a release that the show is inspirational to viewers. "To become a Food Network Star requires top-tier culinary skills, an impressive television presence, and the utmost dedication," she says.

Veteran reality show watchers will recall that Dallas has had two prominent locals on this show before: restaurateur and Sissy's owner Lisa Garza-Selcer, who was on season 4 in 2008; and Melissa d'Arabian, who was only kind of a Dallasite and won season 5 in 2009.

The pre-season begins on May 21, with the premiere of Food Network Star: Comeback Kitchen, a three-episode miniseries where seven ex-finalists return for a second shot at stardom. Co-hosts Valerie Bertinelli and Tyler Florence will identify what kept each of the alumni from winning. The competitors will take on a retro dessert and shoot an Instagram video about their updated version. Duff Goldman will help judge the results.

The June 4 premiere of the main show takes place at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. Guest judges are Robert Irvine and Monti Carlo. Other judges and guests throughout the season will include ESPN anchors Jemele Hill and Jaymee Sire, Sunny Anderson, Melissa d’Arabian, Anne Burrell, Josh Denny, Guy Fieri, Hannah Hart, Eddie Jackson, Sandra Lee, Sabin Lomac, Tiffani Thiessen, and Andrew Zimmern.

In addition to Tran, there's one other finalist from Texas: Nancy Manlove, from Texas City, a Food Network veteran who competed on Season 9 of Cutthroat Kitchen, which aired in 2015. Manlove previously worked for NASA, then went back to school to earn a culinary arts degree. She's won food competitions and is currently chef de cuisine at a farm-to-table restaurant and a grandma who wants to get cooks of all ages into the kitchen.

Other finalists hail from Lousiana, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, and Hawaii.

Star Salvation returns on June 25 on FoodNetwork.com/Salvation and is hosted by Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli and Food Network Star season 7 winner Jeff Mauro. It'll run six episodes, and the winner will re-join Food Network Star on August 6.

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Movie Review

A-list actor Saoirse Ronan proves award-worthy in new film The Outrun

Photo by Yunus Roy Imer/courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

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In Hollywood, there are two levels of being an A-lister, with occasional overlap between the two. There are the movie stars who can be counted on time and again to deliver at the box office, and there are the actors who put on Oscar-level performances in nearly every film they’re in. Saoirse Ronan resides firmly in the latter category, which she proves yet again in The Outrun.

The first time we see Rona (Ronan), she is drunk in a pub in London, so far gone that she has to be thrown out by security. In quick succession, she is shown with a severe black eye while giving a police report, and then working on her family farm on Scotland’s Orkney Islands, accompanied by text stating simply “117 days.” With a modicum of storytelling, it’s readily apparent that Rona is an alcoholic, and that the film will spend time with her at various stages of her tumultuous life.

The “present” of the film is her time on the Orkney Islands, with Rona helping her dad, Andrew (Stephen Dillane), run the farm, putting up with her overtly religious mom, Annie (Saskia Reeves), and doing her level best to stay sober. The fact that the 29-year-old has no clue what to do with her life and that she’s still pining over her old boyfriend, Daynin (Paapa Essiedu), doesn’t exactly help her predicament.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt and adapted by Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot from Liptrot’s memoir of the same name, the film treads familiar ground seen in other movies about alcoholism, with the biggest difference being the setting. The harsh beauty of the landscape where she spends most of her time seems to be a metaphor for her life, a place that can be unforgiving but also capable of the occasional positive surprise.

Fingscheidt eschews a straightforward narrative in favor of one that offers glimpses of Rona’s life throughout her drunkenness and sobriety. While she is able to keep Rona’s story legible for most of the film, there are times when the back-and-forth takes extra effort to understand. A clever marker the film uses to help viewers track time is Rona’s changing hair color, which is bright blue when she’s in her drinking phase in London, with only blue tips remaining during her time of recovery.

The film contains other elements to try to enhance the central story, some of which are more successful than others. Rona recounts various Scottish legends through voiceover, most notably one about selkies, shapeshifters that can change between seal and human form. The idea is interesting, but the connection between the legend and Rona is not strong. A subplot involving her dad’s lifelong mental health issues hits a bit harder, although it rightly is not explored all that much.

Ronan is, as always, an acting force. When an actor plays an alcoholic, it can be easy for them to fall into clichés, but Ronan manages to avoid most of them. Her skills have always been in the smaller, quieter moments anyway, and it’s when her character has to delve into self-reflection that she shines the most. Dillane and Reeves are veteran actors who complement Ronan well, and Essiedu does nicely in a role that is chopped up.

The Outrun - named for a certain part of the landscape on Rona’s family farm - doesn’t necessarily have a lot of new things to say about the states of addiction or soberness, but the personal story is compelling enough to hold interest. And with Ronan in the lead, moviegoers are in good hands, as her performance proves to be award-worthy once again.

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The Outrun opens in theaters on October 4.

movies film

Reality Show News

Dallas chef makes the cut for new season of Food Network Star

Movie Review

A-list actor Saoirse Ronan proves award-worthy in new film The Outrun

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