Cookistry: Will JAY be the Next Food Network Star?

Friday, June 5, 2015

Will JAY be the Next Food Network Star?

Back in 2011, I was one of a group of bloggers chosen by a book publisher to promote one of Emeril Lagasse's books.

At that time, it was a really big deal for me to get chosen for something like that. And it was the first time I worked that closely with other food bloggers.

It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but the best part of the whole experience was working with some great bloggers,

When it was over, it got even better, because some of the bloggers who participated in that book promotion decided to virtually hang around together and work on our own group posts.

That group became Virtual Potluck and Jay Ducote was one of those bloggers.

Flash forward to 2015, and Jay is still part of our group, but he's also been a very busy guy, working on a lot of other things. He launched his own barbecue sauce, which I had a chance to try recently.

It was really good on ribs. I made these very simply, with a little smoke and no other spices or flavors, so I could really taste the sauce. It was a nice mix of sweet and heat.

And he has wine as well. And I don't know what else. Like I said, he's been a very busy guy.

But this isn't about Jay's product lines. It's about Jay's participation on The Next Food Network Star.

This year's competition premieres on Sunday, June 7, and for sure I'll be watching to cheer Jay on ... virtually, of course. Yelling at my TV isn't very useful.

I have no inside information on the show, but Jay has a lot of things going for him. He's a blogger, but he has also worked at events in front of people, so that should help him when he needs to do presentations.. And he's got strong ties to Louisiana, which will probably inform his culinary point of view, which is very important to the judges.

And, since he has commercial products, he should be good at packaging and pitching a product, even if it's not the same as the ones he has now.

I think he has a pretty good chance of going far in the competition - and I'm rooting for him to win. How cool would that be?