crab and shrimp mac and cheese food network

Our demo began and the mentors seemed happy with my inclusive approach. I wasn’t as concerned with planning out exactly what we were going to say, as much as making sure I had all my ducks in a row for my portion of the demo. Katie and I are both take charge personalities, and we both wanted to take charge of different things at different times. Once I had a new plan, I was happy with the direction my dish was going. I decide to make a simple tomato sauce with a little kick from the fresh jalapeno to pair with my sweet crab meat and rigatoni. I want the mentors to know that I’ve done everything I can to re-imagine my dish and to meet this challenge.

Therefore, even though my original dish would have fit this challenge perfectly, I cannot possibly move forward with it.

My original dish has PASTA in it already! For the past two weeks, Giada has told me that I’ve skirted the challenges and that’s the last thing I want to be accused of this week. I am on Team Pasta Fest with Katie and Jess. I must re-imagine my original dish of Crab Mac & Cheese Bites to fit the party theme in my trunk. HA! Now everything has changed…not only is it yet ANOTHER team challenge, but the dish I had in mind? Gone out the window. Also, individual challenges are certainly more desirable in these situations because you have a lot more control. It’s not that I can’t be flexible, but when you are competing for the dream job of your life, it’s nice knowing you have a plan in place and feeling confident to carry it through. If I’ve learned one thing about myself during this process, it’s that I don’t enjoy confusion. My excitement was short-lived, as the mentors quickly revealed other plans. I couldn’t wait to get started and I knew this dish would be a slam dunk. I was stoked! My plan was to do a play on my Lobster Mac & Cheese, but instead to use sweet crab meat and make bite-sized Crab Mac & Cheese Bites in a miniature muffin tin.

We were challenged with creating summer bites for young tastemakers at a party venue in LA. What a sad and devastating moment that was! In this week’s Food Network Star recap, I’ll share my thoughts on the episode, the mentors’ feedback and my recipe for Crab Rigatoni. If you’ve been following along on this season of Food Network Star, you know that I was eliminated on Episode 3 last Sunday evening.

Crab and shrimp mac and cheese food network