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The season finale of The Next Food Network Star aired earlier this evening, and Food Network has crowned its new star, Aaron McCargo Jr. Its no secret I’m a huge fan of the Food Network, and the next food network star quickly became a show I could not wait to watch each week. If you haven’t seen The Next Food Network Star, its a reality show that started with 10 contestants who were put through food/screen test competitions each week, with the elimination of one person each and every week. The big twist in the finale this season came last week when the judges couldn’t make a decision on who to get rid of, so they brought three finalists in to the finale.

The final challenge put finalists Lisa Garza, Adam Gertler, and Aaron McCargo Jr in essentially a pilot for their potential new show. Lisa Garza was first up and her show essiently was 5 star food using beautiful basics. Throughout the season it was clear to see that Lisa had the culinary chops to win but often struggled on camera and sometimes was downright funny because of how spastic she was. Seriously, at times this girl looked like she was cooking on speed. Then add to that her trying to tie in fashion into her cooking, and you have a recipe for a trainwreck most of the time. Lucky for her, she let the fashion stuff fall the background for the second of the season. In the end I just don’t think she was nationally marketable for the Food Network to build a show around.

Adam Gertler, along with Aaron, was the guy I was rooting for all season. His sense of humor came through early, and sometimes a little too much earlier on in the season. To make things harder on himself he kept undercooking food earlier on and had to rely totally on his personality and on screen presence to carry him through, which it did. The last few episodes though he really seemed to settle down into his own and started cooking better food and managed to bring the right amount of humor to make a compelling argument for him to be the next food network star. His pilot called Hungry in Philadelphia was a show in which viewers could email in and ask for tips/improvements on their recipe. In his pilot he made Beercan chicken and was very entertaining and funny throughout the pilot. In the end, I think his biggest weakness was his culinary knowledge. It really seemed like he knew barbeque but not much else, kind of hard to market a whole show to a niche, although barbeque is a big niche.

That brings us to the next Food Network Star, Aaron McCargo Jr. How can you not love this guy? He’s a big guy with a positive attitude and tried really hard to improve each week. Cooking was never an issue for Aaron as he always seemed to make food that was very well recieved. His biggest weakness was when he got behind the camera. He often had that deer in the headlights look, and generally just seemed overwhelmed by the cameras and struggled throughout the season to really get comfortable. Even in his pilot he seemed a bit uncomfortable during the taping, but in the end managed to put together a really entertaining pilot. Bid Daddy’s Kitchen was informative and funny, and in general, just fun to watch, and in the end, I think his culinary skills really put him over the top. Over time he’ll get better and better on camera and he really will become another Food Network Star.

The best part about the show is that even though the season is over, Bid Daddy’s Kitchen will be making its debut one week from now. I for one can’t wait to check it out, and will be setting the DVR for series recording. Congratulations to Aaron McCargo Jr., the Next Food Network Star!