I had the opportunity to meet Susie Jimenez, the runner up of the show on the Food Network Channel called The Next Food Network Star, in our small town of Turlock in the restaurant Los Gallos at a private dinner. The show she participated in was about the Food Network finding a new chef who was talented and poised for a new cooking show on the network. Susie competed for a spot to be one of the 15 finalists on the show and made it. Susie Jimenez couldn’t believe it because she went from being the little girl that picked cherries in the fields to a Food Network Star Finalist.

Susie’s dream to become successful chef started when she was inspired by watching her mother cook different Mexican plates in the kitchen. Susie not only was inspired, but derived a lot of her cooking recipes and plates from her Mexican heritage. With her family’s support she was able to accomplish her dream by going to California Culinary Academy and becoming a professional chief. After graduating from the California Culinary Academy she moved to Aspen, Colorado were she formed her own catering company and started teaching cooking classes.

Susie took a shot of becoming a finalist on the Food Networks Star show when season 7 auditions came up from the Food Network. Susie was one out of the hundreds of people who auditioned and was one of the few who made it to the top 15 finalists. Susie started off in the show learning and getting guidance from great chiefs like Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, and other famous cooking chiefs that were guests on the show. Susie was able develop important skills like communicating and connecting with the judges and her audience with her food in a personal way, through telling stories of her childhood in Mexico. After she got the hang of things on the show, she became a strong chef on the show who brought a lot of creative spins on Mexican cuisine and charmed the judges and audience with her genuine personality. At the end, Susie made her home town and family proud when she made it all the way to being one of the last two finalists on the show.

What really drove Susie to the end of the competition was to make her promise to her dad come true, which was for her to move on and make her dream come true. When the prize was so close between Susie and her competitor on the final show, Susie was declared the runner up. However, her mom said, “Susie made it so far in the competition that she is a winner. She did not just make it far into the competition, but she got realize her dream by being able to show her talent in cooking to the whole world on television. Even though she didn’t win I said to her in New York when we were there for the Food Network show finale, I have never been to New York, who would have thought we would ever be here in our dreams when we lived in Mexico. Just being already here in New York is already like winning to me Susie!”

Interview:
Since I got to meet this inspiring individual, I decided to interview her with a few questions. I noticed throughout the interview, she was the same bubbly and vivacious Susie that I had seen on TV. She was friendly and open to questions I asked her. In the interview I asked her these questions:
• Q: How was your experience on the show?
A: The experience was wonderful because I got to meet a lot of interesting people and the chiefs there guided me in a given direction. However, the experience on the show was stressful too I must admit because I lost 34 pounds.
• Q: How did you feel after the show ended and how did the show open any opportunities for you?
A: Well after the show I felt that I could do anything because I had accomplished so much just by being on the show. Not only did I accomplish a lot of things on the show, but the show opened so many opportunities that right now they are ENDLESS!!
• Q: If you could re-do things over on the show, would you have change anything?
A: I actually would change one thing. I would change my unselfishness. I would have been more selfish on the show. For example, instead of focusing on helping my other competitors on the show, I would focus more on myself.
• Q: Do you keep in contact still with any of your competitors from the show?
A: I actually do. I keep in very close contact with Marybeth. We basically talk or text each other all the time. I also keep in contact with the Jeff (winner) and Vic (third place winner) too.
• Q: Penny one of the competitors on the show was reflected by the media as a selfish and as an unfriendly competitor to get along with. Was she really like that in person?
A: Not at all, Penny had a really good side that people did not know of. There are many things that people didn’t get to see of Penny on the show unfortunately.’
• Q: As a chief you must have a favorite dish to cook. What is it?
A: Well my favorite dish to cook is mole, but right now my favorite recipe for mole is my Squash Blossom Nut Mole.”