'Food Nextwork Star': Meet Penny Davidi of Los Angeles

 
Season 7 of "Food Network Star" kicks off Sunday night with three SoCal competitors all vying to be the next Guy Fieri. We chatted with the local finalists in advance of the new show. Yesterday, it was Jyll Everman. Today, we meet Penny Davidi of Los Angeles, restaurateur and former owner of Pizza Rustica, which she helped turn into a successful franchise:

This much is guaranteed: Penny is going to be the talk of Season 7. She teeters in on impossibly high heels and never stops. Before the first episode is over, she'll be labeled a cougar, threated with bodily injury ("I'll literally beat you over the head," her nemesis tells her) and she'll receive high praise in the judge's room.

'Food Network Star': Meet Jyll Everman of Glendora

Season 7 of "Food Network Star" kicks off Sunday night with three SoCal competitors all vying to be the next Guy Fieri. We chatted with the local finalists in advance of the new show. Today, we meet Jyll Everman of Glendora:

Everman owns Jyllicious Bites, a catering company, and teaches cooking-and-entertaining classes at Village Kitchen Shoppe in Glendora and throughout Southern California. She considers herself a finger food specialist, turning out bite-sized comfort food such as miniature chicken pot pies, baked potato skins and more. So, if she wins the food world's equivalent of "American Idol," that's what her show will focus on as well: "I take all the things you love big and making them small."

That culinary approach is a hit the real world, she said, adding that clients love an all-finger-food spread. But she said it backfired in at least one challenge in the "Food Network Star" kitchens when she applied her "big-to-small" tricks to a featured ingredient: prime rib. The judges "don't want a prime rib bite, they want a prime rib," she said.

Get ready to meet your next 'Food Network Star'

Season 7 of "Food Network Star" begins June 5 with a new name and three local competitors determined to take home the title: Katy Clark of Long Beach, Penny Davidi of Los Angeles and Jyll Everman of Glendora are in the running for the culinary world's equivalent of "American Idol."

L.A. is the star of the two-hour season premiere, as the finalists find themselves facing challenges staged at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the city’s Original Farmers Market.  Alton Brown will help competitors answer that all-important question -- what's your culinary point of view? -- and then the contestants will serve up a four-course meal to judges and special guests, including "Extra" host Mario Lopez.

Bobby Flay returns as host and judge, and there's new judge Giada de Laurentiis. (I am mildly disappointed -- I particularly enjoyed her in her previous role as mentor. But I am sure she will shine at the judge's table as well.) Adding to the star quotient: Finalists will visit the set of ABC's hit series "Cougar Town" and create custom meals for cast and crew, including Courteney Cox and show creator Bill Lawrence, and there will be stop-ins with the likes of such network celeb chefs as Anne Burrell, Scott Conant, Melissa d’Arabian, Paula Deen, Ina Garten, Duff Goldman, Robert Irvine, the Neelys, Rachael Ray and Michael Symon.

Other finalists include: Mary Beth Albright of Washington, D.C.; Justin Balmes of Marietta, Ga.; Whitney Chen of New York; Justin Davis of Minneapolis; Howie Drummond of Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Susie Jimenez of Carbondale, Colo.; Juba Kali of New Orleans; Jeff Mauro of Elmwood Park, Ill.; Vic “Vegas” Moea of Las Vegas; Chris Nirschel of Hoboken, N.J.; Orchid Paulmeier of Bluffton, S.C.; and Alicia Sanchez of New York. The finale is set for Aug. 14.

If you just can't wait until June 5, go to www.foodnetwork.com/star for casting videos.

Are you amped for "Food Network Star"? And what do you think about the shortening of the title? (It used to be "The Next Food Network Star.")

RECENT & RELATED:

'Chopped All-Stars' -- did the best man win?

I know what you ate this weekend

Times Food Editor Russ Parsons on the farmers market cure

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

Photo: Food Network

Three Los Angeles finalists make it to the new season of 'The Next Food Network Star'

"The Next Food Network Star" is coming to L.A. -- and it's going Hollywood.

The Food Network's No. 1 series will be back June 6 with 12 competitors convinced that they have what it takes to host their own Food Network show. This season was shot in Los Angeles. Expect appearances by Wolfgang Puck, Todd English and Eva Longoria Parker, as well as all the network's top celebu-chefs.
 
Bobby Flay returns to host. The 12 finalists includes three from Los Angeles: Doreen Fang, Aarti Sequeira and Darrell “DAS” Smith.

What else will this season see? Plenty of sponsored challenges, if the press release is any indication: "Challenges include a crash-course in red-carpet glamor while catering a star-studded MGD 64 after-party with Grammy-winner Colbie Caillat, serving up savory dishes inspired by classic carnival sweets
at the Santa Monica Pier, creating and operating lunch trucks on Venice Beach, and using Kellogg's breakfast cereals to cook dinner with breakfast."

And things also are going to get a little touchy-feely this time around:

"The contestants must also impress special guest stars Eva Longoria Parker and Todd English by illustrating an 'emotion' through a dish at their restaurant, Beso," also according to the press release. 

The two-hour premiere is June 6th at 9 p.m.

-- Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

Photo: Food Network