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Which Californian will be the next Food Network Star?
California is overrepresented in the finalists in The Next Food Network Star reality show: two are still standing, and they're both from California.
First there's Guy Fieri fromJohnny Garlic's up in Santa Rosa. But despite his location, Guy's not wine-country-ish at all: he's got spiky blonde hair, wears skate shorts and cooks healthy-ish home versions of crap we all like to eat: the fried, the BBQd, the spicy, the tequila-soaked. He's somewhere between a punker-turned-parent and a hyper frat boy, the kind of guy whose backyard parties are probably really fun. We like Guy.
But we also like Reggie Southerland from the Comfort Cafe in Silverlake. Reggie is very Old Silverlake: fey and flamboyant, generous, a little scattered, sweet. He obviously enjoys food — and yes, as you may have guessed, comfort food is his style — and his southern-via-the-city dishes always look great. Everyone on the show seems to think Reggie is the one to beat, so we imagine his food tastes as good as it looks. Plus he's our local guy, more than Guy.
So now the voting is on, and it's Reggie vs. Guy until this Thursday. We kind of want them both to win, so we say you can't go wrong voting for either one. Although for hometown reasons we think you should probably vote for Reggie.
And it's fair to note that last year's winner (a pair of chefs) isn't yet a star: they're stuck doing their show at 9:30am on Sundays. Couldn't they get one of Rachael Ray's 1,000,000 weekly slots instead?
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