Nick Stellino

Cook to Cook, Cugine to Cugina An Interview with Serena Palumbo of “The Next Food Network Star”

BY JOHNNY “MEATBALLS” DECARLO Italian-born, Serena Palumbo is one of the finalists on the hugely popular show, “The Next Food Network Star,” which airs every Sunday at 9pm (now in its sixth season). She’s a New York girl whose instructional videos, “Cooking In Manhattan” can also been found on you tube. Serena says her nonna is “the patron saint of marinara sauce.” Can she become a fixture on Food Network? Is there room for two Italian princesses?

JOHNNY DECARLO: As a finalist on “The Next Food Network Star,” how do you feel you rate among the competitors this year? It seems that each season, the challenges get more and more difficult. What do you bring to the table (no pun intended) that makes you stand out from the pack to the selection committee?

SERENA PALUMBO: First and foremost Johnny, please call me cugina Serena, because I think that if we start talking families we will find that we have at least a great great grandfather in common! As for what I bring to the table...well rustic Italian cooking, of course! I am not a trained chef and I have never worked in a restaurant so obviously I do not have great knife skills like Brad [Sorenson], for example...but I have the taste buds, the curiosity and creativity. I have traveled a lot in Italy and abroad before coming to the US and I am very curious about food so I have eaten some quite unusual dishes. I like to feel like Anthony Bourdain in “No Reservations.” I go to the little restaurants where the food is really rustic and genuine and I take plenty of notes...I have a little red diary where I take notes of flavor combinations and places I have been to and I love. I think this gives me a leg up on all the other finalists.

JD: Love the rustic cooking, cugina! Now, another cugina, Giada De Laurentiis, is a mentor with the selection committee and during the premiere episode, Wolfgang Puck jokingly asked if there was “enough room on Food Network for two Italian princesses,” to which Giada replied, “the more the merrier.” Do you think there is more pressure on you to specifically impress Giada, and to show why there is indeed enough room for two Italian-born female celebrity chefs on the network?

SP: I think Giada is amazing and I can only hope to be as graceful and classy as she is, her food is great and I actually have all her books, so I am definitely a BIG FAN! During the Camera Challenges it has been great to have her giving us feedback because she is insightful since she has been in this business for many years. Having to cook for her is challenging for me because I want to impress her but most importantly because she is a real expert of Italian food and I do not want to mess up! I see myself as the nerdy Italian cousin of the viewers that is a little funny and clumsy and speaks with an Italian accent cooking like nonna would.

JD: She’s definitely an expert; her books are all on my shelf as well! Now, according to your bio, you actually were a ballerina and an attorney. How did you make the transition to chef, and now to television chef?

SP: I am still an attorney I work in-house, now. I am no longer a ballerina because I am not so young and flexible (and skinny) anymore. I started my webisodes “Cooking In Manhattan” for fun and I love each and every one of them...I think it is the best hobby I could possibly find, but like every hobby you get more and more passionate each day and when the opportunity of being on the Food Network arrives, you know you CANNOT refuse that. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and also it is a lot of fun, so I decided to give myself a break from the desk job and prove America that we Italians are the best cooks, even if we do not have the official training!

JD: Well said. At times, female celebrity chefs aren’t taken seriously and I’ve heard some food critics even infer that many are recognized for being “eye candy” and not for what they cook. What would you say to anyone who may be unsure of your dedication to the culinary arts, and have you found yourself at any disadvantages simply because you are a young, attractive woman?

SP: This is a recurring issue for me and for any other good-looking woman in the world. As for me I can say that I have found my place in the sun in the corporate world because of hard work, otherwise I would have been on a plane back to Italy long ago. I’d rather be evaluated for who I am and what I do than the way I look. Good-looking women can cook, as much as anyone else, the fact that nature and genetics are on your side does not mean that you are just an eye candy. I am 28 / Fall 2010