I have been waiting so long to tell you this news! I am going to be on Food Network again! Yeah, that’s right! Not only am I back on the Food Network but this time I am competing on my life-long cooking idol Guy Fieri’s show, “Guy’s Grocery Games”! I never thought I would say that! Am I dreaming? It has been so hard to keep this secret from you all for almost a year. I am so excited that I am finally able to tell you! Best of all, I will be on the “Superfans” episode, which is perfect for me!
Let me start by telling you how it all happened. On October 13, 2016, my mom dropped me off at a book signing for Guy Fieri’s new book. It was a busy school night, but I could not pass the opportunity to meet my idol again.This was my second time meeting Guy. Two years prior, I met Guy at another signing for his previous cookbook. I was kind of memorable from the first book signing since I showed up all dressed up in my Guy Fieri costume. I had the crazy white wig, his famous sunglasses, and everything. Luckily, Guy went kind of crazy for me. I got to sit in his chair, wear his real glasses, and got tons of special pictures with him. At the time, I was still bounded by a nondisclosure agreement with Chopped so I couldn’t tell him then that I was on Food Network.
Fast forward to this past Fall though and now things were different. After waiting in a long long line, I finally got the chance to meet Guy again and tell him about “Chopped” and the cooking career I have been growing ever since. Well the coolest part about meting him this time around was that he remembered me from the last time we had met. (I mean how could he forget my awesome costume!) After we talked for a few minutes I gave him my business card and asked him to check out my blog. He handed my business card to one of his people and said “ remind me to check this kid out”. I was over the moon on the car ride back, rehashing every detail of our whole conversation to my mom. It was like my night couldn’t have gotten any better. Little did I know that less than 45 minutes later… it would.
Well, when I got home I checked my email and I had an email in my inbox with the best subject line in the history of the universe! It read, “Guy’s Grocery Games wants to chat to Eitan per Guy’s request if possible”. When I read that I thought I was dreaming and started screaming and jumping up-and-down. There was no way this was real life. My lifelong cooking idol asking me to me to be on his show. Following that, we’re a bunch of emails back and there were phone interviews and then a Skype interview with the head of casting for the production company. It all felt like a dream until two first class tickets to San Francisco came in the mail. It was at that moment the reality of this moment really set in…….I was being flown to California to compete on my idol’s cooking show. All I was thinking was OMG what is my life?! So a few weeks later, my mom and I were flown out to San Fransisco for a few days to film the episode.
It was seriously the dream of a lifetime. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to have this incredible experience. Looking forward to sharing more with you in the weeks leading up to the episode. So turn in to the Food Network on September 24, 2017 at 8pm!
