The Great American Recipe
The Great American Recipe
THE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE is a new eight-part uplifting cooking competition that celebrates the multiculturalism that makes American food unique and iconic. Hosted by Alejandra Ramos, the series gives talented home cooks from different regions of the country the opportunity to showcase their beloved signature dishes and compete to win the national search for “The Great American Recipe.” Judges Leah Cohen, Tiffany Derry and Graham Elliot bring their professional insights and deep culinary knowledge to encourage and support the contestants along the way.
When to Watch
EPISODE 1
WKNO (10.1)
Fri, June 24 at 8 PM
Sat, June 25 at 1:00 AM
WKNO (10.2)
Fri, June 24 at 8 PM
EPISODE 2
WKNO (10.1)
Fri, July 1 at 8 PM
Sat, July 2 at 1:00 AM
WKNO (10.2)
Fri, July 1 at 8 PM
EPISODE 3
WKNO (10.1)
Fri, July 8 at 8 PM
Sat, July 9 at 1:00 AM
WKNO (10.2)
Fri, July 8 at 8 PM
EPISODE 4
WKNO (10.1)
Fri, July 15 at 8 PM
Sat, July 16 at 1:00 AM
WKNO (10.2)
Fri, July 15 at 8 PM
EPISODE 5
WKNO (10.1)
Fri, July 22 at 8 PM
Sat, July 23 at 1:00 AM
WKNO (10.2)
Fri, July 22 at 8 PM
EPISODE 6
WKNO (10.1)
Fri, July 29 at 8 PM
Sat, July 30 at 1:00 AM
WKNO (10.2)
Fri, July 29 at 8 PM
EPISODE 7
WKNO (10.1)
Fri, August 5 at 8 PM
Sat, August 6 at 1:00 AM
WKNO (10.2)
Fri, August 5 at 8 PM
Meet the Contestants
Bambi
Bambi Daniels (Winston-Salem, NC) describes her cooking as Southern “Heart & Soul” food — everything has a hint of her South Carolina roots and lots of love. She grew up on her family’s farms in South Carolina — her maternal grandparents’ in Chester and her homestead, Davis Farm, in Blair, where meals were prepared using what they grew and raised. She still incorporates fresh ingredients in her recipes, and when she visits her Blair homestead, family and neighbors drop by to share fruits and vegetables from their gardens.
Bambi loves cooking for her family, children and their friends and believes authentic connections are made and walls broken down when people sit down together at the dinner table. Her mother, Mary Emma, is her inspiration, but recent health issues have kept the matriarch from cooking. Bambi’s goal is to keep the family recipes — which carry the voices of her ancestors — alive. Her signature dish has been passed down from generation to generation: smoked mac and cheese with bacon.
Brian
Brian Leigh (Bowling Green, KY) prides himself on his rustic home cooking infused with his Hungarian and German heritage. Born and raised in Ohio, he now calls Kentucky home, where he cooks hearty, homestyle meals for his wife and family. Growing up in a family of farmers, Brian learned cooking from his mother and grandmother, making everything from scratch, including beef stroganoff, blintzes, oatmeal cookies and marinated cucumbers.
Brian developed his cooking techniques as a teenager when he worked in a friend’s Italian restaurant and credits his father for his passion for barbecue, which led him to start his own award-winning company that makes sauces and rubs. His signature dish is a rib eye with blue cheese and BBQ brussels sprouts.
Christina
Christina McAlvey (Portland, OR) calls her food “Fili-fusion,” a mash-up of Filipino flavors blended with her favorite cuisines. She was born in Michigan shortly after her parents emigrated to the United States from the Philippines in the late 1970s. From an early age, she helped her parents in the kitchen, making Filipino dishes and taking home-cooked meals to school for lunch. Christina’s signature dish is Chicken Adobo which she learned to make from her dad as a child.
Now living in Portland, Christina finds that the area’s outdoor lifestyle encourages her to cook healthy, environmentally sustainable meals using locally sourced organic and gluten-free ingredients. As a small business banker with a busy professional and personal life, she doesn’t always have time to tackle complicated recipes and has learned to make simple yet delicious dishes using whatever she has on hand. With a lifelong interest in fitness, she loves to create healthier versions of her family’s favorite Filipino recipes.
Dan
Dan Rinaldi (Providence, RI) was raised in a multi-generational Italian family and takes pride in sharing his family recipes. He learned to cook in his grandmother’s kitchen, where Sunday dinners were a staple of his childhood. He loves to make homemade pasta and is continuing the tradition with his wife, daughter and grandkids. The secret to his cooking is heirloom Calabrian chilis, originally brought over from Italy, and he tries to work them into as many dishes as possible. A firefighter for 33 years, Dan enjoys preparing hearty meals for his colleagues at the firehouse.
While on duty, Dan became trapped inside a burning house, suffering third-degree burns and crushed limbs before being rescued by his fellow firefighters. After recovering from his injuries, he came back even stronger and has continued to thrive in the job he loves so much. Dan’s signature dish is his grandmother’s meat sauce recipe — Sunday gravy with meatballs — a firehouse favorite.
Foo
Foo Nguyen (Orange County, CA) loves to prepare his family’s favorite recipes and considers his Vietnamese heritage his greatest culinary influence. His family emigrated to the US and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived from the age of three until he was 22. Foo’s large family — he’s one of eight children — rarely ate out because of the expense so his mother always served home-cooked meals. As he began to cook, he would combine Asian flavors with Midwestern comfort food classics.
When his mother was diagnosed with dementia, Foo was motivated to continue her Vietnamese cooking traditions for his Korean American wife and their two daughters. He now lives in Orange County, California, where there is a large Asian community and easy access to amazing ingredients. Foo is also a stand-up comic and believes that food and comedy are the two things that can put a smile on anyone’s face. His signature dish is egg rolls stuffed with pork, crab and shrimp, a family tradition started by his mother.
Irma
Irma Cádiz (New York, NY) grew up eating Dominican and Puerto Rican food and loves to prepare her mother’s recipes as a tribute to her family’s Caribbean heritage. Raised in a multicultural environment in Rochester, New York, she experienced a wide range of cuisines but wasn’t always a fan of cooking. Her mother encouraged her to join her in the kitchen, but it wasn’t until Irma had her own children that she learned to love it.
For the past decade, she has lived in New York City’s Harlem with its diverse culinary scene. Irma recently completed her college degree and has started her own business, where she specializes in Latin-inspired cocktails. Irma is an actor and current member of the Chelsea Repertoire Theatre, where she continues to hone her craft. Her signature dish is mofongo con camarones, a popular Caribbean comfort food made from mashed plantains and shrimp.
Nikki
Nikki Tomiano-Allemand (Boise, Idaho) was raised in the Seattle area but now lives in Boise with her husband and two sons, where she runs her own meal prep delivery service for other busy parents. Her cooking combines her family’s Italian roots with her Pacific Northwest upbringing. Her most cherished recipes are those passed down from her relatives, including her grandfather, who taught her many of his favorite dishes. Nikki’s love of world travel has inspired her to infuse a variety of international influences in her cooking.
To give back to the community, Nikki hosts an annual Thanksgiving dinner for families in need and works with a program that helps local youth receive culinary and life skills training and job placement in the food industry. Nikki’s signature dish is baccala, a salted cod stew that kicks off the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes in Italy, a recipe brought over by her family when they emigrated to the US.
Robin
Robin Daumit (Annapolis, MD) developed a cooking style that combines Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences from her mother’s Syrian heritage and the regional cuisine of her home state of Maryland. Living in the Chesapeake Bay area, she loves to cook with fresh seafood, especially blue crab and oysters. Growing up, many of her friends were Greek and Italian, and through them, she learned to cook a wider range of Mediterranean food.
As a single parent of four and now grandmother, she loves whipping up recipes she collected throughout a lifetime of experiences and has made it her life’s purpose to pass on the traditions of her Mediterranean cuisine with her family, through her cookbooks and her blog. Robin’s signature dish is salmon in a fig leaf because fig trees represent prosperity, health and well-being, and she has had one at every home she has owned.
Silvia
Silvia Martinez (San Luis Obispo, CA) grew up in Guanajuato in central Mexico, cooking authentic dishes she learned from her grandmother, aunts and mother. After college, Silvia had a successful career as a human resources executive and university instructor. She met and married an American and they moved to California’s Central Coast. Silvia’s transition to life in the U.S. was challenging, but once she became a mother, she connected with other Latinx parents by sharing her favorite recipes and bicultural life through her popular bilingual website.
Silvia has adapted some of her Mexican recipes to reflect a California lifestyle while also keeping many traditional Mexican dishes. One of her signature dishes is Sopa Tarasca, a pinto bean-based soup with tomatoes and chile ancho topped with crispy tortilla strips, avocado and queso fresco.
Tony
Tony Scherber (Minneapolis, MN) was born in South Korea and raised in Minneapolis. Although not blood-related, he and his older brother came to Minnesota and instantly were immersed in two cultures. His adoptive mother cooked dishes from an old Korean cookbook to help him stay connected to his birth culture. Although he cooked throughout his life and aspired to be a chef, culinary school was not a feasible/realistic option for him.
Tony now works as a Social Media Manager in Minneapolis, loves to blog about food and entertain friends and family with home-cooked meals or discovering a new restaurant. The burgeoning food scene in Minneapolis, and throughout his travels, has opened his eyes to the world of international cuisines. Tony’s signature dish — Korean Gochujang chicken tacos with kimchi — reflects his love of big, bold flavors.