Four days after the finale of the home cook competition All-Star Academy aired on the Food Network, first runner-up Vanessa Craig was back in the kitchen cooking up a storm in her native Santa Barbara County.
Larner Vineyards and Winery invited Craig, who grew up in Solvang, to prepare a multi-course dinner for 20 guests at the family’s spectacular Ballard Canyon estate on April 23.
The spirited 33-year-old beauty with a heart of gold was thrilled for the opportunity to show off her sharpened cooking skills and to design dishes specifically for Larner wines.
“They put so much love into every single bottle, and I put so much love into all of my dishes, so I thought it was a perfect match,” Craig told me while she tidied up the kitchen after dinner. “It was a pleasure to be able to share my creativity and my passion with all of you in such a tangible way. It just makes me over the moon!”
I was equally excited to meet the congenial Craig. My family and I cheered for her each week in March and April while watching the TV show.
A year ago, the home baker submitted an application to be on the Food Network’s All-Star Academy. Network producers called her in October, which led to a couple of interviews, followed by an audition, then word that she was chosen for the show.
“It all happened really fast. It was thrilling,” Craig recalled. “I’m still beside myself. It’s wild, man.”
Ten home chefs from across the country were flown to New York to compete for a chance to win $50,000. The top eight contestants were paired up with four of the Food Network’s most popular celebrity chefs: Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone, Alex Guarnaschelli, and Michael Symon.
“Having Michael Symon as my mentor was just the coolest,” she said about her Iron Chef-winning advisor.
Craig said filming the TV show was grueling: “It was an intense three-and-a half week process. We were cooking back-to-back 11-to-12 hour days. It’s just as intense as the show shows.”
Show host Ted Allen assigned the cooks unusual cooking challenges during each episode.
Craig raced against the clock, under the tutelage of Chef Symon, tackling and winning several culinary assignments, such as an Asian-inspired seared ahi tuna “lasagna” with avocado mash and layers of wonton chips. Symon taught her not only how to layer crispy wontons, but also flavors.
More importantly, she learned how to remain cool in the kitchen. “The pressure is real,” Craig said. “But your hometown girl can handle that kind of stuff; I’m still standing.”
After all the episodes were taped, Craig returned home to Goleta to see her colorful personality in all its glory on the small screen when the series debuted in March.
“I’m a nut; I’m an absolutely silly nut,” she laughed. “I knew I was a goofball, but just seeing it, I’m like, ‘Geez! Did I just make that face? Did I just do that? Yes, you did.’ I think I’m unique. It’s really cool to be unique and to be yourself. Do what you love, and love what you do, and look where it gets ya.”
Her mom, Arlene Clark, said she enjoyed seeing her daughter on TV.
“It was so exciting. She seemed so natural at it,” Clark told me at the Larner dinner, where she helped her daughter in the kitchen. “She was just being herself.”
Celebrity chef Robert Irvine, the imposing host of Restaurant: Impossible, was a judge for an episode of All-Star Academy, in which he called Craig’s veal tenderloin, “The perfect dish.”
The night of the winemaker dinner, Craig recreated that entrée.
The evening began with two delicious appetizers: Santa Barbara ceviche paired with Larner’s aromatic 2014 malvasia bianca, and marinated strawberry and goat cheese crostini served with Larner’s refreshing 2014 rosé.
The dinner’s first course was a flavorful sweet corn fritter salad with spiced chicken, paired with the Larner 2013 viognier, which turned out to be an excellent match.
Craig followed that course with an earthy black pepper beef stew with morel mushrooms, paired with Larner’s 2010 red Rhone-style blend, Elemental.
Dessert was a light Greek yogurt panna cotta with “tipsy apricot compote,” served with Larner’s luscious 2014 Solarner, a gorgeously golden dessert-style wine.
While Craig placed second in the TV contest, she was a definite winner in everyone’s eyes that night. The self-described “dinner party diva” hopes to build on all this momentum.
Her goal is to launch a successful catering business working with local winemakers, purveyors, and farmers, and to “show some love to the valley that’s always shown me love.”
Craig’s website is vanessalovesfood.com.
Any chance we might see her back on television again someday?
“Well, I am in touch with producers and different TV people and they think I’ll be on TV again,” Craig said with a wink followed by her million dollar smile. “If there’s a challenge, I’m gonna go after it. It doesn’t ever stop me.”
Craig is spearheading a local benefit for earthquake victims in Nepal. She rallied fellow chefs like Bacon & Brine’s Chef Pink—featured on Cutthroat Kitchen on Food Network, and local wine industry friends Larner, Kunin, and Kaena, to participate in a May 29 dinner in a private greenhouse at the Santa Barbara Orchid Ranch along the Gaviota coastline. To donate or attend, go to centralcoastcares.com.
Don’t forget the chardonnay symposium
The Chardonnay Symposium, a three-day celebration of chardonnay, returns to Pismo Beach and Avila Beach May 28 to 30. Top wine producers from around the world come together for grand wine tastings, educational seminars, winemaker dinners, and panel sessions. See thechardonnaysymposium.com for event information and tickets.
Contact Sun wine and food columnist Wendy Thies Sell at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 14-21, 2015.