Think you’re a pretty bad cook? Allen resident Jolynn Singh sure did, and that’s why she recently competed on the 18th season of Food Network’s TV show, “Worst Cooks in America“, a culinary boot camp, if you will.
In her regular day-to-day life, Jolynn works as a travel nurse and disaster relief volunteer. She often volunteers with the Plano Salvation Army to feed the homeless in the area. Her fellow volunteers have a standing joke that Jolynn can help serve the food or clean up the food, just never cook the food.
One evening, as she tells it, Jolynn saw an add on Craigslist for the show and thought she might as well apply. Sure enough, her cooking skills (or lack thereof) earned her a spot on the show.
“To get on the show, I had to cook a meal for my family. And I thought if I had to cook something, I wanted it to be really different,” said Jolynn. “My husband is Asian and we have a lot of Asian influence in my family, so I found duck tongue at the store and made Tex-Asian One Pot Duck Tongue Soup. I threw in ramen noodles, soy sauce, duck tongue and anything Asian I could find in my pantry, and filmed my family eating it – well, trying to eat it.”
“Worst Cooks in America” features a handful of wannabe cooks who struggle in the kitchen. The goal is for contestants to improve upon their cooking skills and compete against each other for a $25,000 prize. Chef Anne Burrell and TV personality Alton Brown host and judge the show, serving as mentors to the contestants.
Jolynn was surprised with how well all the contestants got along on the show. In fact, Jolynn said several of the contestants still keep up, and she flew out to L.A. to visit one of the contestants just last week.
“We would go in the break room and all be singing or dancing, and everyone was so encouraging of my singing,” said Jolynn. “Before the show, I never sang in public, but now I sing in church every Sunday because these strangers instilled so much confidence in me.”
Aside from being encouraged by her fellow contestants, Jolynn said she learned helpful cooking tips.
“Alton Brown was always telling us we need a certain amount of sweetness, tartness, spices and other flavors in our food,” said Jolynn. “It was all about balancing a variety of flavors. That is a lesson I have taken home to my cooking.”
Episode One recently aired on Jan. 5. Tune in online at FoodNetwork.com or on the Food Network channel every Sunday night at 9 p.m. to see how Jolynn does in the rest of the competition. The winner will be announced during the last episode on Mar. 8.
Worst Cooks in America >
