It's enough to make you drop your TV remote. You're watching the Food Network and realize that one of the cooks mixing and stirring looks a lot like your next-door neighbor.
In fact, it is your next-door neighbor, and her recipe might win $25,000. Who knew?
"Just the thought that you'll be competing on a national TV show is a mind-blowing concept," said Elaine Jones of Salt Lake City, one of the three Utah finalists on the "Ultimate Recipe Showdown," a new Food Network program that will air Sunday nights at 10 p.m.
The six-episode series features "everyday folks competing in a kitchen stadiumlike arena to pit their best dishes against one another," according to the Food Network's press release.
The first episode shows Amparo Alam of Syracuse cooking her Rotisserie Chicken with Fried Yucca Root.
Later segments feature Erin Renouf Mylroie of St. George baking Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake with Toffee and Toasted Almonds, and Jones competing with Mediterranean Pasta with Lamb Meatballs.
Another finalist, Anne Tegtmeier of Windsor, Conn., has a Utah tie. Seven years ago, Tegtmeier was reunited with her birth mother, Donna Kelly, a Utah County prosecutor. The two co-authored a cookbook, "101 Things to Do With Tofu" (Gibbs Smith, $9.95).
Tegtmeier's "Ultimate Vegetarian Chili" comes from the tofu cookbook and Kelly traveled with her to watch the showdown.
"It was just as exciting and a nail-biting, cliff-hanging thriller as you would think," Kelly said.
The Food Network had viewers send in their "ultimate recipe." Nine finalists were selected in each of six categories: chicken, burgers, comfort foods, cakes, pasta and cookies. For each episode, one category of finalists prepared their dishes in front of a studio audience, and a panel of food experts sampled all the dishes to choose the $25,000 winner of each episode.
Winners' recipes will also be featured on future menus of the T.G.I. Friday's restaurant chain.
Although the show was filmed several months ago, contestants and Food Network staffers have kept mum about the results, so as not to spoil the suspense for viewers.
This was Alam's first recipe contest. The 51-year-old mother of two said it was, "More than perfect. It was very exciting."
A native of Lima, Peru, she submitted a Peruvian recipe, "because I'm proud of where I came from, and nothing in the world compares to our food. I love to have friends over, and I would get so many compliments on the food. Peruvian cuisine is spicy with a lot of variety and wonderful condiments."
The condiments apparently piqued the interest of Food Network staffers, because she received a call asking where to buy some of the ingredients. She explained that huacatay is a Peruvian herb and ajies are Peruvian hot peppers. Achiote is a paste made from annato seeds. These ingredients are sold in specialty markets; Alam buys them at the Chevere International Market in Layton. Some cooks also may not be familiar with yucca root or cassava, a starchy tropical vegetable eaten like potatoes in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Alam said she wasn't nervous during the contest.
"In South America I worked in advertising for 10 years, so it was like I was coming back to what I like, with the cameras and all the people around me. The Food Network was very organized and took care of the finalists in an excellent way."
Alam works in the Wal-Mart bakery in Clinton and hopes to open her own restaurant someday. She submitted several entries and her chicken recipe was submitted only four minutes before the midnight deadline. "Tell me I'm not lucky!"
Erin Mylroie, 37, is already a veteran of major contests such as the Pillsbury Bake-off and National Chicken Cooking Contest. Last year she appeared on the "Everyday With Rachael Ray" TV show as the grand-prize winner of Ray's Burger Bash contest. She'll be seen competing on March 3.
"The (showdown) was quite different from other contests, mainly because the point was to produce great entertainment, not just find the best recipe," said the Dixie State College humanities professor and mother of two. "We spent quite a bit of time in interviews, filling out question-and-answer biographical forms and also in prepping triple amounts of food items to assure that things would run smoothly on camera."
Mylroie noted that the semi-finalists were asked to submit videos of themselves before being chosen as finalists.
"It seems to me that they picked confident, strong and interesting personalities to be finalists. No shrinking violets allowed," she said.
Mylroie belongs to a Web site devoted to cooking contests and the video requirement sparked lively conversation on the site's forum.
"Seriously, there were many complaints about (the contest) being a beauty show or personality exhibition rather than a cooking contest," she said.
Mylroie's recipe was inspired by her wedding cake. The day after her wedding ceremony 12 years ago, she and her husband went to pick up the top layer of their cake at her parents' house. They found all of her siblings were huddled around the counter eating the cake right off the pan. So, the newlyweds joined right in the nibbling. It's become a tradition for Mylroie to make a similar cake on their anniversary and invite friends and family over to eat it right out of the pan.
Elaine Jones, 52, who owns a Salt Lake public relations firm, will appear in the March 16 episode in the Pasta category. She has won small prizes in various cooking contests, "but nothing of this scope."
Seven years ago she began focusing on healthful cooking as part of a lifestyle change.
"I've been doing a lot of 'mad science' in the kitchen and then I'll test it out on my husband. If he says it's really good, I hurry and write it down and try to remember how I made it," she said. "This one turned out really well, so I sent it in to the contest. It isn't the healthiest thing I make, but it's reasonably healthy. The trick is portion control."
Part of her inspiration came from the Salt Lake-area restaurant Cafe Med. "They have wonderful food, and anytime I eat there I analyze the food and try to figure out what spices are in it. The fast food Greek places have a Greek spaghetti, and their spice mix also inspired me."
Jones practiced her recipe on friends and family before the finals. "I made it three times in one week to perfect the cooking technique. I've never cooked at sea level before, so I didn't know how long it would take the pasta to cook. I found it did cook a lot faster than at our elevation."
The experience has given her confidence to enter future competitions, she said.
ROTISSERIE CHICKEN WITH FRIED YUCCA ROOT
This recipe airs on Sunday's episode of the Ultimate Recipe Showdown. Finalists' recipes in other categories will be released on Foodnetwork.com near their air dates.
1 whole chicken
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons huacatay (Peruvian herb)
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 aji peppers (Peruvian chile)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 lemons or limes, juiced
1/2 teaspoon achiote (annato)
2 pounds yucca root, peeled and boiled (cook them like potatoes)
Vegetable oil, for frying
Rinse the chicken very well and cut off all the fat. Tuck the wings under the back of the chicken.
Make a paste by mixing the garlic, huacatay, pepper, salt, ajies, cumin, lemon or lime juice and achiote. Spread paste on the chicken and rub well from outside to inside. Let stand in the refrigerator for 2 hours or more.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the chicken in the roasting pan with lid. Cook, covered, for 1 1/2 hours or until it is golden brown.
After you have peeled and boiled the yucca, cut it into a French fry shape. In a deep pot or a deep-fryer, heat oil to 350 degrees. Fry the yucca in batches, if necessary, until golden brown and crispy. Sprinkle with salt to taste.
Aji sauce:
6 to 9 aji peppers
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
Place ajies in a blender with salt, pepper, garlic, and vegetable oil. Blend. (This mixture is called cream of aji.) Mix with olive oil, green onions, and lime juice in a medium bowl.
Creamy cheese sauce:
1 package queso fresco (Mexican cheese)
1/4 of a red onion, sauteed without oil
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon turmeric, cooked in 2 tablespoons hot oil for 3 seconds
1 aji pepper
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Blend queso fresco, red onion, oil, milk, turmeric mixture, aji, salt and pepper and lemon juice in a blender until it becomes creamy.
To serve: Put the whole chicken on a plate with the fried yucca root around, and the 2 sauces on the side for dipping. — Amparo Alam, Syracuse
If you watch
What: "Ultimate Recipe Showdown"
When: Sundays, 10 p.m.
Channel: Food Network
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com