Taking on Flavortown

Chef instructor and Fanshawe grad Erin Circelli-Russell outruns her competition to bring home $12,000

At Fanshawe’s School of Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts, instructor and chef Erin Circelli-Russell (Culinary Management 2003, Colle Teaching 2011) balances guiding her students in the classroom and training them at The Chef’s Table, the College’s hands-on teaching restaurant.

So when she received a call from the United States Food Network, it initially slipped her mind.

The message was from Guy’s Grocery Games, a popular cooking game show, asking if she would be interested in participating. After a successful online video interview, Erin packed her bags and headed to California.

Each episode features four chefs in a three-round elimination contest, cooking food with ingredients found in a supermarket grocery store dubbed the Flavortown Market as host Guy Fieri tosses obstacles to their creations. The winning chef of the episode can collect up to $20,000 in a shopping spree bonus round.

Guy and the judges are exactly as they are on television: fun, energetic and inspiring,” Erin says. “Their goal is to promote the competitors and they want viewers to know who we are and how good we are at it!

In the first round, all the competitors were challenged with cooking a seafood dish using only a miniature shopping basket to collect their ingredients and prepare their meal in just 20 minutes. Erin successfully prepared a grilled lobster and shrimp squid ink fettuccine and moved onto the second round. After a quick game of musical shopping carts, Erin had fortune cookies and a can of sweet and sour sauce as the ingredients she needed to include in her spicy takeout dish.

Inspired by the flavours she experienced during her travels to Southeast Asia, Erin created spicy thai noodles with fortune cookie-crusted chicken, wowing all three judges.

In the final shopping round, Erin raced around the Flavortown Market with clues on ingredients she needed to pick up, winning an impressive $12,000.

The experience was unbelievable and after watching the episode and seeing myself on national television, I honestly can’t believe it really happened,” Erin says.

Erin’s students inspire her to always stay current and fresh in culinary. “These students come into culinary school like sponges and soak everything up,” she says. “The knowledge I have and continue to gain is there for me to pass onto the students and my only hope is for them to retain it as I have.”