Local business to be featured on TV contest

Maryville’s local business

Kool Kats has made its way onto the screen. Kool Kats will be on “Food Stars,” it will feature May 24 on FOX.

The show stars Gordon Ramsay and food and drink businesses from all around the United States competing for a $250,000 investment.

Kool Kats first came to business in 1995. Owner David Ackman and co-owner Aaron Valentine decided to send Valentine to represent Kool Kats on the show. Valentine specialized in product development, creating drinks, creating a fun atmosphere and building culture within the company.

“I was like ‘It would be so cool to be on the show and just get to learn,’” Valentine said. “... I looked at it as an opportunity, not only to expand my knowledge, but to build a network of other food and drink entrepreneurs to learn from them and be able to apply what they’ve taught me and put it into my business.”

The process required a lot of work from Valentine, sending in several promotional videos to meet the requirements.

Valentine said Kool Kats was contacted by a casting producer. He was convinced it was fake for about a week.

“The casting process went from January all the way up until April, and I literally didn’t find out I was flying out for the show casting until like three days before,” Valentine said. “In that whole time, I spent those four months really prepping the business for my absence and ultimately throwing together hundreds of hours into these videos.”

Valentine said this was a unique opportunity for Kool Kats that he could never miss. He got the chance to meet Ramsay and said it was an amazing experience. The prize money offered will help invest in the business that wins. Ackman said the best case scenario for if Kool Kats receives the investment is to become a franchise.

“We were hoping Gordon Ramsay would be on board about helping take our business and turning it into a national franchise,” Ackman said.

Ackman said Valentine is smart and hardworking and wants to see this help him with his future.

“I’m hoping that Aaron can have great success himself,” Ackman said. “He’s young, and he’s crazy intelligent. He’s a kid that could easily be an Elon Musk down the road. I hope that he has great success.” been around for decades. Watkins said she participated when she was here for school.

Both said they hope this puts Kool Kats on the map. They said the point of Kool Kats was to make somewhere in the community for people to feel included and welcomed. Kool Kats doesn’t only serve snow cones, but ice cream, and the business has introduced other food items as well, like sandwiches.

“I just see Kool Kats continuing to be iconic for Maryville, just like we always have been,” Ackman said.

As of now, it isn’t known which business won the money. Ackman said he would like to hold a viewing party on the day of the premiere to celebrate.

“It's really a professionbased learning opportunity for the art students,” Watkins said. “We are teaching them about becoming a practicing artist. A part of that is selling their work. It gives them the opportunity to stage the work, market it, advertise it and start to learn about pricing.”

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts art show and sale is 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 21 and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 22 at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building. The Empty Cups fundraiser will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 20 and 21 in the J.W. Jones Student Union. A portion of the profits from the Empty Cups fundraiser will be donated to the Maryville Ministry Center and Northwest Bearcat Food Pantry.

Clay Club President Emily Signaigo is a senior double ma- joring in education for art, kindergarten through 12th grade and a studio degree in studio ceramics. The group meets up to twice a month on Wednesdays. Members come together and have work days, bounce around ideas, share show opportunities like calling for shows for portfolio building.

Signaigo shared the thought process of pricing artwork: How long did it take to create this? How long did they spend forming the piece and how hard did they think about the glazing technique?

Watkins and Signaigo both said these events are a great way to interact with the community.

“It's nice to see all your hard work paid off and also to see everybody come in and actually like your work,” Signaigo said. “... When that person buys the first piece of your work — someone that I don't know but you're gonna have a piece of my work in your house, such a great feeling.”