Four 15-year-old sophomores from the Arizona School for the Arts in Phoenix are among 36 Valley teens competing for cash prizes, commendable cuisine and crushed competitors in Food*Ball TV Show, a new weekly program that launched on May 23 on AZ-TV7/Cable 13.
Anna Debas, Maggie Rose, Audra Hoover and Emily Lucia were chosen from more than 100 area teens who auditioned for the high-energy, competitive cooking reality show.
Set to football metaphors, the hour-long Food*Ball TV Show pits two-person teams against each other in the kitchen to see who can score with the best on-field performance while amassing the fewest penalties for violation of food safety and procedural rules.
All contestants in Food*Ball’s 10-episodes completed a one-day crash Food*Ball Training Camp focused on food preparation techniques. The teams were then turned loose in the kitchen under the supervision of a whistle-blowing referee, Junior American Culinary Federation Competition Team co-captain Ian Ray.
Chaos, comedy and concoction of the—occasionally—palatable cuisine ensued.
Whatever the culinary outcomes, the kitchen creations have to be rated by food experts brave enough to taste anything.
Food*Ball will air from 4 to 5 p.m. on 20 successive Saturdays. The first nine episodes will each feature four contestants. The tenth episode, titled the “Food*Ball Bowl,” will give the two best-performing teams the opportunity to vie for the Food*Ball Bowl Championship and a $1,000 cash prize for each winning team member.
