Michele StuevenJust as the news that the untimely death of celebrity chef Anne Burrell last June in New York was ruled a suicide this week, her new Food Network show Worst Cooks in America: Talented and Terrible debuted in a bittersweet premiere on Monday.
The new season of Worst Cooks in America, featuring Burrell’s final appearance as mentor alongside the cooking boot camp’s newest coach, Chef Gabe Bertaccini, showcases recruits who are professional performers and used to stealing the spotlight. In the kitchen, however, they are dishing out disasters.
Burrell and Bertaccini have seven weeks to transform a talented but disorganized group of culinary trainees into kitchen stars. One of those is LA’s favorite Libra professional female wrestler and artist, Mikkki “Candy Pain” Yamashiro.
The recruits kick things off with a signature dish. Then, in the main dish challenge, they tackle the ultimate test, recreating the chefs’ “winner winner chicken dinner.” Those with promise move on while the rest face elimination.
Host Anne Burrell with recruit Kyle Torrence on Worst Cooks in America, Season 29 (Courtesy Food Network)
“We had to send in a video of us making a dish and have someone taste it and verify that you’re a terrible cook,” Yamashiro, who in addition to wrestling for 10 years, is a trained gymnast and self-taught textile artist, tells LA Weekly. “I made a lentil loaf with banana peel bacon and a smoothie. It was inedible. The show was a great chance for me to learn some new stuff. I may be accomplished, but not in the kitchen.
The real challenge for the vegetarian Yamashiro was butchering the chicken for the Pan-Seared Chicken with Salmoriglio Pan Sauce, Cabbage Steaks, and Herbed Farro.
“I didn’t want the little chicken’s life to be in vain,” she says. “I really took it seriously and tried to make a delicious chicken. It might have been a little burnt on the top and raw on the bottom, but I made it past elimination, so that feels like a win for me. It was the first time I had ever cooked or even touched raw meat.”
In the second round of competition, which airs Monday, Aug. 4, the recruits step into the spotlight in the first-ever Boot Camp Culinary Pageant. Competing head-to-head, they show off their kitchen skills in hopes of being crowned Mister or Miss Boot Camp. Then, teams learn the delicate art of cooking scallops in the skill drill challenge. For the main dish, they take on a restaurant classic, steak au poivre.
Recruit Mikki Yamashiro “Candy Pain” on Worst Cooks in America (Courtesy Food Network)
“I’m so grateful that I got to be under the tutelage of Chef Anne,” says Yamashiro. “She taught us knife techniques and how to hold a knife. I never knew how to cut an onion before, and when she showed us, it made perfect sense. Mise en Place was a big thing that she always talked about, everything in its place before you start cooking.”
Yamashiro, who teaches wrestling at the LGBTQ Everybody Gym in East LA and says that the pressures in the ring aren’t unlike those in the kitchen, has integrated many of the cooking lessons she learned from the late chef into her everyday life.
“It was so shocking, when I first heard the news, I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “A few of my friends had seen her that night before performing improv, and I was so excited for her to do something new and outside of her comfort zone. It’s a tragedy. I wish I could have gotten her in the ring because she would have made an amazing wrestler.”