Well that's interesting

I have just discovered the level of my naïveté. Remember my attempt to land a spot to grill with Alton Brown from the Dear Food Network: Grilling show? I have uncovered that one of the "winners" is actually a food writer and has been on TV before!

It started with a harmless check of my website's recent hits. I saw an odd search term appear. Somehow searching the name "Chris Kohatsu" brought hits to my site. I hadn't a clue why or who this person was... until I researched.

Ms. Kohatsu was the first winner to appear with AB in the grilling show. Remember the culinary student who needed help with her burgers? The fan who used Emeril's catchphrase to ask Alton a question. In addition to needing help with her burgers and being a culinary student, she is apparently a food writer. Here's where she writes and posts.

Okay, she writes about food. So shouldn't she know a thing or two about about cooking? Well, maybe not if the topic is just food in general. It makes me wonder why someone who writes about food would want to appear on a show like this, a show about needing help in the kitchen (or with the grill).

Then I thought, maybe she honestly needed help from Alton more than I did. But a food writer asking for help on a simple thing like burgers? Really now.

I'll even give her that grilling is out of her realm and that's why she needed help with it.

Still, it is shocking because I was so embarrassed to submit my question knowing all that AB had taught me and knowing how big of a fan I am. I had to think about it, long and hard, before attempted to design a question to pose.

I didn't want to act clueless in order to get my chance, even as much as I wanted it. But I finally did it because I truly want to cook with Alton and tell him about what I have learned from watching all of his shows and using his cookbooks. My question may not have been the best one because I tried to ask it in a way that wasn't going to make me look stupid. If I acted like I didn't know anything and call myself one of Alton's fans, then I'm doing a disservice to him because AB is all about teaching his viewers.

Then it got worse the more I searched. In Google videos, I found she had been on some program on HGTV called I Want That. HGTV just happens to be owned by the same conglomerate that owns Food Network. Hmm?

Here's her segment:

Learning of this has taught me I'm naive at times.

Someone like me hasn't a chance to be selected for one of these shows. It's all that who you know thing. I'm a nobody and I don't have connections to anyone who could get me to an opportunity like that. An average Jane, like me, gets a raw deal 99.999% of the time. Should've known that from the beginning, but I had hope displaying my true and honest passion as a fan would help me would win.

It didn't.

All the passion in the world, all the skills I've polished from watching Alton, all of the blog posts I write about my cooking matters not in the grand scheme of things.

And never will. As long as the producers of these shows select people with connections and past TV experience.

Though I'm saddened to learn about this, I am hopeful this was an amazing experience. I hope Ms. Kohatsu had a great time grilling with Alton. I hope she appreciated Alton's advice on the burgers, took in all of the information he gave and put it to use. I hope she realized what a treat it was to hang out with him and talk food with him. I hope she entered the contest just as I did, a passionate fan with a dream to grill with her all-time favorite cooking show host. I hope she is a real, true Alton Brown fan who was thrilled to get personal cooking tips from someone she admires.