Reality Roll Call Interviews Brett August of The Next Food Network Star

Brett August is this week’s Person of Controversy in reality TV news. The second contestant to be eliminated from The Next Food Network Star, he left judges and viewers trying to figure him out.

Chef Bobby Flay and the rest of the show’s judges  always seemed to wonder if Brett actually wanted to be in the competition, because his presentations lacked the focus and energy they expected from someone who wanted to be the star of their own cooking show. On Sunday’s show, he left the judges stymied with his presentation of an April Fool’s Day menu, although he felt that he had won them over.

But what happened at the final judging caused a strong reaction among viewers. Brett suddenly brought up the fact that he and a fellow competitor helped Melissa with her dish. Indeed, we saw him help Melissa put her dish into ramekins earlier in the program, but no one expected that he would tell the judges. Especially not Melissa, who was brought to tears upon this startling public exposure.

A lot of people felt that either Brett shouldn’t have helped Melissa when he saw she was in trouble, or he shouldn’t have mentioned it to the judges. At his exit interview,  I started to ask him about the incident with Melissa, and he cut me off.”What did you think of the situation,” he asked me.

What did I think of the interview?  I told Brett that when I saw him tell the judges that he helped Melissa with her dish, I was taken aback. I told him that I thought that maybe it was a bad idea, that it seemed like he was throwing Melissa under the bus to save himself.

Brett explained that in the unique experience of competing on a television show like The Next Food Network Star, there is no such thing as throwing a competitor under the bus.

“When you work in a kitchen, and you’re an executive sous chef like I am, and you’re working your way up in the ranks, all of a sudden, at that moment the competition almost goes out the window, and it’s just helping somebody because that’s what you do for a living,” he explained. “When I’m playing basketball with somebody and I knock the other guy down…I pick them up and help them. If the girl is having trouble, I’m going to help her, and that’s just how it is.”

Still, if he helped because it was instinctive for him, why did he have to make sure the judges knew he helped Melissa? Brett says that it was just his competitive nature displaying itself. Clearly, a person who draws paralells between a food competition and playing basketball is indeed a competive man. The likeable New York native  says that if viewers thought that what he did on the show was a bit “edgy,”  we might not want to see him play basketball in Central Park.

But, there is no bad blood between Brett and Melissa. In fact, he says that the two of them are good friends, and intend to go out for a martini together very soon. He says that she is very talented, and that he wishes her and all of his fellow contestants the best of luck.

Looking back on his experience on the Next Food Network Star, he is grateful for the experience and hopes that his time on television will open the door to other opportunities. If he had the chance to do anything differently during the competitiion, he would be hard pressed to say what it would be.

“Overall you take it as a learning experience, and you hope that you move on from it, and you take the knowledge and the wisdom that they offer you and you become a star.”