Tiffany Billingsly might be one of the worst cooks in America.
Luckily, there’s a TV show for that.
Billingsly, a former music teacher from Greenwood, is a recruit this season on the popular Food Network show Worst Cooks in America.
Worst Cooks in America is in its 21st season of helping turn average people who fear the kitchen into cooks that can make a meal their families and friends can stomach. This season is hosted by Food Network Chefs Anne Burrell and Carla Hall.
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Fourteen contestants, called "recruits" on the show, are selected from a lengthy application process. Once on the show, the recruits are split into two teams — the red team led by Burrell, and the blue team led by Hall — to compete against each other in culinary challenges while learning essential cooking skills, such as cooking steak properly and using knives, from their chef team leaders.
Recruits who cook the worst dishes are eliminated each episode until one person from each team is left standing to go head to head in the finale. The recruit who cooks the best meal in the last episode wins $25,000.
Billingsly has never been the cook in her family — her husband, who loves to cook, took on that role. In the first episode that aired on Food Network, she said her husband quickly learned that if she cooks "no one is eating."
She talked specifically about an incident when she started a small kitchen fire with her cousin’s microwave while trying to cook pizza rolls.
"My little boys will tell you they looked like charcoal when they came out," Billingsly said.
But when her husband, who owns his own auto-mechanics shop, picked up a second job at Amazon, Billingsly felt like she needed to step up and do more around the house, which included cooking.
A longtime Food Network fan, she decided to apply to be on Worst Cooks in America, not thinking she would actually be considered for the show.
"We watched a lot of Food Network, and I was like, ‘You know, I could rock this show. I could do this,’" Billingsly said.
So, she filled out the lengthy online application through Food Network, which asks several questions about an applicant’s home life and cooking experience. Applicants also have to submit a video explaining why they should be on the show.
"I filled out this extremely long application, and literally two hours later I got a phone call," Billingsly said.
When she was selected among 13 other contestants from around the country to be on the show, she couldn’t believe it, even when she arrived in September in New York to film.
"I literally looked at my handler and was like, ‘Um, is this a prank?’" Billingsly said. "Is Ashton Kutcher going to pop out of some place and mess with me?"
Filming took place between September and October in New York. Although she could not go into too many details, Billingsly said Food Network followed COVID-19 guidelines while they were filming on set.
Each episode typically includes two timed challenges — the first is a shorter cooking challenge based on a certain topic, such as farm to table or home cooking, and the second involves the recruits cooking a dish created by Burrell and Hall.
Some of the initial cooking skills the recruits have might seem outrageous for the average viewer to believe, such as one recruit using hot dogs and mayonnaise in a fettucine alfredo recipe, or one not knowing the difference between an onion and garlic, but Billingsly can attest that these moments are not overexaggerated.
"We’re really this bad, guys. It’s not a joke," Billingsly said.
Billingsly started off well in the first episode that aired Jan. 3. She was the first recruit chosen for Hall’s team, the "Bodacious Blue Diamonds." She found herself in the bottom two on the blue team in the second episode for slightly overcooking and under seasoning her lamb chops in the main challenge. But she was not eliminated.
"Chef Carla is always encouraging. She wants you to take something positive out of what you’ve done. Even if it was a complete disaster, she wants you to be proud that you at least got something done," Billingsly said.
She enjoyed working with Hall and Burrell, who are both very personable, she said. But she did find Burrell as intimidating as she appears on TV, and accidentally told the chef she gave her nightmares while on set.
"I slipped that while wearing a mic, so she found out about it. So, she came up to me and was like, ‘So, I hear you’re having dreams?’" Billingsly said.
Being on a cooking show forced Billingsly to face some of her fears of the kitchen — using knives and handling raw meat. The main challenge in the first episode was geared toward knife skills and working with meat as her team had to make crispy beef stir-fry. So she had to overcome that phobia quickly, she said.
"The phobias I had were knife skills, because I’m gonna chop my finger off, and meat," Billingsly said. "I learned to have more of an appreciation for what I was doing. I felt like I learned basic skills to not feel so incompetent."
Billingsly may not be at master chef level just yet. But after the show, she feels more confident in the kitchen, she said.
"I can definitely handle a little bit more in the kitchen now, especially if my husband is there because he is a great supporter," Billingsly said. "It actually is kind of fun because now, we have something we can both enjoy together."
Worst Cooks in America has seven episodes this season. Viewers can watch Billingsly in the third episode at 9 p.m. Sunday on Food Network.
