While Dan Smith, Steve McDonagh, Guy Fieri, and Amy Finley are most likely to have a thriving career as winners of The Next Food Network Star, other contestants prove that life can be as sweet despite losing on the competitive reality series.

Confirmation comes in the form of season 2 contestants Jess Dang and Nathan Lyon, who are currently living their dreams while putting their culinary expertise to good use.

For Jess Dang, life after the competitive reality show has been positively hectic more than ever.  At present, she works part-time at Visa while trying to start up two food ventures.

“I have kept myself busier than ever since the show.  Being on Next Food Network Star was just a huge personal growth experience for me.  While I still keep a day job, I'm trying to really figure out where the world of food fits into my life.  I've been working on expanding the petite pig [www.thepetitepig.com], the food blog I started after filming the show and trying to start two food businesses on the side.  One is a private dinner party/cooking instructor/just let me feed you business [Clementine Culinary Productions] and the other is a beverage line that I hope to launch in the next two years.  I've also traveled to three new countries since the show aired – Holland, Sweden and Japan where I did a lot of great eating,” Dang revealed.

A busier lifestyle remains to be the common denominator for both season 2 contestants.  Nathan Lyon, who currently resides and works in Southern California, is pleased with the outcome of his life, not to mention his series of projects, since his exposure on the Next Food Network Star.

“I've been keeping very busy. I have a new TV series on Discovery Health Channel, called A Lyon In The Kitchen.  It's a cooking series that shows viewers how to find quality local food sources, from roadside produce stands to hydroponics farms, and then takes them into the kitchen where I demonstrate how to create a simple meal from those fresh ingredients.  I also spend several days a week working with the fresh produce I love at local farmers markets,” he said.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Food Network
(Image courtesy of Discovery)