“Anne [Burrell, chef and co-host], Food Network, everyone tried to warn me. They were like, ‘Look, they don’t cook,’” Derry says of the long-running series. “‘These people don’t cook at all. They don’t make breakfast. They don’t do anything for themselves.’”
The theme of the season, “Spoiled Rotten,” refers to contestants who have never had to prepare a meal for themselves in their lives due to over-reliance on dining out, delivery or having someone in their lives who always cooks for them.
Regardless, Derry went into the experience with some lingering disbelief: “Surely, they’ve done something, you know?”
After wowing contestants with her ability to use a can opener, she knew she had her work cut out for her. Luckily, she had her experience as an instructor at The Art Institute to go off of.
“I understand how people learn and how they retain,” Derry says. “When I went into this I was like, 'Think of it as day one where you assume they know nothing and you are going to teach them.' Because my first day would be that I would walk in a class and be like, ‘You don’t know what you think you know. You know nothing. You only know what I’m going to tell you, and that’s the only thing I want you to know right now.’”
Derry believes that cooking is a skill that can be taught and that anyone, even the “spoiled rotten,” can grasp it.
“I think with practice, you can always put together something,” she says. “Even doing the show, it showed that.”
While filming Worst Cooks in America, Derry admired the contestants’ eagerness to learn and improve.
“I was impressed with how well some of them really listened and I was also impressed with how they wanted to do well,” Derry says. “Once you get past your first episode, you break into teams. And when you break into teams, [...] those are your people. And they don’t want to disappoint you. But again, they’re still learning.”
Derry also liked the mentor aspect of it: "I like the time that I get with them one-on-one. They really are trying. It’s just that sometimes they’re not successful.”
There are a couple of dishes that Derry recommends to those just getting started in the kitchen. She describes chicken as “forgiving” and any stew as hard to mess up. One of her earlier culinary successes was her signature spaghetti that she made for her family growing up.
“I remember doing mine almost like a jambalaya with chicken sausage and shrimp and ground beef. Everything in the kitchen. My mom was like, ‘You can’t make this every day,’” she laughs. “But my brothers would tear it up. They made me feel like I was the queen when I’d make that. They loved that dish.”
To this day, pasta is a go-to easy meal for Derry.
“Especially now because of the new restaurant [an Italian spot in Farmers Branch], I am cooking pasta at home at 10:30 at night as my quick meal,” she says. “Any long-haired pasta has become my friend at night.”
The new season of Worst Cooks in America premieres Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. on the Food Network. Derry will host a watch party at Roots Southern Table in Farmers Branch, where guests will enjoy a three-course meal and a Q&A with her. Tickets at $99 can be purchased here.
