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associated press, Bobby Flay, Deathbed Food, DeathbedFood, disney, euro disney, Food & Wine magazine, food and wine, Food Network, food network star, georgetown university, J.M. Hirsch, LA Times, los angeles times, melissa d'arabian, sobefest.com, south beach wine & food festival, ten dollar dinners with melissa d'arabian, the next food network star, The Taste LA, university of vermont
“American Dream” Culinary Success Story: How an MBA and Finance Background Can Lead to Food Network Stardom
Melissa with her twin daughters, Oceane & Margaux.
At The Taste LA, Melissa D’Arabian gave a cooking demonstration called “PICNIC IN A JAR!” where she made a summer outdoor favorite, chicken BBQ, and put it in a jar with all the fixings. For dessert? She whipped up easy shortbread cookies made fancy with fun flavors.
With daughter Charlotte.
Fans know her for having won Season 5 of The Next Food Network Star, where she landed the ultimate dream job: her own Food Network show. On her popular daytime cooking series, Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d’Arabian, she shares tasty recipes and her $10 promise: four people, ten bucks, infinite possibilities. Melissa lives with her husband and four daughters just outside of Seattle.
Daughter Valentine… what an amazingly cute family!
What I found really interesting was that, like myself, Melissa shares both a passion for food as well as an extensive educational and business background. While I have a B.A. in Economics, an MBA in Marketing & Finance, and 15+ years in marketing, Melissa has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from The University of Vermont and an MBA from Georgetown University. She’s also worked in corporate finance at Disney in Burbank, California, and in merchandise finance at Euro Disney outside of Paris.
Melissa is certainly a cerebral contributor in the food world. In this video interview by J.M. Hirsch, Food Editor for the Associated Press, at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, for example, she shares her perspective about the hunger problems in America (that it’s a local problem of national proportion) as well as her own personal history of growing up at times underfed – and how one school administrator helped her cope, thereby changing the trajectory of her life:
I asked her how her MBA and finance background helped her with accomplishing what she has in the world of Food. She said that those factors were hugely influential in her ability to successful pursue, and win, The Next Food Network Star. It was because of her background, she says, that she was able to know how to best market herself, position herself, and play to her strengths in the competition. Being a good cook is just the “price of entry” to her … it’s those other factors that really set her apart.
Melissa’s business focus is evident by one of her idols, Bobby Flay, who she says is absolutely one of the smartest business guys around.
Last but not least, I had to know what her DeathbedFood may be … you probably won’t be surprised that it’s family-oriented!