Memphian Aryen Moore-Alston gets shot at big time on Food Network Commercial Appeal//Jennifer Biggs//May 30, 2014 When the call came from Food Network, Memphian Aryen Moore-Alston was excited but wary. At the end of 2012, the self-taught cook submitted a YouTube video to “Food Network Star” and was selected. “I signed the contracts, did everything,” she said. “But nothing happened. I never heard anything else.” In December, almost a year later, the phone rang. “They said, ‘Hi, Aryen. This is Food Network, and we want you.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what you said last time.’ ” But this time it was for sure, and she had to move fast. The 31-year-old single mother had to quit her job as a contract technician for Apple and make arrangements for care of her 3-year-old daughter. A couple of weeks later, she was on her way to film the show that debuts Sunday at 8 p.m. on Food Network. The winner of the contest gets a show on Food Network and possibly stardom: The judges are Alton Brown, Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay. It’s how Guy Fieri got his big break. “He’s everywhere,” Aryen said. “Can you believe he has his own Hasbro game?” That Aryen is a contestant is something that her mother, Karen Moore, says amazes her — and not because she doesn’t have confidence in her youngest daughter. Moore was an actress and her husband, Gary Alston, a musician. They raised their daughters in Naples, Italy, for most of their childhood, and they encouraged them to explore their artistic sides. Aryen was a dancer; sister Keisha, a singer. “I just knew I had artistic children, and we did everything we could to encourage them,” Moore said. “But I had absolutely no idea that culinary arts was something we should have encouraged. Remember, when we left for Italy, there was no Food Network — it was just Julia Child. When we came back, everything had changed.” But Aryen, whose name is pronounced almost like the constellation Orion, took to cooking anyway. Her father liked to do it and she liked to help. “When she was 6 years old, we asked the girls what they wanted for Christmas, and Keisha told us what she wanted, then Aryen piped up and said she wanted a cookbook,” Moore said. “Six years old! Of course she got other things, too, but I guess she got a cookbook for Christmas every year after that.” When she was 11, Aryen wanted to surprise the family with a pancake breakfast. She awoke early and went to ask her dad if it was OK. It was his youngest child who found him; he’d died in the night because of sleep apnea. “After that, she sort of took over the cooking,” Moore said. “She liked to do it. It reminded her of him.” Sister Keisha Moore-Alston remembers her pineapple upside-down cake. “That was one of the best things I ever tasted,” she said. “When she kind of took over the cooking, we just all started getting fat.” They stayed in Italy three more years. “During that time I’d say she really became a cook,” Moore said. “I had a woman who helped me with the girls and the house, and Aryen learned a lot about Italian cooking from her.” When they moved to Memphis (Alston and Moore met in Memphis, though neither is originally from here), the girls enrolled in Overton High School and Moore started working in real estate, public relations and television. When she graduated, Aryen went to Spelman College in Atlanta, and spent a year as a student in Japan. She graduated with a degree in computer science and Japanese studies. But neither particularly excited her. She was living in Los Angeles in 2007 when her mother called. “She came up with this idea for a show to spotlight homes for sale by cooking in them,” Aryen said. “The motto was ‘a house is not a home until you cook in it.’ So she had this idea for a cooking show, but I knew she wasn’t going to be the one doing the cooking. I said ‘Who’s going to cook?’ She said ‘You are.’ ” So she came back to Memphis and they filmed a few shows — Moore thinks four — in 2008. She stayed here, where her mother, sister and boyfriend were, and went to work for Apple. And she cooked. Like she did in Italy, when she cooked for large groups of friends, she entertained people in Memphis. When her daughter started eating solid foods, Aryen naturally made everything from scratch. A favorite was a cupcake made with sweet potatoes. “That has to be my favorite thing that she makes, and it’s hard to pick something because it’s all so good,” Keisha said. “But that sweet potato baby cupcake tastes just like my dad’s sweet potato pie. I’ve had a lot of sweet potato pies since he died but none of them tasted like his. But when I tasted the cupcake, I said ‘You did it. It’s tastes like his pie.’ ” When filming commenced, Aryen was effectively unemployed because she has to be available to film (she can’t disclose how far she makes it in the show, whether she’s still in or out). To make money, she started catering for churches or other facilities that have a commercial kitchen she can use, and she launched a line of cupcakes called Sweet Potato Baby. She offers a half-dozen or so choices, sold to groups that use them for fundraisers, and each contains fruit or vegetables. The red velvet is made with beets; there are bananas in the banana cupcakes, acai berry in the dark chocolate, homemade applesauce in another. And sweet potatoes, of course, in her signature item. She can’t say how she does in the show, starting its 10th season, but she can talk about what kind of show she’d like to have if she wins. “I never cook exactly from a recipe,” she said. “I always add a little something to it. And I’ve traveled all over, so I’ve tasted a lot of different kinds of food. My thing is international cuisine with a twist, and from the comfort of your own home. Maybe call it ‘Something Extra.’ Or ‘With a Twist.’” She said she surprised herself by being nervous when filming got underway. “Terrified is really more like it. I mean, you think you’re rocking and rolling, but you realize really you’re just hoping these people will like you, and knowing that they’re there to criticize everything you do. “Tears were shed. I didn’t want to be the person who cried and I don’t know, it might have been behind the scenes. But tears were shed.” ------------------------- Star Maker Memphian Aryen Moore-Alston competes on “Food Network Star” at 8 p.m. Sunday on Food Network.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 14:28:25 +0000
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