Next “Food Network Star” a Jersey Girl?

Palisades Park native Rosa Graziano is aiming to impress De Laurentiis and Flay.

Palisades Park native Rosa Graziano presenting her food to judges including (right) Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay on Food Network Star. Photo: Courtesy Food Network

So far, Rosa Graziano, a native of Palisades Park, has survived three rounds of elimination on the reality show Food Network Star. Hosts Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay (who say they are not dating) will crown the champion on August 16th.

All episodes are in the can, so Graziano knows exactly how well she did. But she is sworn to silence on the ultimate outcome. Ask her and you get a Cheshire cat grin and a coy answer.

“I would love hosting a cooking show,” she says. “When they say ‘lights, camera, action,’ I feel comfortable. It feels very natural to me.”

Graziano, 38, who has lived in Los Angeles for over 15 years, is a first-generation Italian Jersey girl, and proud of it. She’s outgoing and energetic and learned food working beside her Neapolitan mom in her family’s deli, DePalma Bros. in Fairview.

“Food is so much a part of our culture, and it’s not just the food,” she says. “It’s about love and family and sitting around a table at Sunday dinner.”

After graduating from Wagner College on Staten Island, Graziano took an internship in Los Angeles and earned a master’s degree in education from Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Living in L.A., Graziano realized she missed the Italian-American food of her youth. “I craved it,” she says.

She made zeppoli fried pastries at a church festival, but this just whet her appetite for more. She pined for an Italian deli. She claims she was unable to find more than one in California.

With her older brother, Alberico, Graziano started an Italian deli food truck that she operated for more than five years.

The truck gained some positive attention, eventually putting her on the Food Network’s radar. Graziano has no formal training in culinary arts, but she agreed to audition for this, the 11th season of Food Network Star, hosted by De Laurentiis and Flay.

When they brought out the chef coats, she thought, Chef coats? I’m just a girl with an apron.

But she approached auditioning much like she does life in general. “I wanted to enjoy the process,” she says. “I wanted to feel it all and be in it all.”

With each call-back she took a deep breath and told herself, “If it’s meant to be it will be.” Finally, she was named one of the 12 contestants.

Taping was hard work. It could take up to a week to complete one episode. The level of competition could be nerve wracking and exhausting.

“What you see is really what’s happening,” she says. “When they say go, we go. We’re doing it.”

She admits to being a little starstruck by the Food Network stars. When the judging began, she said to herself, “Holy cow, they’re trying my food, how awesome!”

Graziano says De Laurentiis and Flay were “really on point as mentors. Never did they give constructive criticism that wasn’t right on. They nailed it.”

Now we will have to wait to see if Jersey’s Graziano nailed it.

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  1. Jackie Sorkin

    Ummmm.. Rosa G is my Freakin Spirit Animal. LOVE THIS INCREDIBLE WOMAN!!!! Gimme That Food!!!! She’s AMAZING On The Show!