Italian-born, Serena Palumbo is one of the finalists on the hugely popular show, “The Next Food Network Star,” which airs every Sunday at 9pm (now in its sixth season). She’s a New York girl whose instructional videos, “Cooking In Manhattan” can also been found on youtube. Can she become a fixture on Food Network? Is there room for two Italian princesses?

JOHNNY DECARLO: As a finalist on “The Next Food Network Star,” how do you feel you rate among the competitors this year? It seems that each season, the challenges get more and more difficult. What do you bring to the table (no pun intended) that makes you stand out from the pack to the selection committee?
SERENA PALUMBO: First and foremost Johnny, please call me cugina Serena, because I think that if we start talking families we will find that we have at least a great great great grandfather in common! As for what I bring to the table...well rustic Italian cooking, of course! I am not a trained chef and I have never worked in a restaurant so obviously I do not have great knife skills like Brad [Sorenson], for example...but I have the taste buds, the curiosity and creativity. I have travelled a lot in Italy and abroad before coming to the US and I am very curious about food so I have eaten some quite unusual dishes. I like to feel like Anthony Bourdain in “No Reservations.” I go to the little restaurants where the food is really rustic and genuine and I take plenty of notes... I have a little red diary where I take notes of flavor combinations and places I have been to and I love. I think this gives me a leg up on all the other finalists.

JD: Love the rustic cooking, cugina! Now, another cugina, Giada De Laurentiis, is a mentor with the selection committee and during the premiere episode, Wolfgang Puck jokingly asked if there was “enough room on Food Network for two Italian princesses,” to which Giada replied, “the more the merrier.” Do you think there is more pressure on you to specifically impress Giada, and to show why there is indeed enough room for two Italian-born female celebrity chefs on the network?
SP: I think Giada is amazing and I can only hope to be as graceful and classy as she is, her food is great and I actually have all her books, so I am definitely a BIG FAN! During the Camera Challenges it has been great to have her giving us feedback because she is insightful since she has been in this business for many years. Having to cook for her is challenging for me because I want to impress her but most importantly because she is a real expert of Italian food and I do not want to mess up! I see myself as the nerdy Italian cousin of the viewers that is a little funny and clumsy and speaks with an Italian accent cooking like nonna would.

JD: She’s definitely an expert, her books are all on my shelf as well! Now, according to your bio, you actually were a ballerina and an attorney. How did you make the transition to chef, and now to television chef?
SP: I am still an attorney, I work in-house, now. I am no longer a ballerina because I am not so young and flexible (and skinny) anymore. I started my webisodes “Cooking In Manhattan” for fun and I love each and every one of them...I think it is the best hobby I could possibly find, but like every hobby you get more and more passionate each day and when the opportunity of being on the Food Network arrives, you know you CANNOT refuse that. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and also it is a lot of fun, so I decided to give myself a break from the desk job and prove America that we Italians are the best cooks, even if we do not have the official training!

JD: Well said. At times, female celebrity chefs aren’t taken seriously and I’ve heard some food critics even infer that many are recognized for being “eye candy” and not for what they cook. What would you say to anyone who may be unsure of your dedication to the culinary arts, and have you found yourself at any disadvantages simply because you are a young, attractive woman?
SP: This is a recurring issue for me and for any other good looking woman in the world. As for me I can say that I have found my place in the sun in the corporate world because of hard work, otherwise I would have been on a plane back to Italy long ago. I’d rather be evaluated for who I am and what I do than the way I look. Good looking women can cook as much as anyone else, the fact that nature and genetics are on your side does not mean that you are just an eye candy. I am sure you love your mother’s meatballs and they are delicious…and I am also sure that your mom is a very good looking lady, right?

JD: She certainly is, and my whole passion for cooking stems from her and my grandmother. You mentioned your web series, “Cooking In Manhattan,” which has a pretty large following. I actually first learned about you by watching you cook meatballs on that show. Obviously meatballs are my favorite food, and you put a few twists on that recipe by not frying them and by adding lemon zest. They look delicious! How did you come up with these particular twists, and do you often add your own personal touches to such classics?
SP: Oh my meatballs are really good! You should try them…I love classic Italian dishes but I often personalize them. For example I put cinnamon and cumin in Bolognese Sauce and marinate lamb in a mint chimichurri, and make pannacotta with Greek yogurt. Cooking is the only outlet for my creativity so I try different things…sometimes certain recipes come out from the pantry because I did not have time to buy fresh ingredients, some other times I have way too many tomatoes and I need to use them before they go bad!

JD: I would love to try them! Maybe we’ll face off and let Bobby Flay judge! Just kidding! If you had to pick, what is your favorite food to cook and your favorite food to eat?
SP: My favorite food is seafood but I am finding myself craving pizza now that I do not live in Naples anymore (I went to law school there)….I have not been experimenting with pizza much but I eat a lot of seafood so I guess that would make it one of my favorite ingredients to cook with. Second only to eggs, because a frittata can be the highlight of your breakfast, lunch or dinner, and it is the ultimate blank canvas.

JD: My grandparents were born in Italy and I’ve traveled there myself, so I often compare the differences and similarities between my family’s dishes and what I ate in Italy to the Italian and Italian-American food here in New Jersey and New York. You were born in Salerno and have been living in the U.S. since 2004. How would you say the food in Italy compares to the food in America, in particular the East Coast?
SP: Italian American food is the ultimate melting pot (no pun intended). It is nice to see the traditions of Italian cooking coming together with the American trends. Some people are very snobbish about Italian American food but I beg to differ, it is like every other aspect of culture: if you move to another country you bring your roots with you and you mix your traditions with the ones you find where you go. In the East Coast in particular the relationship between Italian food and Italian American food is blurred because the connection between the two is still very strong. This is what I love about Italian food actually, it is the common denominator to so many countries and to be honest with you I still have not found a single person that does not appreciate it.

JD: As an East Coast guy, I pride myself on discovering Italian restaurants that serve true Italian cuisine like pizza Napolitano, which is what I consider REAL pizza. I personally have found that too many establishments (especially a lot of the franchises) skimp on the quality of ingredients and a lot of what they try to pass off as “authentic” are not even close to that. How does the food on the West Coast (where “The Next Food Network Star” was filmed) compare to the East Coast in that regard?
SP: I cannot agree more on the pizza Napoletana, that I consider the one and only PIZZA. I recently started craving pizza because when I was living in Italy it was easy to find one, but now…not so much. I do not like franchises so I look for pizzeria that have a real Italian Pizzaiolo making my pizza. I am a big fan of traditional toppings, no pineapple for me thank you very much! West Coast pizza is more influenced by trends…I like my pizza old fashioned, but that does not mean that I would not try it!

JD: As someone who does food demos myself and is familiar with the “entertainment factor” that has to be added in when you are cooking in front of cameras, I think you’d probably agree that it’s pretty difficult to cook on TV, while simultaneously being informative and entertaining at the same time. Is it nerve-wracking, and if so, what is your secret to always keeping that smile on your face?
SP: I focus on the message that I need to convey! I am very talkative both because of my national origin (Italians are chatty if you haven’t noticed) and because of my job as an attorney. I have learned to edit myself a little and focus on the tips and tricks I want to teach people…I think the best suggestion I can give is to accept yourself with all your quirks and trust that the public will like you because of who you are…even if you are nerdy like me!

JD: Well me and my large, talkative Italian family are all rooting for you! I know you can’t say whether or not you actually won the title of “The Next Food Network Star,” but regardless of that, do you see yourself as someone who will remain in the public eye on TV no matter what?
SP: Obviously I cannot disclose anything but I can tell you that I love teaching people how to cook. It is such a basic need and still in New York so many of my friends eat take-out every night. I would love to help in resuscitating the tradition of the family dinner, preparing food together as an enjoyable activity and not as a boring but necessary task. I have a busy lifestyle and still I try to cook as much as possible and my husband helps me out a lot, he is the sous chef in the kitchen. The atmosphere in my kitchen is very similar to the one that you could feel in my house in Salerno. If I have the chance to bring back the playful aspect of cooking and the pleasure of having all the family preparing dinner and sitting together at the table, I would love to do that!

JD: You know that’s exactly what I try to do, recreate that old-school family experience. I had that growing up, and it’s a shame that this is dying out in 2010. But we can revive it for sure cugina! It was a pleasure chatting with you, and I wish you the best of luck and continued success.