Going After Great ‘Taste’

When season two of the ABC television cooking competition “The Taste” kicked off in January, Rebekah Faulk (’05) was one of only 35 contestants nationwide vying for a spot on the reality show. For taping, Faulk chose to prepare her signature dish—shrimp and grits in a creamy white wine sauce. “I’ll never forget the moment I entered the set through the ‘pantry’ and rounded the corner to step on stage. There were extras on the set, big lights, more than 15 cameras all pointed at me. That made some contestants nervous, but I reveled in it,” she said.

Raised near Augusta, Georgia, the alumna finds few things as satisfying as “cooking and experiencing food, especially in the South” and said her trip to a Hollywood soundstage was the experience of a lifetime. “Food is my passion, and the opportunity to fly to California and appear on a national television show is confirmation that I’m on the right track,” she said.

Even with Faulk’s full-time job in Georgia Southern’s Office of Marketing and Communications, she finds time to write a bimonthly food column for the Statesboro Herald. Faulk is also the host and co-producer of “Statesboro Cooks,” a local cable television cooking program, as well as author of one of Urbanspoon’s Top Georgia food blogs, “Some Kinda Good,” which can be found at Somekindagood.org.

Contestants on “The Taste” are given 60 minutes to prepare a spoonful of their best dish and anonymously present their culinary creations to four judges—famed celebrity chefs and television personalities Anthony Bourdain, Marcus Samuelsson, Ludo Lefebvre and British home cook and bestselling cookbook author Nigella Lawson. “It was one of those moments where I was present but beside myself,” said Faulk. “I saw their lips moving and heard them speaking, but had it not been recorded, I would question if it ever really happened.”

Faulk was hoping to make Lawson’s team, but in the premiere two-hour episode no judge ended up choosing her this time around. Bourdain and Lawson encouraged her to try again next year. “I won’t forget the talented people I got to compete with and the connections I made. No matter the outcome, go after it. Always go after the things that make your heart beat.” – Sandra Bennett