From the moment Justin Warner appeared on "Food Network Star," it was obvious he had something the network executives recongized as unique. His quirkiness and creative cooking style propelled him to the front of the contestant pack from the get-go, and with help from mentor and idol Alton Brown, Warner trounced the competition in season 8.
Although Warner made it all look easy – consistently wowing Brown, Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis – he says he still went into shock when he heard his name being called during the finale. "They interviewed me immediately after and I said, 'I don't even dream this good,' " he told HNGN exclusively. "So that was kind of it. It wasn't a dream come true because I don't even dream that well. It was just totally unreal. It felt great. Everybody always says that I have a unique voice when it comes to food, and then I win 'Food Network Star' and people all of a sudden think of me as an expert. It's just nuts."
For the uninitiated, "Food Network Star" is a reality show in which aspiring chefs compete against each other with the ultiamte goal of winning a contract to host their very own series and become a part of the Food Network family. This is where major stars like Guy Fieri, Jeff Mauro and Aarti Sequeria all started their television careers, so Warner knew he had some impressive acts to follow.
Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and coming, as he describes, from "basically nothing" certainly didn't prepare him for life as a celebrity. "I didn't have my own apartment and my socks had holes in them," he said of his life after his big win. "Now I'm doing great. I kind of went from zero to hero... I had no formal culinary experience, but I still managed to win that show. So I thought, well, maybe I'm not trained, but I have a knack for this."
Food Network executives and fans seem to agree, but that doesn't mean he's suddenly living this crazy, lavish lifestyle. Instead, he's just doing what he loves and sharing his ideas with the world in a way he knows he never would have been able to do on his own. "I still live a very normal life. It's not like I'm taking private jets anywhere," he explained. "I still eat pizza sometimes."
That's something he has in common with most of the celebrity chefs on the Network, says Warner, adding that he and his fellow contestants "really got to realize that being with these people we think of as stars are just humans like anyone else."
"It was great to get past the initial excitement of just being a fan and being intimated and being nervous to just being like, 'Yo, Alton, what's up?' They're so incredibly smart, they're not just talent. They have to get there for some reason; nobody is going to work with a buffoon. They have big brains so when you talk to them, it's like opening up an encyclopedia."
During his time on "Food Network Star" the connection Warner had with Brown was apparant. They both had that unique way of looking at food as experimental, which is one reason why Warner looked up to Brown as one of his culinary heros. "He's one of the reasons I'm into food and why I cook the way I cook because he taught me about it," he said. "He's just so remarkable. The thing about Alton that I really admire, and that I find is similar with both of us, is that sure, we love food, but we pretty much love everything. We dive headfirst. If something strikes our fancy, we're into it. We're just very curious people and we don't ever stop asking why."
Warner has had the honor of being on Brown's current hit show "Cutthroat Kitchen" twice, and he recently competed on "Cutthroat Kitchen: Superstar Sabotage." Warner did so well in his round of the tournament that he moved on to the finale, which airs Wednesday Dec. 2 at 9 p.m.
"It's a really remarkable experience," he said. "In the old days when I was on shows like 'Food Network Star' or '24 Hour Restaurant Battle,' your life kind of feels like its on the line. If you don't win, it hurts. It's bad. But when you're competing for charity is fun. I feel like I could wake up and do it every day if I had to."
For the final round, Warner will be going up against Sherry Yard, Fabio Viviani and Richard Blais, whom Warner characterizes as "a destroyer" and a "world-class chef any day of the week."
"The competition in the finale is no joke," he said. "Just to even say that I am of the same ranks of someone like [Blais] is just – wow."
Still, he thinks he has a very good shot at winning it all for his charity. "Every now and then I have the x-factor and I just pull out the unknown," he explained. "I don't know where it comes from, I really don't. But I feel like in the roulette wheel of my mind, I hit the double green zero a lot more than the average person."
That "x-factor" is what Warner channeled in creating his new cookbook "The Laws of Cooking: And How To Break Them" as well as his online web series "Foodie Call."
"Once I realized there were 11 laws that I could follow for any dish, I then figured out how to break them," he said. "That's where the craziness comes in. That's where the next level food comes in. Sometimes an idea will just come to me. I can't tell you how many times I've dreamt the solution to a food problem or where I've just been in the middle of nowhere and will write a note in my phone and say, 'Oh this is how I fix that. This is what I need to do.' I don't know. It's just... I guess some people would call it creative problem solving."
On the web series, he comes up with crazy culinary transformations like Scrapple Pie, Winter-Proof Ice Cream, Deep-Fried Deviled Eggs and ways to eat jerky for breakfast. "It's the bomb," he said. "We've got a great format, we have great guests, we have great food. I don't really think it could be much better, and I don't think any one episode is particularly better than another one. I think that's the sign of a really good show."
While he may not be able to talk about any of his upcoming endeavors with Food Network, Warner promises, "I've always got a few things up my sleeve."
