What does the addition of Giada and move to Los Angeles add to the new season?
Bobby Flay: We’re using Giada as a mentor figure, where she talks about her experiences being a host on a network, and that’s one more element we didn’t have before. Also, the Los Angeles piece has been really fun because it sort of has a Hollywood feel. And because the weather is always nice out there, we were able to utilize a lot of places in the Southern California area for challenges and events. TVGuide.com: How’s the new batch of contestants? Flay: Very diversified as far as cuisine, and incredibly savvy. As the seasons go on, the contestants are becoming more and more savvy because they’re students of the network. It’s not that they would know what kind of challenges they are going to get, but they have a sense of what skills are important to make it, and I think they spend a bunch of time practicing that before they get there. TVGuide.com: Well, one thing they can never seem to prepare for is being in front of the camera. Flay: It’s very hard. You have to do it a lot to really
