New Show and Casting Call: ‘Ask Aida’ Looking for Your Video Questions

Cooking expert Aida Mollenkamp will prepare delicious dishes while solving the culinary conundrums of Food Network viewers in her new interactive cooking show, Ask Aida. From recipe and ingredient issues to advice on kitchen machinery and tools, Aida can even offer guidance for impromptu parties, feeding a crowd, make-ahead dishes, and time-saving tips. Food Network is looking for viewers with burning culinary questions to be featured on the series, which is set to premiere on Saturday, August 2nd.

To be considered for Ask Aida, viewers must upload a creative and entertaining 45- to 60-second video highlighting their culinary challenge and how Aida can help solve it or email questions and photos to AskAida@foodnetwork.com. The best videos and questions will be considered for inclusion on the show. For more detailed instructions from Aida herself and to submit a video, visit the site.

Aida studied Hospitality Management at Cornell University and worked at Ernst & Young in Hotel and Restaurant Consulting before obtaining a Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Aida has worked everywhere from a gourmet deli and the test kitchen at California Pizza Kitchen to the Hotel Bel Air and, most recently, at Chow.com. As Chow’s food editor, Aida regularly appears in instructional videos for the site, serves as an expert spokesperson, runs the test kitchen, works as a lead food stylist, develops recipes, and writes articles.

Here’s a glimpse of one of Aida’s older instructional videos. This one is from roughly two years ago. I’ve seen her more recent ones and she definitely comes off poised and professional. Nice to see the Food Network stretching out there, and with an interactive program and mining the fields of the online world, this should be a good one.