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PCM's Allison recently had the opportunity to sit in on a conference call with both The Next Food Network Star's judge Bob Tuschman and eliminated contestant Aria Kagan.

With the Season 6 finale just days away, Allison asked Tuschman what precisely will the judges take into consideration when deciding on the ultimate winner of the competition.

Essentially, the judges are looking for "a combination of somebody that has star charisma, a unique point of view that we think will be of interest to our viewers and the ability to create and teach really delectable dishes that we think viewers will want to make."

And Bob was kind enough to fill us all in on where he finds the three remaining contestants, Tom, Herb, and Aarti, stand going into the finale.

"I think that each of the three have their own specific challenges, and things we're excited about and concerned about with each of them," he began. "With Tom, I think that Tom has a really great, winning personality. Very funny, very easygoing, very imaginative food - but his food has been uneven as you saw last night on the Iron Chef challenge."

"With Herb, Herb has been such roller coaster," Tuschman says. " He's had a hard time pulling his point of view together, he's finally found a point of view that really works in terms of healthy and Latin together. But the fact that he's been so up and down has been a big concern for us, since we're looking for someone for the long term."

"For Aarti, she has a real easy and vivacious camera presence," Tuschman rounds out the contestants. "She has had such problems with her confidence and with being able to maintain a really steady, confident star presence. That's very worrying for us, because ultimately someone has to go in front of the camera 52 weeks a year."

One person we know won't be claiming the title of The Next Food Network Star is chef Aria Kagan, who made it to the Top 4 but was eliminated during the Iron Chef challenge.

While she may not win, she would still jump at the opportunity to host a cooking show. After all, as Aria explains, her passion "is to teach. Even though I love food, I'm really passionate about teaching people how to cook and making it a lot more fun and accessible. I'm still really passionate about farm to table. If they came to me and said, Aria we want you to do a cooking show, I would be on the next plane to New York, absolutely."

But when Allison asked about Aria's initial decision to audition for the show, we found the answer wasn't as clear cut. "I kind of went back and forth. It's a show, it's a reality show, it's cooking, it's being on television, and I wasn't really sure if I could pull it all off, because I've never really been in front of the camera before." Aria continues, "When I decided to do it, my mom said, 'You have to go, you have to go!' I wanted to do it, but I wasn't quite sure, should I, should I not?"

"For my birthday, she bought me a ticket to go and audition. It's a big deal to have someone believe in you a little bit more than you believe in yourself." Laughing, she goes on, "I didn't know what I was getting myself into, to be quite honest."

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