PCM's Rebekah got the chance to talk with Next Food Network Star finalist Teddy Folkman. He is the co-owner and head chef of Granville Moore's Gastropub in Washington, D.C. Teddy discovered his love of food at a young age while working at a deli and worked under several well-known chefs. He enjoys teaching people simple techniques that inspire them to think and cook like chefs.

Q: What is one food that you wish you would have gotten the chance to prepare on the show?

Teddy Folkman: There are probably two of them, my muscles which were pretty popular in my restaurant in DC or my Belgian style fries. Those are the foods that I have kind of been known for, for a while now. It would just showcase my creativity of taking ordinary food and just making it a little bit better.

Q: What was your favorite aspect of participating in the Next Food Network Star?

TF: Absolutely the opportunity to be on a stage as grand as the Food Network and being able to do the three things that I love the most, which would be teaching, entertaining and cooking. That was by far the best opportunity. After day one when I had the chance to do all of those three things, I though oh okay I could be done now, but keep me on for a little while longer.

Q: What advice would you give to future contestants?

TF: Just take every single word of advice from the judges with a grain of salt. They are never attacking your personality, they are just trying to improve you. Really take a look at yourself when you are presenting. Actually listen to yourself. It was funny, I kind of put on blinders and when I actually saw the way I came across on television, I was like 'holy crap who is that guy?' I was a little bit too over the top, but after I listened to the advice form the judges--it took me a while because I was like 'hey this is who I am, this is who I am'--but it finally hit in that I needed to calm it down a little bit. I felt like that's when I finally started coming into my element and becoming more myself.

Q: What was the most helpful advice the judges gave you on the show?

TF: Of all the advice, it was the harshest criticism that I got, but it was the best. It was from Tyler Florence who told me I sounded like a used car salesman. It was right then and there that I realized I am trying too hard to sell this and sell myself, rather than being myself and talking about food. That was pretty much the catalyst that started my turnaround and calmed me down a little bit in my presentation.

Q: You mentioned that you are going to open a new restaurant, what is that going to be like?

TF: We are in the process of three different places, two of which are going to be on 8th Street North East in Washington DC a block away from my other restaurant. We are going to kind of open a compound with an old school restaurant, an Italian place, where you can get a great spaghetti and meatball. Nothing too high and fancy, but just traditional, basic home-style Italian food. As well as a blues and BBQ place next door and in between we have a patio space in the back area where we are building a Bache ball court, horse shoe courts and a place for live outdoor music. It is going to be like this fun little place and to top it all off, the upstairs level of the Italian place is going to be a dessert and espresso bar complete will all different liquors, sweets, and everything. So if you just want to come for dessert you can go up there. Then we are also playing around with the idea of opening up a Poe Boy shop on Pennsylvania Ave. South East right by the Potomac Metro Station. It specializes in authentic New Orleans or Louisiana or whatever you want to call it Poe Boys. My mentor and passion has been an inspiration to me all my cooking career and she is someone who I really draw creativity off of and hopefully I can tap her on the shoulder and have her help me out with this one, just as she helped us out big time at the East Street Country Club.