When Stevie Famulari walks on the set to compete in a Food Network Challenge, the judges, producers, other competitors and even the camera guys know her as the wildcard or the firecracker. It isn’t because of her expressive personality, the red streaks in her hair or her tattoo clad arms and legs. It is because of the wild food art that she creates for the show. When she enters a competition, there is no second or third place. It's win or lose.
“I’m OK with being called the wildcard,” Famulari says. “The wildcard means it’s all or nothing and that they don’t know what to expect. I don’t go out there and consciously make something that goes against the grain. It just happens and it doesn’t bother me. They know I am not traditional and that is what makes me wild.”
Famulari, a native New Yorker, is an environmental artist and a landscape architecture professor at NDSU. She loves to "play" with her food. Although she is not looking for stardom, she is no stranger to the set of a television show. She likes to use national television as a medium to display her artwork. As an educator, she prides herself on teaching students to think for themselves and to find a way to relate the course subject to their own work.
On June 14, Famulari will make her sixth appearance on the Food Network when it airs “Food Network Challenge: Mystery Client Cakes.” She is required to design a cake for a client who is revealed only moments before the competition begins. The cake must feed 150 people and it must be at least three feet tall. The winner takes home $10,000.
Alexa Grodner, sculptor, caterer and friend, was Famulari’s assistant for the show. “We decided to do a cake that explores the medium of sugar,” Famulari said. “Sugar comes in powder. It comes in white or brown. It comes in cubes. You can melt sugar. You can powder sugar. You can do inverted sugar, which is when you make it into glass and lollipops.”
In typical Famulari fashion, she throws a twist into the competition and builds an armature for the 200-pound cake. Famulari and Grodner turn the cake on its side so the layers are vertical like walls. Because of circumstances that took place during the final presentation of the cake, Famulari’s piece was named Flambé. This Food Network appearance went down in history when Famulari became the first contestant to ever require a fire extinguisher. Producers said that Flambé will appear in television commercials for years.
For more information, contact Famulari at (505) 710-3586 or at stevie@steviefamulari.net.