News Article

Every Monday night at 10:30 p.m. you will find Chris Sheppard, his wife and two daughters glued to their television set, eagerly watching the Food Network’s hit show, The Donut Showdown. Last night was no exception, but what was different this time, is they were cheering on Chris as he made his debut on national television.
 
Chris is the Cook instructor at College of the North Atlantic’s Bonavista campus. He, along with instructional assistant Roger Dewling, made the trek to Toronto for the taping of The Donut Showdown where they duked it out with other competitors for a $10,000 cash prize.
 
It all started last year when The Donut Showdown put out a casting call on its website. Chris, who had competed in Roots, Rants, and Roar’s Cod Wars competition and took the title of ‘King of Cod’ with his cod donut, thought the show might be right up his alley. They immediately responded to his inquiry about a spot as a competitor. All further correspondence referred to him as the ‘King of Cod’ - you might say it was his “hook” for getting on the show.
 
“I went through a series of interviews and had to do an audition tape,” Chris recalled of entering the competition. “It was just a basic video, so I had my students, who were with me last year, shoot the video here (at Bonavista campus) of myself and Roger.”
 
Chris and Roger’s students were some of the lucky people under the veil of secrecy surrounding his participation on The Donut Showdown. In addition to filming the casting video, they helped Chris and Roger practice for the competition.
 
“The students from last year were very well invested in the entire experience, they were there every step of the way. There were very few people knew we went to tape the show because we weren’t allowed to talk about that. And while they didn’t know who the winner was, they were certainly involved in the whole process.”
 
Chris and Roger spent 12 hours at the studio in Toronto completing various rounds of interviews, rounds of competition and judging of their creations.
 
“The experience was amazing and I loved every aspect of it. The competition was very quick. It’s like I said on the show – “it’s like time was speeding up”. We started making the donuts and when we looked up we had 10 minutes left. It was like we had just started the process. The time goes by fairly fast.”
 
Chris announced via social media on Sept. 1 that he would be on the show, though he admits it was hard to keep that secret for months. To celebrate the airing last night, he had a donut party at his house.
 
“My kids really wanted to have people over and have a donut party. We had friends over and we made the donuts from the show. It was live action – as we made the donuts on the show, we were eating the same ones from TV,” he said. “My kids were so excited. The night before I don’t think my youngest daughter even slept. It was like Christmas and they were gone crazy; just over the top excited.”
 
Sadly, Chris and Roger didn’t take home the top prize, but he says while the prize money would have been great, he went into the competition for the experience and believes his personality certainly shines through.
 
“I think that it turned out amazing and it was hilarious. I was nervous leading up to it because you say so much and you don’t know what’s going to air and what’s not. But I was pleased with the show.”
 
Chris says the response to the show has been great, especially on social media.
 
“That was the funny part. I had all these catch phrases and people would hashtag everything I said. So there was #thesetwosuckersaregoinghome, #tasteslikeweiners and #timetogotothebar (on Twitter). I think everybody enjoyed that aspect, and for the most part my personality came through on the show and you could see we had a good time.”
 
If you missed Chris and Roger in action visit www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/donut-showdown/video/#donut-showdown/video and select the “Circus” episode.
 
-30-
 
Media Contact:
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Specialist
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca