PR exec Elaine Jones has a lesson for us all: Don’t be so quick to delete spam.
We reported last week about Jones appearing as a contestant on the Food Network’s “Ultimate Recipe Showdown,” a primetime series that searches for the “ultimate recipe” in six categories: Chicken, Burgers, Comfort Foods, Cakes, Pasta and Cookies. Elaine competed in the Pasta category, and won. But she almost missed the initial e-mail from the show’s producers.
“In May 2007, I received an e-mail from a company called High Noon Entertainment that I thought at first was spam; the header said ‘Attention Food Network Semi-Finalist! Please read ASAP!,’” said Jones. “Luckily for me, I opened the message and realized I was on the short list to appear on the Pasta episode of their new series, ‘Ultimate Recipe Showdown.’”
Jones explained each episode is subdivided into three categories, with three people competing in each category. A winner is picked for each category, and the grand prize winner for that episode is selected from those three winners, based on total number of points awarded by the judges.
As it turns out, Jones won her category with her recipe for Mediterranean pasta with lamb meatballs — but “was beat by the Lasagna winner, who had 99 with a recipe that really looked wonderful,” she said.
