TV Tango: Who was the biggest success story from the first season of CHEF WANTED?

Anne Burrell: I believe that several of the chefs are still in their jobs -- at least one, that I know of, that didn't work out. I think our success rate was pretty good; so, overall, that makes me really happy.

TV Tango: In the new season of CHEF WANTED, will you revisit any of the Season 1 restaurants or chefs for updates?

Anne Burrell: Nope. I'm off to the races, in restaurants spanning from Hawaii to Puerto Rico. We were on the island of Oahu on the North Shore.

TV Tango: Of the Season 1 chefs who were eliminated on CHEF WANTED, did any of them receive enough name/brand recognition to score really good jobs that they might not have gotten otherwise?

Anne Burrell: They haven't kept in touch with me. I don't know. I'm sure that they would. At the Food Network, we try to do the best that we can to put the people in the best light. Everybody was really well-qualified; so I'm sure that all of those chefs fared well.

They keep in touch with the people who actually got the job. All of a sudden when we had six (in Season 1) and now 13 shows (in Season 2), that winds up to be a lot of people. That number keeps growing, kind of exponentially. That's a lot to keep track of.

TV Tango: In Season 2 of CHEF WANTED, what's the biggest drama that we won't see on TV that happened behind the scenes?

Anne Burrell: I oddly had a confrontation the other night with a chef who was sent home, who had had a couple of drinks and didn't feel like he should have been sent home. It got a little dicey for a minute, but, quite honestly, it's not me sending them home. I bring them there, but it's the owners' of the restaurants decision about who stays and who goes.

Credit: Justin Stephens / Food Network

TV Tango: Congrats on being the undefeated champion through three seasons of WORST COOKS IN AMERICA.

Anne Burrell: Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

TV Tango: I was surprised to see they brought Bobby Flay back for another beating?

Anne Burrell: I was excited for him to come back. I adore Bobby Flay. I just loved working with him.

TV Tango: I thought Food Network might just keep bringing in new people for you to beat every season.

Anne Burrell: I guess Robert Irvine wasn't available. [Laughing] [Note: Read this short, "LA Times" article about how Anne usually beats Robert in competitions.]

TV Tango: What's your secret?

Anne Burrell: I just try to be the best teacher I can be. Thankfully, it's worked out alright so far; so hopefully, it will keep on working.

TV Tango: Do you know in the first few episodes which one or two contestants are likely to be in the finals?

Anne Burrell: Quite honestly, in the first two seasons, on the very first day I saw them, I picked out my winner. In Season 3 it didn't happen quite as quickly, and Season 4 is yet to be seen.

TV Tango: How well do you know the judges preferences and palates before your students cook for them on WORST COOKS?

Anne Burrell: Not well at all. I mean, I know them, but I don't really know their preferences. They're New York City chefs, and I know them and so does Bobby. It's not a huge chef world around here. I think that was fairly level playing ground.

TV Tango: Sounds like that wasn't your secret or advantage -- that just must mean that you're good.

Anne Burrell: [Laughing] Sure, we'll go with that.

TV Tango: The new season of WORST COOKS opens with a culinary boot camp with food found in the contestant's homes. What's the most shocking thing you found in someone refrigerator or pantry? Did you ever find moldy cheese or anything gross like that?

Anne Burrell: Sadly, there's a lot of junk food, a lot of peanut butter. There was nothing hugely shocking -- it was just prepared foods. They're bad cooks; they're not bad housekeepers.

TV Tango: You were once the host of SECRETS OF A RESTAURANT CHEF. What are the two biggest secrets in the kitchen in a celebrity chef's restaurant?

Anne Burrell: Oh geez. Well, the reason food tastes so good is because chefs know how to use salt.

Probably, if you go to a celebrity chef's restaurant, the celebrity chef is not making your dinner for you.

TV Tango: If you were a food, what food would you be?

Anne Burrell: Bacon, because it's salty, it's delicious, and pretty much everybody likes it.

TV Tango: Do you watch UNITED STATES OF BACON?

TV Tango: What kitchen gadget could you not live without?

Anne Burrell: My food mill.

TV Tango: What was your biggest failure in the kitchen?

Anne Burrell: I choose to focus on my positives. I forget the failures.

TV Tango: So we don't want to talk about the persimmon sauce then?

Anne Burrell: OK, yes, persimmon sauce. That was horrible.

TV Tango: In a cooking challenge, what food scares you the most?

Anne Burrell: It would probably be something that I didn't know what it was. I can't say; I don't know. If I don't know what it was, then I can't tell you now. [Laughing]

TV Tango: Is there any ingredient that you could get that you know about and would just say, 'Oh S#!t"?

Anne Burrell: I consider myself a fairly well-roundish cook; so I like to think that I can at least think through anything.

TV Tango: I know you grew up idolizing Julia Child, but, besides for Mario Batali, who is your favorite contemporary TV chef?

Anne Burrell: Other than me? [Laughing] Maybe Ina Garten [BAREFOOT CONTESSA] -- her voice is just like valium to me...so soothing.

TV Tango: How long did you work with Mario?

Anne Burrell: I worked for him at the Italian Wine Merchants for two years, and something like 30 battles on IRON CHEF.

TV Tango: What was the single most important thing you learned working with Mario?

Anne Burrell: Mario is very gracious with the public, and he always seems like he's in a good mood; so I always try to portray that.

TV Tango: If you could cook dinner for one TV character, who would it be and what would you make?

Anne Burrell: I would probably cook for [Gregory] House. [Laughing]. Probably not some sort of organ meat, though. Probably not offal.

TV Tango: If you had to make a dish using doughnuts as the main ingredient and Homer Simpson was a judge, what would you make?

Anne Burrell: I'd make doughnut bread pudding.

TV Tango: If you were on the show BIZARRE FOODS, what food would you NEVER eat?

Anne Burrell: I've actually spoken to Andrew [Zimmern] about this, and there were two things that I saw him eat that I absolutely had to turn away from. One was rats, and the other was when he was in a field, and there was a cow placenta that had just been born. He picked it up in the field and ate it raw. I had to turn away.

TV Tango: How was the rat prepared?

Anne Burrell: Well, they have it two ways. One was roasted whole and the other one they just kind of picked the hair off it and chopped it up -- with organs and bones and everything -- to kind of make a stew out of it. When I asked him about it, he said it was putrid. That's the thing about him -- he never has a terrible facial expression. I would be having dry-heave gags. He can eat something that he absolutely doesn't like, and he has an amazing way of describing it.

TV Tango: That's why I think the two of you should be together on a TV show.

TV Tango: Speaking of things being in the field....if you were on MAN VS. WILD, DUAL SURVIVAL or SURVIVORMAN, what food would be the easiest for you to kill and prepare for a meal?

Anne Burrell: Probably a wild boar. I cook wild boar anyways, but the killing part would be scary to me. Once it's dead, I know a lot of stuff to do with it.

TV Tango: But could you actually kill it?

Anne Burrell: I've always said that I could kill up to a lobster. [Laughing] I understand where food comes from, but the taking of the life -- it's the part I have a hard time with. Once it's dead., I can butcher it and I can do all that kind of stuff, but to make it dead -- that's what I'd have a problem with.

TV Tango: What food would you want for a reward challenge on SURVIVOR?

Anne Burrell: Bacon. Bacon makes it better. I can do a bacon on bacon sandwich. That wouldn't be bad. Skip the bread, skip everything else. Just give me like three pieces of bacon, and I'm good. I'm just going sheer bacon.

TV Tango: Monk's Restaurant from SEINFELD or Mel's Diner from ALICE -- where would you dine?

Anne Burrell: Probably Monk's, because Mel just seems like he needs to take a shower.

TV Tango: You're in New York. Have you eaten in the real Monk's?

Anne Burrell: I have not. Actually, I live in the West Village and the real Monk's is on the Upper West Side. I rarely make it up that far.

TV Tango: Have you ever been to an iconic TV restaurant in New York?

TV Tango: If you could play one fictional TV character -- any character in the history of television -- which one would you choose?

Anne Burrell: I don't even begin to know. I'm trying to think of some of my favorite TV shows. I might be Elaine from SEINFELD, actually.

TV Tango: Do you dance like her? I hope better.

TV Tango: What TV shows are currently on your DVR?

Anne Burrell: Clearly DOWNTON ABBEY, it's on everybody's DVR. There may, or may not, be one of the HOUSEWIVES [series]. THE GOOD WIFE is always a hit on Sunday nights. PARENTHOOD, also. And, of course, MODERN FAMILY. And PARKS & RECREATION and the last couple episodes of 30 ROCK.