Katrina Mincy, also known as Aunt Flora, the chef and owner of Aunt Flora’s House of Soul, has been selected by Oprah Winfrey as one of 10 finalists for a new reality show, Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for America’s Next TV Star, which is set to debut next week on the new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
Aunt Flora beat more than 9,500 other entrants who submitted online audition tapes, as well as thousands more who applied at open auditions across the nation, to be selected as one of the finalists. Oprah introduced the finalists today on her syndicated daytime talk show, seen locally on WCPO-TV (Channel 9).—-
The Search for America’s Next TV Star will air at 9 p.m. Fridays, beginning Jan. 7 on Winfrey’s new network, OWN.
OWN premieres Saturday and will air locally on Time Warner channel 152 and Insight channel 224. The show, which promises to “guide the hopefuls through intense challenges designed to see if they have what it takes to have their own show,” will be hosted by Carson Kressley and Nancy O’Dell. Judges for the reality show will include Dr. Phil McGraw and Oprah’s BFF, Gayle King. The winner of the competition will get their own show on OWN.
Aunt Flora is no stranger to the world of television as she appeared on The Martha Stewart Show in 2007, where she prepared the same Vegetable Cobbler that she made for her audition tape for the reality TV show.. Flora, with her vivacious personality and quick wit, should prove to be a formidable competitor. We wish her the best of luck.
Aunt Flora’s House of Soul, located on Montgomery Road in Silverton, was reviewed by CityBeat in our Dec.1 issue.
CityBeat will continue to follow this story, but in the meantime, go get a cobbler now before Aunt Flora becomes too famous to make ‘em for us anymore. Go, Aunt Flora!
This article appears in Dec 29, 2010 – Jan 4, 2011.