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Bruce Campbell of "Ripley's Believe It or Not" on Travel Channel "A TV show called the NBA right now – NBA Playoffs. You know what's surprising? That I got into 'Downton Abbey' not long ago, and tore it apart. It was great. It got me through 'Ash vs. Evil Dead.' " Judith Light, seen recently on The 73rd Annual Tony Awards on CBS "I try to keep the news on so that I'm informed, and things like HGTV and Food Network ... I'll flip around a little bit, but it's rare. I don't relax particularly well, so I have to turn off everything and do yoga and meditate." f It is said that there is nothing like a good meal to bring a family together. But preparing it together can get interesting. And that family dynamic is on display in the ABC culinary competition series "Family Food Fight." Premiering Thursday, June 20, the hourlong episodes pit family teams against each other as they trot out their best skills and secret family recipes to prepare dishes for a panel of judges consisting of chefs, restaurateurs and cookbook authors Ayesha Curry, Cat Cora and Graham Elliot. The winning clan gets the title of America's No. 1 Food Family and a $100,000 grand prize. Curry, who is also the show's host and an executive producer, says it was fascinating watching the family dynamic in action, especially with the pressure of competition added in. "The coolest part to me was that they were all the same," she observes. "Like you could find similarities in each of the families that you could connect your own family to and I thought that that was really special and it's sort of why I wanted to do this show. I feel like just with our social climate right now, I was really excited to spearhead a show that showed a melting pot of people and to show that every family is just like the other family in one way or another." Especially, she explains, when personalities clash. "Every family is going to have their little tiffs or arguments," Curry, the wife of NBA point guard Stephen Curry, says, "and at the end of the day it always seems that everybody comes together for the greater good of the cause. And no matter where you fall in the competition ... you always come out on top learning something about each other and growing as a family." As for the quality of the dishes, Curry says everything was first-rate. While all these contestants are amateurs, their skills, creativity and outside-the-box thinking wowed the judges and had them inquiring about their techniques. " The one thing I was shocked that everybody brought to the table was flavor," Curry says. "You know, spice-heavy, flavor- forward. You could tell just from us judging, everybody had a really good palate and so their dishes were composed well. ... You know, Cat Cora and Graham Elliot, even they were swept off of their feet ... and we were surprised time and time again. And so they even learned new methods that they figured would never work but somehow would come together so beautifully. "And so I felt like it was a learning process for everyone," she continues. "There's no one way to do things and I love that's also the message the show sends: There's so many different paths you can take to greatness and to getting the job done." Ayesha Curry BY GEORGE DICKIE Family dynamics are front and center of ABC's 'Family Food Fight' Page 8 June 17 - 23, 2019 Nobody Knows Our Hometown Better!

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