The Square Life

Turning down a job from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, only to return to Provo to finish school, says a lot about this thriving twenty-one year old. A native of Ogden, UT, Nixon has taken her love of cooking and passion for broadcasting and turned it into Kelsey’s Kitchen, her own cooking show for the iProvo network.
Claiming that all of her recipes have been “college guy” tested, local actor and producer, Maclain Nelson puts her to the test; from what her best dessert is to how she can help him spice up a salmon.

MN: You have your own cooking show at twenty-one years old, is that like a world record or something? The youngest person to have a cooking show?

KN: (Laughs) That’s a good question. I should look into that. The youngest person I’m aware of is twenty-six and they have a show on the Food Network called Big Deal.

MN: We got to check that out, but I think you might be the world record holder for having your own cooking show. That’s amazing. Types of media in your life, Film, what type of movies do you like and what’s the last movie you saw that you really liked.

KN: Last movie I saw was Pride and Prejudice, which I like, but I hate to say it, I’m a sucker for reality TV but I am. I absolutely love Dancing with Stars. I love, oh gosh, I love American Idol, it so embarrassing I know, I justify it by going to the gym and working out while I watch those shows. I also have a little brother who is 12 and wants to be a movie critic when he grows up so movies are a big deal in our family. But I can really appreciate media not only tells people things but it can convey feelings and emotions of people. That is one thing, you know, with this whole industry I’m a Broadcast major and I kinda always envision myself on the 10:00 news or something like that but realize that it seems a little cut and dry for me and this is so much more entertaining, it’s a booming industry, the Food Network—their ratings are off the chart. There’s not a college cooking show on the Food Network. The way I see it, the first time you learn how to cook is when you go to college. It’s the first time you’re off without mom, the first time you’re off on your own, so most of the programs on the Food Network right now, there are some basic ones, nothing that is just like the absolute basics, beginning techniques, just learning to throw things together. I think that a lot of people don’t cook because they are scared, they are afraid they are going to ruin it or waste their time or their money. But there are recipes that are extremely easy and what I hope my show does is get people interested in those basic things and then hopefully, they want to expand their interest into more gourmet dishes, throwing dinner parties and things like that. The good thing about food is that it is universal and everybody enjoys it to some extent and food brings people to together. It’s a really positive thing.

MN: You sound like a very practical person. So, you like the things that you watch and what you read to have a basis in reality. I know that probably American Idol probably isn’t helping you become a better person, but it’s just interesting that you choose things that have a basis in reality.

KN: Right, and all those people are going after something they love and they are passionate about. I know it sounds cheesy but I like to see someone work for the goal.

MN: You like ambition.

KN: Oh, yeah.

MN: You like to be inspired, and those—except for the really, really bad singers—that are particularly un-inspiring really are inspiring because they are striving to be the best.

KN: The thing that is great is when you set those levels for yourself and you achieve those points, you move to a situation where you can give back and you can either build a product or give advice to someone, and that’s what is most rewarding.

MN: That’s great. You love synergy, you love entrepreneurship. It’s a wonderful quality. Kelsey, do you sing in the shower?

KN: Like crazy, are you kidding me? No, I must say this, I know it’s a good day when I’m singing in the aisle of the grocery store. Because that happens occasionally. It’s funny that you say that because I know that I’m having a good day when that happens. I’m not a great singer, but I love to sing.

MN: Is there a song that reoccurs when you sing in the shower.

KN: Oh gosh.

MN: I’ll tell you, for me it’s “Stars” from Les Miserables, the musical, but you know it’s different for everybody

KN: I’m trying to think. It’s usually those FM100 classics that I know by heart because my mom listened to them all growing up.

MN: (singing) “Never gonna get you down, never gonna let you go...”

KN: Like Wilson Phillips and stuff. No, I love to sing in the shower—are you kidding me?

MN: That’s great. I think that’s a good sign of self-esteem and health singing in the shower. It’s not so good for your roommates all the time but.... Five years from now, where do you see yourself, career-wise? Do you have a bigger vision for this cooking show? What other things would you like to “put into the oven” in the next 5 years?

KN: Bigger plans include creating a line of kitchen equipment, as far as a line of small appliances, dishes and things like that go. I would like to put together college cooking kits so that for $150.00 you can purchase the absolute basics for the kitchen. They’ll make great wedding gifts. I’d love to design dishes and easy, easy cooking tools. Because I know when I first started cooking I’d look at a set of knives and say, “There’s no way!” It was very intimidating to me. I’d love to develop a company that markets things like that in addition to interactive cookbooks, which our DVD [Kelsey’s Kitchen] is like. For somebody that doesn’t cook, a cookbook can be overwhelming when you open it up and it says, sauté this, and broil this, and grind this. People don’t understand this, so they are not willing to try it. So what an interactive cookbook does is you pop in the DVD and [I] will pop up on the screen and say, “Hi! I’m so glad you’re here. Pick a recipe and click on it and I will walk you through it step by step.” So rather than sit and read and follow directions, you can watch somebody do it. Everybody is visual, you know, to watch somebody do something makes the process a lot easier. So that’s a market I would definitely want to tap into for sure.

MN: What do you say is your BEST dish? Or your BEST dessert? What do you like to cook the most and what are you the best at?

KN: I like to probably cook desserts the most because they tend to make people the happiest.

MN: I know you have some swingin’ dessert parties now and then.

KN: You know it! As far as most requested recipes or recipes that people use the most, they really are the simplest ones like coke chicken that has a can of coke, ½ cup ketchup and 1 cup of BBQ sauce. Throw it in the crock pot before you go to school and cook it on low all day. It’s amazing chicken and who can’t do that—really?!

MN: I think I can.

KN: We have a baked apricot chicken that uses 1 onion soup mix, a jar of apricot preserves and Russian salad dressing.

MN: Wow. There’s a contest tomorrow, and you can only pick 1 dessert and it’s for the “Best Dessert Maker in the World.” What are you going to make to enter this contest.

KN: What am I going to make, what am I going to make?

MN: That’s what I want to know....

KN: That’s a good question. I’d make “Ganache Cupcakes.”

MN: “Ganache Cupcakes?” Where are they from? What are “Ganache Cupcakes?”

KN: It is a very decadent chocolate kinda fudgy cupcake, that has a ganache frosting that is really shiny so they look as good as they taste. Your food’s got to look good or else nobody’s going to want to eat it.

MN: Where is Ganache from? Is it French.

KN: I believe it’s French. That is one thing we stress on the show is that the way you present your food makes all the difference in the world. Anybody can learn how to put something nice on the table.

MN: I’ll tell you one thing, I am trying, myself to be better at cooking. I try to cook a couple good meals a month and usually on Sunday night. Here’s what I like—I like salmon a lot. What tips can you give me for salmon?

KN: The foil packet. It’s great. What you do is you take the salmon fillet and you put it on some tinfoil paper, a little bit of lemon juice, fresh dill, any seasoning, my favorite is greek seasoning. So you season it with all the salt and pepper—you can’t skimp on the salt and pepper—onion slices, and you put it all in the tinfoil packet and you crunch the sides.

MN: You seal it....

KN: Yes, and you bake it in the oven.

MN: For how long?

KN: For a 4 oz. salmon fillet . . . 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes depending on how hot your oven is. It is fabulous!

MN: I’ve got to try that. I’m going to run straight home and try that.

KN: I bet you are. (laughs)

MN: If you had one thing to say to the students in this valley, what would it be? It doesn’t have to be cooking advice but if you had only one thing to say—what would it be?

KN: It would be something along the lines of...to find out what your passion is and to do something because I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to be involved in something you love so much and have it positively impact other people’s lives and just want to get more involved in it. Don’t be afraid of anything and don’t assume that because someone else has done it or has started it that there is no place for you. The harder you work the better.

MN: Wise words!