Waterford Cafeteria Worker's "15 Minutes Of Fame"

Tuesday night, Great Neck School’s cafeteria chef Diane Houlihan will be on national television, competing against three other school cafeteria chefs on the Food Network’s “Chopped.”

And she still can’t believe it.

“I was shocked,” said Houlihan. “I never in my wildest dreams though I would be selected.”

Houlihan applied to be on the show “as a joke,” and after interview after interview, was finally selected earlier this year. She filmed the show in June, something that was not easy for her.

“It was the scariest, hardest thing I ever did in my life,” Houlihan said. “I told my husband giving child-birth was easier than doing this show. But at the same time I loved it.”

The Show

Chopped has four contestants compete against each other. The contestants get random and often unusual ingredients and a set amount of time to make a dish out of it (often 30 minutes), and then their meals are ranked by celebrity judges. There are three rounds, with somebody being eliminated each round.

The episode Tuesday night at 10 on the Food Network called "Class Acts" features four cafeteria workers. The show was to reverse a stigma about school cafeteria workers, proving that “school cooks are capable of making restaurant style food,” Houlihan said.

The show was shot in June, but Houlihan is not allowed to say who won. In the episode, the contestants must use dill pickles and tuna for an appetizer, quinoa for an entrée and grapes and cream cheese for desert.

“It was scary, it was also exciting,” she said. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was the most fun.”

A Changing World

Houlihan has been a cafeteria chef at Great Neck since 1998. And in those 13 years, things have changed dramatically, she said.

Students eat much more healthy than they were before, she said. Before, students would never eat vegetables ever, now they ask for seconds, she said.

“Before, the pizza was always just cheese or pepperoni or whatever,” she said, giving one example. “Now they ask for vegetable pizza.”

This show is another example that cafeteria workers make healthy, good-tasting foods daily, on a tight budget, Houlihan said. It is nice to get some positive press for her field, she said.

The Woman

From 1988 to 1998, Houlihan and her mother ran The Pocket Restaurant in New London, a luncheonette where everything was homemade. In 1998 though, Houlihan had a severe case of Lyme disease, and knew she could no longer work the hours necessary for running a restaurant.

She was bed-ridden for six months, but recovered and found the job at Great Neck. The hours were much better, and it still provides her the opportunity to do what she loves: please others.

“I love my job,” she said. “You get to see the kids every day, and their reactions.”

Houlihan said she tries to make new and different foods, to keep the kids happy. One of her favorite memories was making chicken Parmesan for the first time, and receiving a standing ovation from the students when she went into the lunchroom.

 “I’m very proud of the work we do,” Houlihan said.