Last week, Lauren Berkowitz beat her incumbent challenger for a seat on the Burien City Council. This week, she defeated three opponents for her title as the fastest power shopper during a challenge in Kirkland on Wednesday.
And while getting through her campaign was difficult battling out the issues facing the city of Burien, navigating her way through the grocery aisles was also a challenge.
“I could’ve done better – I blanked when I saw the meat,” Berkowitz said. “I’m vegetarian.”
The Metropolitan Market in Kirkland and local radio station Warm 106.9 teamed up to highlight TV personality Guy Fieri’s new show, “Guy’s Grocery Games” during a local challenge at the market on Wednesday.
The Food Network show airs on Sundays at 8 p.m. and is set in a grocery store where four talented chefs compete against each other through three cooking challenges. Competitors also must navigate through grocery aisles, surmounting real world challenges and creating competitive dishes.
During the local competition in Kirkland, four contestants chosen by Mark Christopher of Warm 106.9 were given five minutes and $100 to search the store and create as many dinner combinations that they could come up with. Contestants were also provided with shopping lists and tasked with gathering these items without a cart.
“It was nerve-wracking trying to think of how many meals to make – I didn’t get enough meat,” said Ashley Lenius of Covington, who practiced for the competition by running around Safeway the day before the competition “like a crazy person.”
Kimberly Pajonk of Federal Way said the competition was “a lot harder” than she thought it would be. But for Kevin Walker, of Everett, the challenge was a piece of cake.
“It was fun. You have to think what you’re going to do and plan it and I do that anyways,” said Walker, who cooks for his family. “My son always says I have to be creative.”
While all contestants managed to keep their purchases under $100, Berkowitz came ahead when she used her T-shirt to gather more items on the list than the others.
Berkowitz won a $1,000 shopping spree at Metropolitan Market and the other contestants each won $100 to use at the market.
