University of Arizona grad stars in new Food Network show

University of Arizona graduate Brandi Milloy-Simon baked 70 mermaid cupcakes for her daughter Milly’s first birthday party last month.

Two weeks later, she was re-creating the cupcakes on national television.

Milloy-Simon, who goes by her maiden name Brandi Milloy on TV, co-hosts Food Network’s “Let’s Eat” with professional chefs Stuart O’Keeffe and Jamika Pessoa. Although she has no culinary training, the former Sierra Vista resident has been a food and lifestyle expert and TV host for several years.

Milloy-Simon, who earned her degree in journalism and English in 2006, has appeared in a number of Food Network shows including “Guy’s Grocery Games,” “Food Network Star” and “Chopped Junior.” The 35-year-old also appeared on Cooking Channel’s “Eat This Now.”

But this show seems to strike a chord: She’s a lifelong foodie and she loves telling stories, something she gets to do on “Let’s Eat.” She and her co-hosts write and share their recipes on the 14 episodes of the first season, which runs through November.

“I’ve always known I wanted to be a journalist. … I knew I wanted to be a storyteller,” she said.

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The recipes are easy and often use simple ingredients including a boxed cake and flat-bottom ice cream cones in Milloy-Simon’s mermaid cupcakes in the show’s debut.

“There’s tons of tips and advice and I think it’s a show that you get a lot of takeaways,” she said Thursday from her Los Angeles home, calling it perfect “for someone who is an at-home cook like me who wants to make really good food to impress your guests.”

Milloy-Simon landed in L.A. after moving to Chicago where she applied for a job with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions. She didn’t get the job, but a few months later she answered an online ad looking for people who wanted to do good things and positively affect people’s lives. She didn’t realize at the time that the ad was for Winfrey’s short-lived reality show “The Big Give,” which featured 10 contestants being sent all over the country to complete good deeds for people in need. Milloy-Simon was one of three finalists, awarded $100,000 to do with as she pleased.

She said she used the money to help relocate to Los Angeles, where her career has included appearing on the “Today Show” and hosting PopSugar Food’s internet shows “Eat the Trend” and “Get the Dish with Brandi Milloy.”

“Let’s Eat” airs at 9 a.m. Sundays through November.