By Emily D. Williams

Local chefs Erika Lipe and Steven McCain will be featured in a reality TV cooking competition on Food Network next month.

The new series, Food Court Wars, was filmed earlier this spring and will premiere July 7 at 9 p.m. and air on the following Sundays at 7 p.m. Each episode features two teams competing for the chance to open a restaurant, rent-free, for one year in a mall food court.

Erika and Steven, Batesville natives and best friends, both now live in Oxford and work in restaurants there, Erika at Lenora’s and Steven at McEwen’s.

The 28-year-olds started working together in 2008 at Waltz on the Square, an upscale restaurant in Oxford.

Steven said that’s when he really started cooking but he’d worked in the restaurant industry in his teens.

The son of Suzette Purser and grandson of Judy and Melvin Holcomb of Batesville, also has a musical career, playing in two bands, Swampfoot and Mop Bucket.

“I just moved back from Athens, Ga. and Erika asked if I wanted a job. I started washing dishes and moved up.” Stevo said modestly.

Erika has been in the restaurant business most of her life. Her mother, Amy Appleton, opened a “groovy” little coffee shop, the Java Jive when Erika was 14. She helped in the kitchen there as well.

Erika started working at Capers, a Batesville restaurant, as a teenager and learned most of her hands-on cooking.

She later moved to New Orleans to cook at Alberta Restaurant, recipient of the prestigious Zagat Survey Award.

As her passion for cooking grew she moved to an upscale restaurant in the resort area of St. Simons Island, Ga. as executive chef at Saltwater Cowboy.

There she was overseeing the culinary operations for the restaurant.

She moved back to Mississippi where she was the head chef at Waltz on the Square.

Now she balances her schedule between duties at the upscale Lenora’s and performing vocals with the band Tequila Mockingbird. (Her dad, Casey Lipe, is a talented musician also, now living in New Orleans.)

Earlier this year a friend of Erika’s  saw that the Food Court Wars casting crew was coming to Mississippi and suggested Erika and Steven enter. They were selected and filming began in April at a mall in Meridian.

The results of the competition have been kept secret, but viewers will see Erika and Steven battling another team with their southern cooking.

Not only is the team’s food tested, but also their ability to run a successful business.
In the end, the team who makes the most profit is awarded their new food court restaurant on the spot.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” Erika said. “We have never done anything like that.
“We were in the dark about a lot of the activities. They wanted to catch our reactions on film,” she said.

“We weren’t really nervous about the cooking part,” Erika laughed.

“It was really bizarre. We were very excited and met a lot of cool people.”

The show, from executive producer Gordon Ramsey, is hosted by Tyler Florence.