Food, Television

Lawyer Competes For Title Of 'Worst Cook In America'

Which firm does she work for?

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worst-cooks-in-america-logoIn a world where Seamless provides a never-ending stream of sustenance to lawyers working long hours in offices small and large across the country, one wonders why one of these billable-hours bots would even need to know how to cook. Some lawyers, however, are lucky enough to enjoy a mystical thing called “work-life balance,” and it is they who may someday need to impress a date, feed their families, or even prepare a meal for themselves — all without introducing food poisoning and other gory mishaps to the mix.

Enter Worst Cooks in America, a Food Network series that attempts to transform 16 of the country’s worst kitchen nightmares into skilled cooks, with the winner walking away with a $25,000 prize. This season, a contestant hails from the Texas litigation boutique of Brackett & Ellis, and she seems to be the firm’s hiring partner.

Say hello to Laura Docker, a 2005 graduate of Southern Methodist University School of Law. She’s a litigator who represents clients in personal injury defense, employment, and school-related matters, she’s a single mother raising two children, and she’s an absolutely horrendous cook. How did she wind up on the show? She spilled the beans in a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News:

Laura W. Docker

Laura W. Docker

I’m not much of a cook and so I hadn’t watched the Food Network a ton. And one day when I was traveling, I flipped across the channels and I saw the show … and they were teaching the contestants how to cook eggs. And eggs have long been something that I have struggled with. I have never scrambled a pan of eggs where eggs weren’t totally stuck to the pan by the end of it. And they were teaching these kind of hapless cooks how to cook these eggs. And I just thought, ‘I should go on this show.’ I would love to learn to cook eggs like this. And I think I’m pretty funny and charming and so it seemed like why wouldn’t I be on a show like this?

A quick Google search later and I found an application, and answered a few questions. It was sorta funny, in the application process they asked some pretty specific questions of why would you want to be on a show like this, what about learning to cook would be important to you … As I answered the questions, I found my responses to be a lot more heartfelt and sincere than I expected them to be, that being a single mom and a working mom, it matters to me what I serve my kids for dinner. And I had no real skills to be able to translate good, healthy food into what felt like a real, loving family meal. And the more I dug into the questions … I wanted it more and more. I was so fortunate to have been one of the contestants selected.

If you’d like to see how far she made it on the show, you’ll have to tune in. Production wrapped a short time ago, and the first episode aired on January 1 at 8 p.m. For now, Laura reveals that her kids, who were once “living the high life of chicken tenders and frozen mini corn dogs,” have begun to “stretch their little palates” now that their mother can cook without a microwave. Best of luck, Laura! We’re rooting for you here at ATL.

One of the ‘Worst Cooks in America’ calls Fort Worth home [Dallas Morning News]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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