The Truth About Angie Hartford-Padilla From Worst Cooks In America Season 24

A new season of "Worst Cooks in America" premiered in early January, and we're still trying to learn more about this year's inept culinary contestants. In this season of the show, which features chefs Anne Burrell and Cliff Crooks as mentors, judges, and team leaders, each contestant will be matched up with another aspiring chef and made to work in pairs. One contestant we can't wait to learn more about? Angie Hartford-Padilla from San Jose, California, who is partnered up with Cheyenne Loomis (via Food Network).

Loomis is Hartford-Padilla's cousin, making them one of a handful of teams on the show made up of relatives. But they didn't grow up together. In the first episode, Hartford-Padilla explains that they're actually long-lost cousins who connected after she did an online DNA test and discovered she had a branch of family living in Kentucky. These days, the duo seem close. Loomis even makes a Korean-inspired dish, bibimbap, in the first challege to honor Hartford-Padilla's Korean heritage. But will their closeness be enough to help them win?

So far, most of what we know of Hartford-Padilla comes from the season's premiere episode, "Welcome to the Disaster Zone." First off, though she and her cousin aren't great in the kitchen, it does seem like at least someone in Hartford-Padilla's family cooks. She references her Nanny's fried catfish recipe. However, that's the Nanny from the part of the family she didn't reconnect with until later in life. Even though Hartford-Padilla goes on to say she's never actually had fried catfish, maybe the recipe is in her DNA. The first challenge of the season was to make a dish for a family member, and Hartford-Padilla (spoiler alert!) actually goes on to win the challenge with the version of fried catfish and okra she makes to honor Nanny.

From viewing the first episode of the season, it seems like Hartford-Padilla and her cousin have a pretty tight relationship, and their repoire seems positive. With that kind of support, and the legacy of Nanny's cooking guiding them, maybe Hartford-Padilla and Loomis have what it takes to win the season –- but only time will tell.