Jamie Nondorf says she watches the Food Network whenever she has time. Sunday, she’ll be watching herself on the network.

The 28-year-old Mesa resident competes on “Ultimate Recipe Showdown” (10 p.m. on regular cable, 7 p.m. if you have Food Network HD), a six-week series that features home cooks battling in various recipe categories.

Nondorf faces three other finalists Sunday in the cake category. At stake: $25,000 and the opportunity to have her dessert put on the menu at T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants nationwide.

Nondorf, who teaches at the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health in Mesa, noticed a small ad soliciting contestants on Food Network’s Web site last March.

“I think it was just a day or so before their deadline,” she says.

She sent in a couple recipes in the cake category - “I prefer baking over cooking, I prefer sweets over savory” - and several weeks later learned she was a semifinalist.

By September, Nondorf was one of four finalists flying to New York for three days. The show’s taping, she says, took place from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the final day.

“The taping was longer than I ever thought it would be,” she says.

Nondorf and the other contestants spent the day with the show’s flamboyant host, Guy Fieri (pictured above, also host of the network’s popular “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives”), whom she had met the previous evening.

“He was pretty entertaining,” she says.

In Sunday’s first round, during which the cooks have four hours to deliver a signature cake, Nondorf makes key lime coconut cupcakes with white chocolate frosting.

In the second round, limited to just 45 minutes, she makes what she calls Lemony Sunshine cupcakes with a shortbread crust and a lemon curd topping.

Both recipes are her own creations, she says.

“I like to take recipes that look good and try to make them my own. I try to come up with a better recipe.”

Whether her cupcakes are good enough to earn her the $25,000 prize will be revealed Sunday. Her dental students are hosting a viewing party to watch the show, but Nondorf has yet to accept their invitation.

“I think I’m just gonna have to watch it at home,” she says. “I think I’m gonna have a hard time watching myself on TV.”

Posted in: Mesa • Food • Food Network • TV |

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