"Food Fighters" star with Guam roots is back on island
Guam girl Elisha Joyce brought island culture, pride and food all together on a national stage when she competed on "Food Fighters".
December 24, 2014Updated: December 24, 2014
By KUAM News
By KUAM News by Joan Aguon Charfauros
Guam - Guam girl Elisha Joyce brought island culture, pride and food all together on a national stage, when she competed on the NBC show "Food Fighters". The proud Guamanian is home visiting for the holidays.
When Joyce was 7 years old, her father bodybuilder Benny Crawford, shut down his California gym and moved to Guam. Joyce remained on Guam until she was 18, when she graduated from Notre Dame High School. She recalled, "We graduated from ND in June and then in July I was on an airplane, turned 18 and shortly within the week after that I was on a plane - I went to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington and that is where I spent the next five years, with one of those years being abroad, I did study in Italy, in Florence, my junior year of college."
Although, she initially went into college wanting to major in biology with aspirations of becoming a dentist but after one course, she realized that maybe it wasn't her calling...so she ended up double majoring in sociology and political science. The 41-year old says that it wasn't until she met her husband while attending college that she started to hone her skills in the kitchen. "I remember thinking, "Okay, I have to woo this guy, I have to learn to cook'. I had a pretty good palate. Really good baked chicken - I was used to a house full of guys, and they would think I was the most amazing thing in the world."
It was then she realized food was a great connector. "If you make a really good dish, it makes people so happy. That's the culture I grew up with, too. So I started slowly teaching myself how to cook. I really taught myself to cook, picking one thing, learning to do it really well and once I knew I could specialize in that and knock it out of the park...I'd move on to something else," she explained.
Keeping to that philosophy over the years, it has made Joyce, the cook she is today. "It's just something I love to do...food is such a happy thing for people," she stated. "It lightens the mood, and it lightens the spirit, all for the goal of bringing people together."
Not many people know, but initially Joyce was looking to audition for the CBS show "The Amazing Race" with her best friend Drey. "I was actually looking for amazing race casting and they weren't casting, so I landed at NBC and I scrolled down and the site asked 'Can you beat the pros?'"
Of course, Joyce thought to herself - yes! She remembered, "I just sent in an email, I just said, 'Hey, I'm known as Quinoa Queen, food blog, give me a call.'"
Two hours later, she received a phone call from one of the casting directors from NBC and the ball started rolling from there. 'When I saw it all put together, and I saw how they honored my home and my culture and truly my story, I was so blessed by that," she said. Using some of that Food Fighters prize money, Joyce and her family are on island and for her, it is still so surreal. "We were on the beach for the first few days, we got to see the sunsets...got to be in the water at like 9am every day," she explained.
Elisha and the Joyce family heads back to Portland, Oregon the first week of January.
Guam - Guam girl Elisha Joyce brought island culture, pride and food all together on a national stage, when she competed on the NBC show "Food Fighters". The proud Guamanian is home visiting for the holidays.
When Joyce was 7 years old, her father bodybuilder Benny Crawford, shut down his California gym and moved to Guam. Joyce remained on Guam until she was 18, when she graduated from Notre Dame High School. She recalled, "We graduated from ND in June and then in July I was on an airplane, turned 18 and shortly within the week after that I was on a plane - I went to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington and that is where I spent the next five years, with one of those years being abroad, I did study in Italy, in Florence, my junior year of college."
Although, she initially went into college wanting to major in biology with aspirations of becoming a dentist but after one course, she realized that maybe it wasn't her calling...so she ended up double majoring in sociology and political science. The 41-year old says that it wasn't until she met her husband while attending college that she started to hone her skills in the kitchen. "I remember thinking, "Okay, I have to woo this guy, I have to learn to cook'. I had a pretty good palate. Really good baked chicken - I was used to a house full of guys, and they would think I was the most amazing thing in the world."
It was then she realized food was a great connector. "If you make a really good dish, it makes people so happy. That's the culture I grew up with, too. So I started slowly teaching myself how to cook. I really taught myself to cook, picking one thing, learning to do it really well and once I knew I could specialize in that and knock it out of the park...I'd move on to something else," she explained.
Keeping to that philosophy over the years, it has made Joyce, the cook she is today. "It's just something I love to do...food is such a happy thing for people," she stated. "It lightens the mood, and it lightens the spirit, all for the goal of bringing people together."
Not many people know, but initially Joyce was looking to audition for the CBS show "The Amazing Race" with her best friend Drey. "I was actually looking for amazing race casting and they weren't casting, so I landed at NBC and I scrolled down and the site asked 'Can you beat the pros?'"
Of course, Joyce thought to herself - yes! She remembered, "I just sent in an email, I just said, 'Hey, I'm known as Quinoa Queen, food blog, give me a call.'"
Two hours later, she received a phone call from one of the casting directors from NBC and the ball started rolling from there. 'When I saw it all put together, and I saw how they honored my home and my culture and truly my story, I was so blessed by that," she said. Using some of that Food Fighters prize money, Joyce and her family are on island and for her, it is still so surreal. "We were on the beach for the first few days, we got to see the sunsets...got to be in the water at like 9am every day," she explained.
Elisha and the Joyce family heads back to Portland, Oregon the first week of January.