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One of the 'Worst Cooks in America' calls Fort Worth home

Laura Docker just wanted to cook some eggs -- without ruining the pan. That's how she ended up joining 15 other contestants on Worst Cooks in America, which will begin its tenth season on Jan. 1 at 8 p.m.

Laura Docker just wanted to cook some eggs -- without ruining the pan.

That's how she ended up joining 15 other contestants on Worst Cooks in America, which will begin its tenth season on Jan. 1 at 8 p.m.

Fort Worth lawyer Laura Docker will be on Food Network's "Worst Cooks in America."
Fort Worth lawyer Laura Docker will be on Food Network's "Worst Cooks in America."(Jason DeCrow / FOOD NETWORK)

Docker is a hard-working lawyer (at Brackett & Ellis, P.C., in Fort Worth) and a harder-working single mother of two. That leaves little time for home cooking, even if she had the chops. So, she signed up for a boot camp of sorts.

The Food Network series puts home cooks into teams under the tutelage of some well-known coaches: extra-virgin olive oil pusher Rachael Ray and chef Anne Burrell. Over 10 episodes, the contestants take on a challenge a week with the loser sent home.

In the end, the two remaining contestants will compete in a food challenge to see who has learned enough to be declared the best of the worst. They'll also win $25,000. Ray -- the defending champion -- or Burrell will win bragging rights.

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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.

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How did you find out you were one of the worst cooks in America? I just know it was one of the children.

[She laughs.] They certainly know that I can't cook. My son wanted me to learn to make homemade chicken tenders. My other son wanted me to learn how to make homemade pancakes.

You say you just want to learn how to cook for the children. They're notoriously finicky anyway. 

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I can tell you a funny thing. Upon returning home, I've had so many people ask, "Are your kids just so excited for you to cook for them?" And my poor sweet kids, they were living the high life of chicken tenders and frozen mini corn dogs, and now mom's home, we're having to stretch their little palates a little bit. But they're game. ... I'm finding ways to cook real food for them, as opposed to frozen stuff I would normally kind of heat up in the microwave. I'm so glad for them. I didn't want them to go out into the world today and maybe go meet some girl's family and a plate of some real healthy dinner is set in front of them and they don't want to eat it. So we're kind of practicing some of those skills now.

What was your typical meal before the show hopefully taught you how to better navigate your kitchen?

Family dinners with me and the boys typically were something kind of frozen or pre-prepared. So we did a lot of mini corn dogs, frozen chicken tenders that I could heat up in the oven or microwave ... Easy Mac macaroni and cheese. My specialty was turkey roll-ups, which was deli turkey rolled into a tube with like a toothpick in it ... I knew enough that I was trying to get healthy things on the plate. It would be turkey roll-ups, some cutup strawberries and maybe a can of green beans. ... It was more like a collection of snacks than actually a meal. And so I see food and see how it can be transformed instead of just a collection of ingredients on a plate, but [instead] a real whole meal that feels like an experience when you sit down to eat it.

What's the typical meal now?

We do spaghetti and meatballs, we do chicken fajitas, some pasta dishes, pasta carbonara, meatloaves, all kinds of things.

Is it harder or easier than you thought it would be?

It's easier than I thought it would be, certainly, and exponentially more delicious than I thought it would be. My whole relationship to food is different from being on this show. To me, herbs and spices were something you shook out of a shaker you bought on the aisle. And now I understand that you can buy fresh rosemary, fresh thyme or even fresh parsley. It's not just some gross canned vegetable; we're roasting vegetables. I didn't know homemade food could be this good.

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What has been your biggest kitchen nightmare?

I would take on some new recipe. It's the expense of it. I'd go to the grocery store; I'd spend $50 on ingredients and the end product is something that no one wants to eat. The kids would end up just having a bowl of cereal instead. And that was so disheartening. [It was a] waste of not just my time but my resources and the food that I bought that no one could really enjoy.

Did you find a new favorite kitchen utensil?

A different language and different tools... I came home and immediately had to go shopping because I clearly did not have the right equipment to accomplish all these new skills that I wanted to implement in my house. I hadn't watched a lot of the show. I'm a mom and I'm on Pinterest and I'm around girlfriends who share recipes and I think I thought I was going up there to learn crockpot recipes and some casseroles and this isn't that kind of show.

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We were thrown in the deep end. This is actually to make cooks out of all of us. What's so special about that is now once you've been thrown in the deep end, nothing seems like a challenge. So that now it's like, "OK, I have 45 minutes to get dinner on the table before homework and baths. That's something I can do, I've done way harder in way shorter an amount of time." It's the real deal, type of complicated stuff for sure.

Favorite utensil?

I had a Microplane. I also have a veg scrape that I use all the time. Every time I use it, I feel super fancy, like I'm some kinda chef in a restaurant, doing my mise en place and all of that.

What's the favorite meal now? 

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Definitely meatballs. My boys love my meatballs. Spaghetti and meatballs is the thing they've enjoyed the most. I did try to serve them a kale salad that fell pretty flat. It's a negotiation with kids. We're having fun learning together. My littlest one enjoys being in the kitchen with me. Jack, 7, is in the second grade, and Bo is 4 and he's in pre-K. Fish is something that I've been able to get my kids into since I've been home.

What are your plans to watch the show?

I think I'm just gonna watch this premiere with only a handful of people, although I've had so much support from my co-workers, and friends and family who all would love to watch it with me. I haven't been on TV before and I'm a little nervous. And I do like to remind people that this is a comedy program. I may be feeling a little foolish showing off my kind of terrible cooking skills on TV, so I'm gonna watch the first episode in a small setting. But I think once I get over those first-time TV jitters, I will definitely have some friends over, and maybe even cook for them, and we'll watch the show as it goes on.

For more TV news, views and reviews, follow @DawnBurkes on Twitter.