Malverne Family Wins $5,000 On Food Network Reality Show

MALVERNE, NY — A Malverne family won $5,000 as part of Food Network's "Kitchen Crash" that aired on Wednesday night.

Heather and Matt Zwillick were among three families pre-selected for a battle of the block party. However, when a chef knocked at their door ahead of taping, they learned of the surprise.

The chef would need to raid the kitchen for ingredients to create two separate meals and a dessert, in competition with two other chefs and neighbors on their street.

Adding to the suspense, Heather said, producers changed the arrival time, "to throw us off on certain things."

She was getting ready in the shower and her husband Matt was in the backyard when the chef started banging on the door.

Matt had one of the funnier lines of the program, saying they showed up before he even got to brush his teeth.

"They made me say that three times to get it right," he said.

Heather hadn't gone food shopping. There was no bread. So Chef Brandon Campney, who won "Chopped," had to improvise. But it was creative and tasty enough for the judges to split the $10,000 with the Zwillicks.

"We had what we were making for the block party," Heather said. "I had this huge bag of Mexican cheese [and] that's what he used to make the tacos."

It was taped in April for several hours. Heather saw the ad posting on a Facebook page seeking families on a close-knit block, helping to put Malverne on the map.

"I like that it highlighted our town, our village," she said. "Malverne is so small that a lot of people on Long Island don't know where it is."

Matt, who is from Bayside, said of his adopted home, "It's so small that everyone knows everyone's business."

Viewers see Heather, Matt and their 10-year-old daughter Shelby as the cheering squad for their chef. Their 7-year-old son Chase chose not to participate in the production.

But Heather and Matt are no strangers to television, having appeared on "The Newlywed Game" 13 years ago.

With their daughter as a competitive dancer, they just returned from a competition in Mystic, Connecticut.

"That money was spent," Heather laughed.