If you can grill it, smoke it, or fry it, Nora Henderson knows all about it. Her father owns one of North Carolina's most successful barbeque joints and she's been basting baby back ribs since she could reach the counter. When Taste Test, a reality cooking contest for teens, accepts her, Nora can't pass up this chance to get out of her humble hometown-even if it means leaving her dad and her best friend Billy behind. When she shows up on set at the North American Culinary Academy, however, it's not just the New England weather that's ice cold. Fights with her high-society roommate and run-ins with Christian Van Lorten, the maddeningly handsome and talented son of a famous chef, force Nora to work even harder to prove herself. But, despite winning challenges and falling for a fellow contestant, Nora can't ignore the mysterious accidents that are plaguing the kitchen arena. It seems like someone is conducting eliminations of their own and Nora's determined to get to the bottom of the mystery before she, is "86ed" for good.