My Food Network Experience in New York (cont pg 4)

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At that point I was approached by one of the crew, telling me they needed to wire me for sound. I looked at him, puzzled as to what he wanted me to do with this tiny microphone with a long cord attached to a small black box? He asked me to tape it under my blouse and we would put the box at my waist. Sounded great, but one problem. Did I mention how hot it was? It was incredibly hot in the city and it felt as though the air conditioning wasn’t running at all in this building! I was afraid if I were to break a sweat, I would be electrocuted. Seriously, I told him that! He stood back looking me over while I held the equipment. He suggested that I tape the microphone under my blouse and drop the cord down my pants and he would tape the box to my ankle. I went to the corner of the room and did just that. I was now wired for sound!

I’m now standing in the kitchen in front of several cameras, lights, John the director and Angie, sitting on the counter, just to watch. There were about 15 people in the area of the kitchen. I could see everyone in the room off the kitchen gathered around a laptop sized monitor, ready to watch.

I felt that nauseous feeling when I heard “Okay V, let’s get started….take a deep breath, smile, quiet on the set, and ACTION.”

I went to speak and my lip is now stuck to my top tooth. I just had to laugh. “CUT” …. Cynthia quickly came to my rescue with a tube of Vaseline. I rubbed it on my teeth and then hear “Places everyone”….

Once I started actually cooking, I became comfortable talking. I imagined – I was in my own kitchen with a friend who knew nothing about my recipe— and wanted to know each step. The attention to detail that my prep chef took was amazing— every ingredient was placed within reach and in the order I needed them. There were several times we would stop filming so that the camera could shoot me chopping or whisking an ingredient. I then had to pick up where I left off and continue talking. I had to ask a few times, “What did I just say or where were we?”

I was given final approval on how each dish was presented on-camera. For instance, I chose to have the shrimp ceviche served in a brandy glass instead of a bowl. It was a thrill to prepare my recipes and to see them plated the way I wanted.

It was incredible! Every cook’s dream is to have everything prepared, chopped, the ovens preheated and assistants everywhere to whisk away dirty dishes. I was constantly being told not to clean: “V, go sit down and we’ll call you when this is cleaned up.” Between videos, Cynthia and Brian were right there, fine tuning my hair and makeup. We actually got 3 videos completed before lunch, in spite of my novice status, we were definitely ahead of schedule. The production crew had food brought in, but I was pleased to see that a lot of the team opted to eat the dishes I had already prepared. I was thrilled that everyone, including the crew, were enjoying the meals I had just made. After lunch, we got busy and finished the last 2 videos.

Even though I felt like I was fumbling to find feet in this strange new environment, everyone treated me like a real celebrity chef, and they were every bit reassuring.

The shoot seemed to fly by! I was exhausted at the end of day and just wanted to sit down, relax and have a cold beer! We were invited to dinner with the crew, but after eating such a big lunch and being so tired, all I could think of was going back to our room to unwind. Everyone understood and probably wanted to do the same! We jumped in a cab and headed to our hotel, but were dropped a few blocks away mistakenly! It was serendipitous because Kathy was determined to find me a place to buy a cold beer to take back to my room! Colin and I ordered room service and just relaxed discussing each and every moment of the day. Colin thought it was very interesting and fun to watch a show get filmed, and he made some friends during the day. He was enlightened by the video techniques he saw during the shoot (and has put that knowledge to use with some of his school projects, since we returned!) Later, we ordered dessert to our room.

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