In November of 2022, a production company contact me with a proposal to film a cooking show pilot the for a cooking show that reaches over 4 million households via various online platforms in 1Q 2023.
I was nervous and skeptical - I’d never cooked on film before. How would it go? would I be able to cook and talk to the camera at the same time and explain what I was doing? What should I expect from the studio experience? Was this company for real? Would I arrive to find out the “studio” was am empty warehouse? I didn’t know any of these answers, but I did a little research, contacting some of the chefs that had appeared previously on their platform, and I got some positive responses, so I thought I’d take a chance and see if I could do it.
I found out my friend Susan could come to NY at the same time I would be there! Super excited to have some support and encouragement and also just to hang out with my LIFELONG BUDDY!
Susan flew in to NY and got there a few hours ahead of me. As soon as I landed, I got a text about the accommodations that Dirk and I had booked. Susan is a respectable traveler, staying in nice places, and the text said: “Um, this place is a little bit sketchy - are you sure about this? Do you want to stay here? Do you want me to look for something else?”
What I hadn’t warned Susan about was that I am sort of a low budget traveler. I have stayed in some kind of sketchy places in Ft Lauderdale, and honestly, across the Eastern Seaboard on my road trips from Connecticut to Florida and back, so I couldn’t imagine this place in sweet little Rockville Center NY would be a match for those dens of iniquity that i had survived in in Lauderdale.
I arrived and checked it out… it was most definitely in the 2 star range, but it was after midnight and I was exhausted and not looking forward to relocating, And I convinced her to stay.
Next morning, woke up early and headed to the hotel breakfast. It was marginally OK, but there was hot coffee. We grabbed a coffee, poppy seed bagel and cream cheese and a tiny muffin (note to self - try to avoid poppy seeds before being on film), the hard boiled eggs were just too sketchy,
We ate, then refilled our paper cup coffees and headed out to the studio. Arrived about 9:00 found a municipal lot to park in so we wouldn’t have to feed a meter. The studio really didn’t open until 9:30.
We were there as soon as we could get in at 9:30. I brought in my supplies and got settled. Whitney did my hair and makeup while the camera crew set up.
