For those who enjoyed my first video — which recapped my cooking demo debut at Macy’s Union Square San Francisco on June 11, 2011 — here’s an “extras” reel to kick back with.
In this second video, you’ll get to know me a little better, as I tell you about my family, how I got my start in food writing, and how I became known as the Food Gal.
For those who missed my debut cooking demo in person on June 11, 2011 at Macy’s Union Square San Francisco, please enjoy this abbreviated video of it.
My thanks to my husband, aka Meat Boy, who filmed this; and to Brett Yasukawa, a most talented Bay Area chef who also has mad skills as an editor, who helped put this video together.
If you were in the vicinity of San Jose’s Bernal Park last night, you might have noticed a line — a long line — of hungry folks.
That’s because the WOW Truck was parked there at E. Hedding St. at N. 7th St. for business of a rather exciting kind.
The food truck, which serves up Filipino fare, was being filmed by a crew from the Cooking Channel’s “Eat St.,” which is here in the Bay Area to put togeter a future episode that also will star a couple more kitchens on wheels, including San Francisco’s Le Truc.
WOW Truck, co-owner Tim Luym, passed out free pineapple fritters (turon) to folks who braved the long wait in line to purchase his popular silogs ($7) — plates of garlic fried rice heaped with your choice of meat (everything from corned beef to pork sausage to SPAM), as well as pickled green papaya salad and an over-easy, cage-free egg.
Patrons also were chowing down on the truck’s tacos ($4) and burritos ($7.50) garnished with calamansi pico de gallo. And nobody could resist the signature adobo wings (three for $5).
Periodically, the camera crew would come by to zoom in on folks taking bites of their food, especially if they happened to be young, attractive women, if you know what I mean. Hey, it’s TV, right?
It was an unbelievable standing room-only crowd a couple of Saturday afternoons ago at Macy’s Union Square San Francisco, when I did my first cooking demo ever.
Chef Earl Shaddix of All-Clad was on hand to act as host and assistant, when I demonstrated how to make my late-Mom’s one and only tomato beef chow mein.
The event was crazy fun. It was a blast. And it was downright exhausting. I was so pooped that I joked to some of my cookbook-author friends afterward that I don’t know how they do these all the time without keeling over.
The day was a total whirlwind. The event started at 2 p.m., but I got there two hours earlier in order to make two batches of the dish ahead of time to ensure there was plenty for samples and to prep for the third batch, which I would make in front of the audience. From the second I got there, it was non-stop chopping, peeling, stirring and talking — until I finally left the store at 4 p.m. to go back home. Whew!
It’s not every day that I get kissed on the hand by “Top Chef”’s resident Italian charmer, Chef Fabio Viviani — while simultaneously getting kissed on the cheek by fellow hunky “Top Chef” alum, Ryan Scott.
Yes, Tuesday was that kind of heart-fluttering day.
It was all in a scorching afternoon’s work when the Bravo TV “Top Chef Tour,” which has been winding its way across the country, rolled into San Jose for two days of madcap fun inside a tent set up behind the AT&T store on Stevens Creek Blvd. Although this is the fourth year that contestants have gone on the road like this, it was the first time that the tour stopped in San Jose.
Yours truly was asked to judge one of the “Quick-Fire”-style battles between Viviani, who owns two restaurants in the Los Angeles-area, Firenze Osteria and Cafe Firenze, and San Francisco’s Scott, who used his “Top Chef” earnings to start a catering company, Ryan Scott 2 Go, and a mobile sandwich truck, 3 Sum Eats. Look for him to open his newest venture in a month — Brunch Drunk Love (how cute is that?), a brunch-only restaurant that will be open only on weekends at the Bruno’s site in the Mission District.
Those signs of affection from Viviani and Scott were humorous attempts to butter up the judge. But being the professional that I am — ahem — I did not let any of that sway me.