I just got back from LA and it's way too late to recap the last three days, although I can tell you I had a fantastic time. Jude and her husband Greg were marvelous hosts, and working with her team at BNE was a great experience!
After a long day of shooting Wednesday, Jude treated us to a very special meal at a restaurant called Honey Pig in LA's Koreatown. Her friend, and fellow BNE producer Juliana recommended it, and it turned out to be a wonderful choice!
Anyway, I'm going to bed, but I wanted to post this very short film I captured with my iPhone. What you are seeing is pork belly, pumpkin, kim chi, bean shoots, garlic, and jalapeño all grilled and eaten wrapped in stick rice sheets. It was incredible!
I just wrapped up day one of my shoot with BNE in Los Angeles. It was a long, but fun day, and left me with a new appreciation for people that cook on TV.
This doesn't mean I'll stop making fun of them, but I do have a whole new level of respect.
My host Jude, the Co-Founder and Executive Producer at BNE, is a force of nature and a total joy to work with. She really took this rookie under her very pregnant wing and made me feel so comfortable and relaxed.
I'm not sure how I did, but she seemed to think it went well, so that's good enough for me. After the shoot she and her husband Greg took me (and her adorable son Hudson) to dinner at this great Mexican seafood joint called Mariscos Chente.
We had this huge whole grilled fish (snook) dish called pescado zarandeado. So good! I also had my first ever michelada (pictured here), which was a very refreshing (and huge) drink made with beer, lime, and a mildly spicy tomato juice.
I'll be back in San Francisco Thursday evening, and will give you an update then. By the way, I've been in San Francisco since 1983 and this is the first night I've ever spent in LA! See you soon.
The Eggs Benedict Florentine you see here was posted on my Twitter page during our trip down to the Santa Maria Inn. It was delicious, but it reminded me of my days, long, long ago, as a brunch cook dealing with the nightmare of the end-of-the-service broken hollandaise.
It's the ultimate Murphy's Law in the kitchen, the hollandaise is fine until you get down to those last few orders and then it "breaks." The egg and butter separate, and you are basically screwed.
As a young cook I remember feverishly whisking up a small, new batch of sauce as the rest of the table's food was going out. I don't remember when, but eventually someone showed me how to save a broken hollandaise, and my life has been significantly better since.
I was doing a little practice for my shoot tomorrow in LA with Brand New Entertainment, and was playing around with making and breaking a hollandaise sauce, so I decided to turn on the camera for a quick little demo. Enjoy!
I just got back from LA and it's way too late to recap the last three days, although I can tell you I had a fantastic time. Jude and her husband Greg were marvelous hosts, and working with her team at BNE was a great experience!
