Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Chefs Vs. City This Sunday!

Hope you are enjoying your week so far, I'm in Chicago for "up fronts", which is an industry name for basically a big sales meeting. The networks present shows and talent to advertisers. I've seen actors do it for network shows and had no idea I'd ever be involved in one. Par for the course, eh? I love new stuff and with this new leg of my career, I am really enjoying the change of pace. I don't mind swapping hosting concerts with 60,000 screaming hip hop fans for a business meeting in a hotel conference room. Only difference is the clothes I'm wearing. Can't really do jeans and a t-shirt at the up fronts. So, I'll share some behind the scenes stuff if it isn't too stuffy for pictures. Ok, on the subject at hand ... the new season of Chefs Vs. City!!

A few weeks back I shared some behind the scenes deets in my Weakened Warriors blog post about a Chefs Vs. City episode I taped with Claire Robinson, Chef Aaron Sanchez and Chris Cosentino. Check the post if you have time because there are plenty of pictures and a decent preview of the show this weekend.

Claire was fun to work with, but lemme tell you ... we chatted before we shot the show and I found out she'd had no less than 3 cars totalled while she was at the wheel in her native Tennessee. Unfortunately, I let my NJ driver's license expire and never renewed because I live in New York now and love the train and how green it makes me feel to take it. I also have a car-sickness thing when I'm not driving. That being said, I went into this taping knowing for a person that gets car sick, I had a day ahead of me as a passenger riding with the car crusher! So tune in this weekend to see if we survive the streets of Miami victoriously.

Here she is from my vantage point driving us to victory or defeat ... no spoilers here :-). You can find out which team won this weekend!
Catch the All Star Miami episode of Chefs Vs. City at 10PM. TiVo or DVR if you can't stay up on a school night ... I still call them that even though I don't go to school anymore :-). Then, check back here Monday and I'll have some behind the scenes flicks that I can't show now, plus some stories about the day. It's hard not telling!

11 comments:

NikiTheo said...

Ahh! You'r in my hometown! I hope you're enjoying it here in Chicago, it's gorgeous out this week. Mother nature obviously wanted to impress you. :)
Can't wait to see Chef vs/ City!

ZaynaMarie said...

Hey Sunny! It was great meeting you at the Chicago upfront! I was one of the many people you met, and actually work in the Scripps office here. I LOVE your blog and the great info/pics that come with it. I'm working on a food blog right now, and loving it. I'm still learning and hope it comes together! Come back to Chicago soon and have a great weekend!

jen @ one curly fry said...

I saw the commercial for Chef vs City last week and set my DVR so I wouldn't forget!

The Popovers were good! They went very well with my soup!!

Linda said...

Hey Sunny!
I watched ya'll on Chefs vs. City this morning. I taped it overnight cause I am an in-the-bed-early girl on a night before work day. I could not believe that you didn't go for the gusto on the stew that ya'll had to consume with those habenero peppers in it! I was sure that you would have went there..:) Poor Claire, she had to do it in this episode and in the previous one with the other woman in NYC. Smart woman, you.. Eating those fritters or whatever they were instead of that hot stew.

Anyway, sorry that ya'll lost this one to Aaron and Chris. I think that they probably win more episodes than lose because it is their show and they know how to beat the clock better than their competitors do; however, I haven't been watching this show much, with the exception of the 2 shows that Claire was in. I am not that much of a lover of reality shows as a rule. I have grown very tired of all of the reality shows that TV seems to be saturated with on every network that I watch. Anyway, FN showed both of the shows with Claire in them this past weekend, and I taped the 1st one thinking that you were in that one. I didn't find out that you weren't until I watched it on Sunday morning.. Duh!

What a session it was with the drink making session! I was so sure that you and Claire would win that one hands down because you make so many different drinks and cocktails on your show, and you seem to be very talented in that field. The drinks were very appealing to the eye, especially with all of the smoke rising from them. Did they taste as good as they looked? :)

I could relate to what you were saying to Claire about the coconut crushing too! Just do the minimum amount of crushing to get the results, right? Ya'll may have made it out of there first if that would have happened, although if I remember correctly, Aaron and Chris got there long before the two of you did, so maybe not.

See next post! Who knew there was a limit to what I could say in a reply? Grrrr!!

Until next time!
Linda in NC

Linda said...

Second part of my post:

OMG! The goats.. LOL.. I almost died from laughter watching all 4 of you chase those goats around. Chris didn't play fair with picking them up and moving them with muscle. That was just so unfair! They should have made the rules so that they could not use their "manly" musculature to manipulate the goats when they weren't in competition with other males who could do the same. I could not imagine that either of you could have hefted those goats up and moved them as easily as they did. How did that goat's milk taste, for real? Was it a good taste or really nasty?

The fish gutting.. Can you say Ewwww! OMG!! what HUGE freaking fish they were! Again, 2 men with lots of muscle vs. 2 women with not so much muscle, and they were able to pick that fish up and run with it and both of you had to move it together. That had to be awkward with the coordination.

Oh yeah, you didn't look as if you were getting nauseated or car sick in the back of that SUV.. :) You looked like you were rocking the directions and screaming with the best of 'em! Claire was driving so fast! It looked as if she was flying through Miami with no trouble at all.. Were you hurling out the back window when the camera wasn't panned on you, LOL?

Anyway, I loved watching the two of you compete. I watch both of your shows every weekend, and I catch your shows on re-runs during the week, so I am a definite fan! I am waiting for Claire to have her own blog like you do so that I can chat with her as well. How about putting a bug in her ear, Sunny? I even wrote to her agent that comes up when I Googled her name and asked them about a blog for her, and I got this nice e-mail back that said she didn't have a blog! Ha! I knew that already!

Thanks for telling us about this show. It was really interesting to see some of the places that people can visit in Miami. If I ever go there again, I will definitely avoid the habenero shop.. Hot, HOT stuff and me don't get along well. I would probably check out that produce stand though, because I LOVE all of that tropical fruit.

I went through the Miami Airport once on my way to Puerto Rico, and I was really bummed that I could not bring back the mangoes, papayas, and avocado's that were so plentiful down there. Have you ever been to Puerto Rico? If not, you should try to get there in some of your travels if you still do a lot of that. It is such an incredible place to visit.

I can't wait to see your new show that you mentioned about cakes and desserts. I know that I will learn a LOT from you. I have already learned about egg white separation in my pound cakes, and it really does make a HUGE difference in the height and texture of the cake, so thank you so much for that tidbit!

Until next time,
Linda in NC

alexlind said...

Hi Sunny!

Who produces Cvs.C?

jen @ one curly fry said...

Girl...you had me CRACKING up! Seriously. I had so much fun watching the Chef vs City episode.

The best part was when you guys were trying to herd the goats. That was classic.

LOVED the drinks Ms. Bartender! LOL. Are you going to whip up Sangria for the F&W party?! ;)

Sunny Anderson said...

nikitheo, i'm comin back to your hood this weekend! love chicago!

zaynamarie, it was nice meeting you too! i am so proud of myself for dodging the dessert table!! much success with your food blog!

jen, yaaay glad you liked the popovers! baked goods are my downfall!

lindahensens. so glad you watched! so lemme give you the down low ... I did actually eat the hot soup. we agreed before the show that i would eat the hot stuff because it's nothing for me. so i started on the soup and then i think the fritters got to be too much for claire and she pushed me aside to finish the fritters. well, she hadn't even had half of the fritters, so i ate half and left the other half for her. that's when you see her going to eat the fritters. so we both did half and i don't know how they edited it to make it not look that way, but they cut plenty of other things out too. doesn't really matter cuz we lost! lol. i really had fun though because i've watched these types of shows from home and always wanted to compete! now about the coconut, lol ... she was a madwoman with that machete! lol. you are right in your assessment, time was lost. we didn't get a chance to taste the drinks, but the owner did and he told claire ours tasted better. :-) we'll take that tiny victory. next post ...

Sunny Anderson said...

linda hensens, fyi i have a limit too on my characters for posting, so it's hard to fit it all in. glad i'm not the only one :-). ok ... the goats. they were so cute. i really had a hard time chasing them, they were so cute and worried and fast! so about the milking, again a switcheroo of the taping. at first i milked and claire held, then she milked and i held and i let the goat go. so then we went back to the way we'd started. the way they edited it looked like we started when i let the goat go. crazy right? i tell ya, i feel like a reality show contestant! lol. and yeah as soon as we saw the guys lifting goats we were a bit deflated, but what can ya do? i think she hoisted that fish like a tough guy, so i give it to her! and the goat's milk was good. just warm and grassy. really.

ok for the fish, it was fun and they never showed claire cutting portions. she actually did like 4 or 5 in a row that were perfect! i feel bad they gave me all the credit. i am so glad you caught the show! and to answer the other question, yup ... i've been to puerto rico and in fact i have a p.r. themed cooking for real on the way! hope you like it and it reminds you of your time there!

NikiTheo said...

Really, you'll be in Chicago? I'm sorry! It's supposed to rain bad all weekend!! :(
Even though the weather stinks half the time, Chicago is great, isn't it?
Are you coming for work of fun?

Geli Girl said...

I hope you got to go to Hot Doug's when you were in Chicago. I lived there for ten years! But now am back in The D. And speaking of "The D" that's where I grew up and that is where I live now! National Coney just posted a pic of your on their facebook!!! That is one thing I def. missed when I lived in Chicago: Nationals, cheese fries from Nationals, and hani's!!!!!