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!

Weakened Warriors

"Warriors ... come out to plaaaaay-eeee-aaaaaaay!!!!" - Luther in the movie Warriors

That's what went down this weekend in Miami, some foodie warriors gathered to play and I can't tell you who came out on top yet, but I can share some pics and stuff. I'm talking about Chefs vs. City with hosts Chef Aaron Sanchez and Chef Chris Cosentino. Have you seen this show? I have and it's pretty entertaining, it's Amazing Race for foodies and like many of those types of shows I sit at home watching wondering how it would be to participate. I can tell you it was fun, and it was tough at the same time. If you haven't seen the show, the hosts travel from city to city and challenge another team of two in the city in various culinary skills and tasks. There are 5 stages of the race and at the end, the first team across the finish line wins. Someone along the way asked me "what do you win" and after a pause in which I realized I wouldn't get an Amazing Race payoff, all I could say was "braggin rights?" lol. Ready to meet my team mate? We've been paired before to make cookies or just plain hang out for a photo shoot, but we've never really worked-worked together ... ladies and gents ... I introduce you to Miss 5 Ingredient Fix herself ...
Claire Robinson! We went out to dinner the night before for wine and tapas and got to know each other better so we could formulate a strategy. That's us on the dock the morning of our race through the city. All smiles and ready to go.

Speaking of eating, boy was I happy to see a Jimmy John's on my walk through the area the hotel was located. There I was looking for a restaurant and fast food called my name. Not just any fast food though, pretty much one of the best sandwiches I've had on the road. I found it in Colorado while taping How'd That Get On My Plate? a couple of years ago and couldn't resist a repeat. We got it delivered to the set before by the actual manager of the store, but this time I got a chance to look at them menu and figure out what was to offer ...
I chose the Italian Night Club, but was close to getting the Billy Club. An enlarge click on the pic is worth it if you like to see how they bring flavor to a sandwich. Here's the guy that made my lunch, he totally thought I was crazy for taking his picture.
Ok, back to the weakened warriors, really proud of my play on words there lol. Here's the whole line up before we started the race.
Claire, Aaron, Me and Chris. All smiles and ready to go. I took a couple of pictures along the way, but to show them would give away the show challenges and that wouldn't be nice of me. I don't like spoiled eggs or spoiled TV, so no spoilers over here. I'll post the detailed pics a few minutes after it ends. It airs April 18th, but I'll give you a reminder before then. I can tell you by the end of the shoot/race we were alllll beat! Here's Aaron huggin a pillow and posing for fun.
He's really a funny guy and even though we were all playing against each other, guys vs. gals, we all had fun chatting and ribbin' each other as we ran around Miami. That was Friday all day and then Saturday I woke up feeling a bit stiff, but happy I had a workout the day before. Theresa came over to airbrush some life onto my face ...
You know how they say it's a small world, well Theresa worked with me last year when I was in Miami taping an episode of Next Food Network Star. Turns out she has night gig at the opera! Pretty cool. After she got me looking alive, I headed down to a conference room to do the interview that runs throughout the show.
The toughest part was speaking in present tense about something that happened the day before. Because the clips run during the show I can't say "When I saw the clue I thought", I have to say "I see the clue and I'm thinking blah blah blah". ... After a few notes to stop fidgeting with my hands because they were making noise while I was talking, I sat up straight and delivered some sound bites. I wonder if it's going to look like I'm outside and those buildings in the background will appear real. Here's a shot of the monitor ...
It only took an hour or so and I finished just in time for a walk around the hood again and the discovery of another new fast food place I'd never heard of... have you?
It was yummmmmy! Take a look at the grill inside ...
and another ... alotta chicken right?!

Check out the menu, again I looked like an idiot, but this time the girls behind the counter said "are you on TV?" and I said with pride ... "Yes, and I'll have yucca, black beans, key lime pie and oh yeah ... some chicken". Really nice to meet viewers when I'm not expecting to.
Well, I stocked up on curry mustard and guava bbq sauce at the condiment bar and headed back to my room to eat. Take a look at the spread...
Pretty crazy for a fast food spread. I left the bread, but the chicken was moist and flavorful, the sauces were yummy, the yucca soft, the black beans weren't too tight or too runny and the condiment bar had chopped onions, so I stocked up on them. Then for dessert the key lime pie was creamy and tart, but I stuffed it in my face right before I left for the airport. What a yummy weekend, that left me full and weakened. :-)

Speaking of Miami, if you haven't made plans yet and have time, check out SobeFest.com for deets on the upcoming Food & Wine Festival ... It's hard to find me on there, just know I'll be at the Burger Bash with a dessert offering and at the Grand Tasting tents everyday hanging out with Viva Towels giving away some small bites that make it easier to get closer to your food with Viva Towels. Sounds like a commercial, eh? Well, they didn't pay me for this specific post, but I do want you to visit the booth and meet me if you are headed down. Also, if you tweet, visit @VivaTowels and follow them, I'm sure they'll shadow and post pics during the festival.