SoBe it! 2010 - NBC, Tents, Bubbles & Q!

Hey there! It was day two of my time down here at the SoBe Food and Wine Festival and I woke up early to get ready for an appearance at the local NBC station here in Miami. The building is a bit of a ride from South Beach, but the complex is huge. Take a look at the news room ... this is only a teeny portion.

We walked past this bank of cubicles and newsroom activity then hung a right to reveal a pretty huge set for a news station. I immediately walked over to the weather green screen and did my best Mike Woods impersonation.

Mike Woods is my local weather guy in NYC and this whole week I've sung his praises to everyone that asked how I got down here without a hitch, considering the weather. My response? "Mike Woods told me the snow wasn't going to hit until mid morning, so I took the first flight out!". I always like the first flight out anyway because if it gets canceled, I have a full day to work with. If you follow Mike Woods on his twitter page, please, tweet him and tell him thanks for the good weather report and I'm trying out for his job in that picture! He'll know I'm joking.

Then over in the corner there was a group of gals hanging out and I just haaaaaaaad to get a picture! They have a stage show that is in town right now and besides being hilarious and great in-character actors, they really had the nuances of each character in the popular sitcom ... have you guessed it yet?
Yes, the Golden Girls! These ladies call themselves "The Golden Gays" ... hilarious and I love it! The show I was on started at 11am, but I wasn't on live until 1140ish. So, before we went live I stopped to take a picture with my on-set culinary team, Bianca and Nathan. Cool thing is we worked together last year at the festival aaaaaaand they aren't just a working team, but a team in life ... for 7 years. Cute!
Next thing you know it was go-time! Here I am talking to the host live about the festival, the Viva booth and my South Beach Chicken Wings available at the festival.
As soon as we were done the crew stormed the chicken so I backed up to let them at it and bumped into one of the nicest chefs around, Art Smith. He has such a zest for life and you can tell by just a quick hello and a smile. We were both recently featured in People Magazine talking about how we try to keep pounds off when eating is our gig. He looks grrrrrreat! We chatted quickly about food and life then I asked him if he'd take a pic for my blog and he obliged ...
After this we had to rush out to get back to South Beach so I could hand out the very wings I was promoting at the Grand Tasting. Traffic was bad, but I got back just in time for me to do what I call a Superman booth change and head right back out. They have little golf carts to take us to and from the hotel and the events and they all park right behind the venue so when I pulled up, I caught another friendly face about to leave...
I just love how Sandra Lee looks in white. Those are some of my favorite shows ... when the whole set is just pure white. Very clean and only a chick with a flawless body can pull off an all white outfit lol ... goooooo Sandy!! She's always been so sweet since I started and has said some pretty nice things to me in private moments. If you are a fan of hers, I'll have you know ... she's worthy of you and she's a sweetheart!

After we chatted, she sped off to the hotel and I walked on over to the Viva Booth. I took so many pictures with other people and forgot to get one of my own lol. I had fun though and after I was done at the booth I realized it was 4pm and all I'd had to eat all day was some strawberries from the fruit bowl I got with room service, a wing on the set of the NBC show and a wing at the Viva Booth. To say the least, I was hungry. Good news - I'm at a Food & Wine Festival ... Bad news - the tents closed at 4. That's the same time I was done working. So we rushed through the tent to see if we could find any one still serving food and I ran into some beef!!!
That's Chef Roy Mitchell of the Buckhead Beef Company. He saved my day!!! While everyone else was packing up because it was quitting time ... his crew was still churning out the juicy beef. Uhhhh I'd have a picture of it, but honestly I ate is so fast, I mean inhaled it!!! Thanks Roy!!!

Ok, after that, I headed back to the hotel for a nap and dinner. Yes, a nap ... I feel old. Teeheehee. All this activity makes you a bit tired though. After dinner, I headed out to one of the best parties of the weekend, Bubbles & Q. It's all about champagne and BBQ. What a combo, eh? I walked around a bit and bumped into two of my favorite ladies ...
That's Susie Fogelson, marketing wiz, judge on NFNS and most recently she's made several appearances in my living room when I play Cook or Be Cooked, the Food Network Wii video game. On the other side of me, Ingrid Hoffman. I was just down here a few weeks ago and as I was watching the news I caught a piece about a new food truck she has roaming the city. I emailed to give her a quick congrats and she invited me to check it out and chat with her about the festival when I returned. She's doing correspondent work for NBC, so today after I'm done serving wings I'm heading over to chat with her. I'll let you know when the piece runs. She is such a fun person to hang around with and again, very nice. Ok, then I turned around an bumped into the newest addition to Food Network ...
Marcela Valladolid! Mexican Made Easy is my new favorite show to watch. I wake up on Saturdays just to watch and I really like the authenticity of her recipes. Plus, my time in San Antonio, Texas primed me for a love of Mexican food. Tex-Mex for sure at first, but then after a few trips deep into the country ... I'm on board for it all! Marcela and I chatted real quick then I turned around in the same immediate area and bumped into an icon ...
Ok, I know this sounds cliche, but I wish I could jump back to my young self and say one day I'd meet the guy that hosted Double Dare. A few years ago I read his book, it's a biography and it is reeeeeally a good read. He's such a hard worker and reminds me of my dad, without sounding weird. Anyway, great guy and such a pleasure to meet and chat with him. Then things got even sweeter and I ran into Mr. and Mrs. Fondant ...
That's Geof and Mary Alice from Ace of Cakes. I feel like I know Mary Alice because we have a common friend in Jacob from Food Network Addict, so when I met her I yelled "I love you through Jacob" awkwaaaaard lol, but she got it. Ok, then the best part of the night ... as I was leaving the Bubbles & Q tents I bumped into someone I haven't seen in years ...
Now, maybe you're thinking it's Isiah Thomas I'm talking about ... and you are right, I haven't seen him in years. But the person I'm referring to is his son, Josh. When I worked at HOT 97, he got an internship with us and many of my coworkers ribbed him and some just acted like he had a charmed life and wasn't going to work as hard as he needed to. Well, they were all wrong and he turned out to be one of the best interns we had. Always on time and ready to work and learn. Fast forward to now and he has a record company and a artist he just signed to Universal Records in addition to a heavy schedule of touring as a DJ!!!! GOOOOOOOO JOSH!!!

Then, I went back to my room and fell asleep .. I'm headed now to the tents to hand out more wings today! If you are here, come on by to say hi!!! Please excuse the typos, I did this blog while getting ready. I'll clean it up later and take more pics to share!

SoBe it! IV

Hey there! I'm still enjoying my first-ever SoBe Wine and Food Festival! I'm recuperating in bed as I type this because boy was yesterday a long day! I have a cooking demo on Stage B today at 2:15 and I am nervous as all get out. That's a phrase my family uses, hope it translates teeheehee. Ok, so yesterday started with a call from my bloggin' buddy Jacob aka the Food Network Addict. He'd just arrived and made a bee line to the beach! He's covering the event on his blog and has some great flicks up. I had some extra passes because I'm here solo ... yes, solo. Which seems normal to me, but to everyone else it seems crazy? When people find out I'm here solo they get the look in their eyes like I'm a 6 year old that just scraped her knee lol. Like poooooor little girl, are you ok? Uhhhh, yup! Just fine! Most people here have a group of people with them and I've never been one for groups and honestly don't think my lifestyle and position calls for one. Right? Let's be real, I'm new and nothing has gotten too complicated yet. Even when it did in my radio career, I preferred the minimalist approach. So anyway, good thing about being here solo? I had those extra tickets to share!

After we linked up, we headed over to the hospitality suite at the Sagamore hotel for free drinks and there was even a little gift suite there. Funny thing is it was divided into His and Hers rooms, but I didn't notice from the start. Right when we walked in someone said something to me and Jacob like "Welcome, we have something for you, you go in here and Sunny this room is for you". Felt weird, like why can't he go into my room and vice versa? So, I go into the room I'm directed into and there are some real pretty shawls. I take one and exit. Just at this time Jacob exits the room he was directed to and me being nosey, I look in and see cigars and stuff. I take a step back to look at what the room says on the outside and realized I totally missed the sign that read "His", so then a glance at mine and it reads "Hers". Next thing out of my mouth was "So chicks don't smoke cigars? Is that what you guys are saying??", then Jacob said he was wondering what the separation was about too, thinking there were better things in the room I went to because I'm on the network. Needless to say, my dude is gonna be happy when I bring him home some cigars and I'll go ahead and enjoy one with him as well.

Here's Jacob, Lisa (Food Network co-worker) and a yummy drink that was missing only one thing ... a shot of vodka, so after the first sip and thinking it was alcoholic, I ordered a shot of "wodka" as I say and stirred it in.


Here's the view from the terrace at the event. Notice the band ... soon, I'd be in a band of my own ...


Look, I'm a gamer, but a PlayStation gamer. In fact, I won't buy a PS3 until God of War III comes out on it. So, here I am at an event that has a room set up with a Wii and everyone looks like they are having fun. I bowled a bit and liked it, but when they set up the band thingy, I LOVED it!!! I can't tell you if it was Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but what I can tell you is I loved it, will buy it as soon as I get home and will fight to the death every time I play to be the drummer. I had too much fun. Really. I just don't think I'll ever be able to do the fitness game though ... very funny to me that the problem with video games is that they keep us indoors and sedentary and their solution to the sloth is to make a workout video game. I'd rather take a walk ... after playing the drums to Livin' on a Prayer and then No Sleep Til' Brooklyn! Boy, can you tell ... I really liked that game!? Check me trying to getting my color-coded drum on!

That's the aforementioned shawl I'm rockin' too ... pretty color huh?

I pretty much hogged this thing until the end of the event once I discovered it, I'm such a kid. My apologies, but the gamers feel me. My PlayStation is all the way back home. I look forward to playing this and having arguments much like I envision a real band when one member doesn't hit the right notes lol.

Ok, then later on Gina Neely and I headed over to the tents for the BubbleQ party. Take a look at the scene...

Me, Ingrid Hoffman and Gina Neely

Red eyes and all, me, Ingrid, Pat and Gina Neely and my girl Sandra Lee. Lemme just say for the record, coolest chick around miss Sandra, coolest chick.

After that, we headed over to Paula's Poker Party, where I linked up with Guy and his crew, then we headed to Rachael's party, then from there many of us walked over to a private party where it seems we were the last to get in. I searched out Jacob and only got to chat to him for a few minutes when were were kindly, and I do say kindly, not rudely interrupted. Seems as though someone wanted Jacob gone, so I stood and watched my buddy Jacob get asked to leave because he was a blogger and this was to be a no-press event ... to that I said to the guy removing him ... "Well, I'm a blogger too, do I have to leave????" I tried for the blogger solidarity, but it didn't work. But like he says on his blog, the fact that he even got in lets you know what type of guy he is. He got the job done! Soon after, I left with a co-worker from the pr department and called it a night. Boy was I tired. 

Back at it today, check in later for more flicks if I get 'em ...