Land of the Rising TV Star

It seems like just yesterday, it was a cool night a few weeks ago, the first day of March. On this night two beautiful people left their mark on New York and national television, not to mention the food world.

First up was gorgeous TV chef Giada DeLaurentiis, who made her long awaited (for me at least) appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. Her food demonstration during the show was superb (like I can remember what the hell she made), and the sultry culinary craftess held up well with the witty antics of host Dave, plus treated us to some cute side banter with Sarah Jessica Parker.

If you still don't know who she is, you may remember her from my wildly popular profile on sexy TV chefs in August of 2004. Since then, she's now hosting a new show "Behind the Bash", and her "Chefography-Giada" premiered a couple of weeks ago.
I've been a huge fan of hers from the beginning, and now it seems other people are jumping on the bandwagon. One site, for instance has enacted nothing less than a "Giada Watch". She's getting a lot of shit for her big head, but hey, that's how I spent high school. I don't think she has a big head anyway. Girls snicker as they tell me I've "grown into" mine. I have to admit though, "It's a Giada Disaster" has to be the one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Next up, but only an hour earlier, was yet another of my appearances on "Mezamahi TV", Japan's version of the "Today Show", with an estimated viewing audience of approximately 20 million people every morning. Each week they broadcast a live segment from NYC entitled "Oh My NY". Actually it's live over there, and like 5pm here (time zones, whattya gonna do?).
This particular week's segment centered on a food battle between Iron Chefs Mario Batali and Masaharu Morimoto. The scene where this epic battle would take place was not in Kitchen Stadium, but on the street in the newest and coolest Restaurant Row, at the intersection of 16st and 10th avenue, near the meatpacking district.

In this intersection, two power-house restaurants face each other from across the street. One is the new attempt at four-stardom for Molto Mario, Del Posto. Of course, Batali should be happy with the three granted him by Frank Bruni, which is the most you can hope for in an Italian restaurant in the city (c'mon, what was Mario thinking?). The (in some places) weird and all around ridiculously over-priced menu should have been a red flag, but all that aside, it's just something about senor orange clogs that pisses me off.

If you haven't guessed already, I'm a huge fan of Masaharu Morimoto. I loved the original Iron Chef program on Japanese TV (the American version blows). Morimoto was the last great Iron Chef on that show. Anyway, across the street from the live piano player and hotel lobby feel of Del Posto lies the cleverly named Morimoto, the new venture by the aforementioned Japanese great. The clean lines inside just scream "Sleek", "Sex" and "Japan". This is point is clearly illustrated in this exclusive-never before seen picture of the bathroom.



I was playing the role of one of his waiters, something I didn't realize until I went inside the restaurant and saw that all his staff was wearing the same all black getup that I was. I also imagined the staff wondering why they weren't asked to do this and giving me looks.

Morimoto rocks, and he kind of reprimanded me during a rehearsal for shaking the tray I was holding a little. It was freezing outside and I really couldn't control it. In the end product, my hands did get quite a few seconds of air time I must say.






The whole thing was fun, and I've come out of my shell at least in the way of doing this 'extra' thing lately. The hours are long and pay is shit for now of course, so I need to get into SAG soon. I'm actually getting work on a fairly regular basis now. I was even background in a pilot that shot this past St. Patrick's Day for Warner Bros.! [I was upscale hip club-goer]. You get to meet a lot of people (read-beautiful girls) on these sets and sometimes the chatter that erupts between shots (lots of waiting), is hilarious, actually a bit like the tv show "Extras". That show is awesome by the way (original 'office' guy, hello?). But it's pretty cool to see how these things are produced.





Today's Musical Selection: Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Soul to Squeeze"