Giuliana & Chef Alekka

Those who know me well know how I am addicted to reality T.V. Back in May I was asked if I wanted to be a part of a new reality series called “Giuliana and Bill”.  I did not hesitate to say “YES!!”

The premise was that she wanted to learn how to cook a traditional Italian dish for her husband and a couple of friends.  I was incredibly excited and after meeting with the producers, I knew it was going to be a good time.

Two days after the meeting, I found myself in the kitchen of The Wooden Spoon, a cooking supply store where I freelance teaching cooking classes. I have been on T.V before, but this was way different. The shoot consisted of two producers, a director, a sound guy, two camera operators and some other people running around with clipboards and head-sets.  We had a limited amount of time to do this because Giuliana had to catch a plane to L.A. to shoot for the E! network.

Before G. (this is what she is called by her friends–so somehow I feel qualified to do so as well) arrived, the director talked to me about how things would go down. They wanted a totally unrehearsed, unscripted segment. “Just teach her how to cook, like one of your students” were his exact words. So that is what I did. The first time I met her was when they started rolling the tape; no pre-introduction or anything!

All I can say is that we had a great time together. The Giuliana you see on T.V. is her real personality. She knows she cannot cook and I knew it too, in the first five minutes of filming. We had to stop taping only TWICE, once because the film ran out and another time because we were all laughing too much.

Be sure to check out the segment : Cooking Up Trouble which will air Wednesday September 16 on the Style Network! Check out the show schedule.

Happy Cooking!

Chef Alekka