Faux Food TV?

In this line of work, we never know what the next phone call will bring. While I was in Iowa over the weekend (what, isn’t that where everyone goes?) I received a call from the owner of a restaurant in Warminster who wanted to see about having a camera crew out to his establishment on Tuesday, 11/20. Seems that the renowned chef Georges Perrier, along with his Le Bec-Fin team would be cooking up a special tasting menu that evening, and the owner wanted coverage.

Having grown up in Warminster, the concept of fine dining there was completely unnatural. When I lived there in the 1970’s, the boldest restaurant opening was a Burger King, and I’m not at all kidding about that. There was also the Sambo’s restaurant, until that racist name put that chain out of business. That place became a Denny’s.

Augusto’s of Madison Avenue is a Zagat-rated restaurant located, surprisingly, on Madison Ave., between Street Road and County Line Rd. Augusto, the owner, once worked for Chef Perrrier (there were four Chefs at the restaurant last night, so everyone is calling everyone else ‘Chef’) at Le Bec-Fin, so this was a pretty special evening for him. The tasting menu was limited to one seating, so fewer than 100 people got to enjoy the classic French cooking that is the Le Bec-Fin specialty.

So I’m not a French cooking guy, what with snails, sweetbread, and squab on the tasting menu. From the individual choice perspective, it was good to see that foie gras was on the menu. Nonetheless, I could still appreciate the great discipline that it takes to work in the kitchen. It’s really hot, there’s not much room, it’s loud and there all kinds of pressure. All of the staff, whether the regular Augusto’s team or the Le Bec-Fin crew, were completely professional and disciplined. And, according to every diner, they were incredibly skilled as well.

Chef Perrier was a celebrity on duty. He did some cooking, but he also did a lot of schmoozing. Twice, he opened champagne bottles using a saber. Apparently, that evokes some pre-French Revolution grandness. It seemed like he knew a lot of the patrons, who seemed to have at least one bottle of wine per person.

I don’t yet know what Augusto will want to do with the video, but I’ll make sure to link to it here.

Interview with Rebecca Mead

We routinely do podcast interviews with industry people for the 4EVER Group's web site. Earlier this year, a book was released about the wedding industry. Called “One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding,” the book was an unreasonable and scathing look at the wedding industry. The author went on a book tour, but I was successful in landing an interview with her in October, at her NY office. You can download the interview here: http://www.4evergroup.org/podcast_page.shtml

In our conversation, her question was “why do we even need a wedding industry”. That’s the kind of question most often asked in college dorm rooms, at 3am, after a whole lot of beer, when you’re going to solve all of the world’s problems.

Please go and download the interview, which runs about 35 minutes, for a glimpse into the mind of the author.

Bridal Consultants Conference

This week, I’ve been in Orlando, representing The 4EVER Group in the annual conference of the Association of Bridal Consultants. This is the third time that I’ve been a part of the conference, and the first time since 2003. With about 400 consultants attending, it’s a great show.

I was included in much of the agenda, along with having a booth at their trade show. They do feed the attendees quite well, I’ll give them that. The conference was also held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, which is where we’re holding our own conference in January. That made it a great opportunity to see what the hotel was like, in action.

Because I’ve been involved with the ABC for so long, I knew quite a few attendees. The 4EVER Group had a couple of different DVD’s to share with the consultants, aimed at promoting professional videography. A couple of hundred DVD’s got distributed during the show. I also made new contacts, which will help move the relationship, and our two trades, forward.

Like most conferences, this was a whirlwind affair. I left home about 5am on Sunday, because the trade show started at 1pm that day. After the show wrapped for the day, it was time to grab a quick dinner off property, before calling it a night. The trade show ran from 9:30am to 5pm on Monday, with an official breakfast and lunch included. I then had a dinner meeting with a sponsor for our conference, before getting back to email.

Yesterday, I caught the official breakfast before heading off to two other meetings. I got back just as lunch was being served (perfect timing, right?), which led to the roundtable discussion that I hosted. The conference wrapped up with an off-premises dinner event.

So I’m off to two more meetings today, over in the Tampa area. I fly home tonight, shoot a corporate video in NYC tomorrow, and then head off to Iowa on Saturday for a weekend presentation. It’s another full, well-rounded week.