Cooking Show Field Producer
Working as a field producer on the pilot of the “Flavor Hunting” cooking show kept me busy buying ingredients, helping prep food, and making sure the crew didn’t get hungry. I also wrote the following press release.
Flavor Hunting Press Release
“It’s a wrap!”
Public television station WTTW from Chicago completed four days of shooting on the Big Island last week for the pilot of a new PBS cooking series. The series, tentatively called “Flavor Hunting,” will feature thirteen, thirty-minute episodes shot in various locations around the world. In the series, chef and host Craig Priebe hunts for the best, most extraordinary ingredients for his recipes, which he then prepares on camera.
On the Big Island, Priebe visited Volcano Island Honey in Hamakua where beekeeper Richard Spiegel produces creamy, white kiawe honey. Host and video crew donned protective beekeeping outfits for a look inside the hives. At a farmers market, Priebe examined a variety of locally grown tropical fruit while speaking with tropical fruit expert Ken Love. On a tour of Mera Pharmaceuticals at the Natural Energy Laboratory, Priebe learned the process for creating pure, chunky Kona Sea Salt by evaporating seawater pumped from a 2,000-foot depth. The outdoor cooking demonstrations took place on the shores of Keauhou Bay where Chef Priebe grilled Black Lava Steak and Lomi Lomi Pizza over a charcoal grill. Yes, it is possible to cook pizza on a grill. Chef Priebe should know since he ran a high-end pizza restaurant in Atlanta for seven years and has published a cookbook on the subject. Producers plan to shoot all the cooking segments outdoors.
WTTW Vice President of Program Development Fran Harth says the show will have a musical element too. “It’s a Rock and Roll cooking show,” says Harth since the chef is a musician and plans to jam with other musicians at the locations he visits. The show will have a youthful, fast-paced style. Harth says that the Big Island was chosen for the pilot program on account of its beauty, mild climate and because some of the tastiest salt and honey in the world is produced here. Three local video production professionals joined the four-member crew from Chicago-based Luminair Communications and Entertainment.
