UKTVFood - Market Kitchen
A week or so ago Optomen Television contacted me (via the restaurant) to see if i’d like to do a TV show called Market Kitchen, specifically to talk about coffee offerings in restaurants. I accepted of course!
So, yesterday I woke up in a hotel near Hyde Park after flying up to London the evening before. I took the Air South West flight (with he prop driven plane) and it was far more interesting than the jet ones.
A taxi picked me up and took me to Optomen studios which turns out to be the same place that they film The F Word and various other Gordon Ramsey shows. I was dumped in the green room adjacent to Tana Ramsey getting her makeup done and I read my book for an hour or so.
Eventually I was called up to the studio where they had begun filming for the show.
Market Kitchen is filmed as if it is live - shaky cams etc. but actually isn’t, I quite like the style of it personally, the show lasts an hour. The whole show is set in a mock cafe with brick walls and lots of MK branded foods scattered around he place.
In the peace I was involved in I talked to Tana Ramsey & Matt Tebbing about coffee along with two other guests, William Sitwell (editor of Waitrose Food Illustrated) and Bryn Williams (a chef from a posh Welsh restaurant). The five of us sat around a large wooden table and informally chatted about coffee. We did only one take and I think it went fairly well although there were a couple of things I would have liked to have said but didn’t get the chance.
The best bit however came afterwards when I was leaving…. I offered my services for future shows and they asked me if i’d like to make a bloody mary for a feature in their next show on hangover cures! So with the days events reorganised I ended up making my first cocktail on TV! Stood behind a basic bar, I mixed the drink in front of Matt and Tana who then (along with a diner) tried the drink. I think the bloody mary went well (it certainly tasted good) and it was a great end to the day.
As far as i’m aware the BM demo will be on the show following the coffee one (which is due to screen this Wednesday the 2nd May, 8pm UKTV Food) so fingers crossed I come across alright!
I also made a friend in William Sitwell who promised to do a little feature in his Evening Standard column on seasonal cocktails, mentioning my Mary Martini which we are selling at Fifteen Cornwall. Hopefully i’ll speak to him some other time about doing something in WFI as well.
