Room for Seconds: Check Please! Bay Area

July 28, 2006

The second season of the Bay Area's local restaurant show has been ordered up, and this is how I promo'd it over at Bay Area Bites:

I know it's an occupational hazard, but it's really not fair that at 2:00 this afternoon I was craving ribs, vegan shakes, homemade tortillas, gnocchi, and mazto ball soup. All at once. (Hey, here's a culinary conundrum -- how do you manage to crave both ribs AND vegan at the same time?) I blame it on the fact that I've been hanging around the set of Check Please! Bay Area this week.

That's right, the second and brand new season of Check Please, Bay Area is being cooked up even as I type. This year, we're dishing up more episodes featuring a passel of new restaurants to salivate over. There's such a rockin' vibe coming off the set that I can't wait for these babies to hit the airwaves. I can't reveal too much, but I think this is going to be an awesome season.

Also, they are still looking for people to be on the show, so if you like to duke it out over duck, fight about fingerlings, or just generally chew (and swallow) the fat, grab the nearest internet connection and bang out an application.

The Executive Producer has me unofficially scouting potential talent. I know she specifically would love to have a big vegetarian biker dude with lots of piercings, so if you answer that description, you know where to go. Come to think of it, it's a good excuse for me to head on over to Zeitgeist and toss back a piney pint of Mt. Tam pale while encouraging the bikers there that their tattooes would be perfect for the show.

This season is already a lot more exciting than last because I'm spending more time on set. See, in addition to my editorial duties for the show, I'm going to have my own Check, Please! Bay Area blog where I'll be reporting on behind-the-scenes stuff. Up to now, I've only criticized television as the viewer, but now I get to see how it's all put together -- from makeup to pick-up. The control room -- where I spend most of my day -- is like fedging Mission Control at NASA! Buttons, buttons, so many buttons.

Since PBS cooking shows are what got me interested in food and cooking, being on any KQED set is a major trip. I know Jacques' current set has to be around somewhere, and I do plan on finding it. Or him.

Ooh! And Wendy assured me that after last year's oversight, my name will actually be in the credits this year. Name in books? Sure. Name on television? That's big a first for me. Let's just hope they spell "Lucianovic" correctly.