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Gregg Wallace & me |
A little voice, deep inside inside had always squeaked something at me
and I couldn't really hear what she was saying until it surfaced by
chance in the summer when I did my first styling gig with Bill Granger.
After years of watching and loving Jamie, Nigella, (even Ramsay &
Delia), Stein, Rachel Khoo and Saturday Kitchen, I am somehow landing a
few jobs behind the scenes as a food stylist, as a home ec person, as a
prop stylist and even being the actual talent myself on camera! ha.
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Gregg Wallace, me & Chris |
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Left over tomatoes from shoot |
I went to work with Gregg Wallace, (to be aired on BBC1). I was quite
nervous as I heard he had a reputation for being rather vocal. And yes,
he was. He challenged me as soon as he met me but because I knew what I
was doing and I had everything ready for him we became friends on set
and I really enjoyed working with him and listening to his outrageous
jokes. Uyen! Like you and me, he kept chuckling as he'd throw his heavy
arms around my shoulder. Weeks later, I was even called back to work on
the remainder of the shoot which I was very pleased about because I had
the opportunity to go to the beach in England which was something I had
wanted to do all summer.
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I had to make 650 tripled fried chips, cut with an apple corer. Took me 13 hours! |
Then I was lucky enough to work with Raymond Blanc. The set, my kitchen!
I spent a whole week organising and propping my kitchen and then food
styling as well as working with Raymond in front of camera (to be aired
BBC2, Winter/ Spring). It was an absolute honour to work with one of the
finest figures in food.
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Raymond Blanc & me |
The next thing I knew, I was packing my little suitcase and going to
Thomasina Miers's house to do some recipe testing with her for her
forthcoming book. That was a great day, making curries, ceviche and
other yummy Asian food. The best thing she came up with was a fragrant
pork noodle salad with roasted rice powder, loads of limes, lime leaves
and chillies - it was like eating an Asian spaghetti bolognese - totally
amazing! She was so cool and we gossiped while we were chopping onions
and playing with ingredients. I loved working with her. She is a woman I
totally look up to and if I weren't just about the same age as her I
could say I aspire to be someone like her, but I am just about the same
age as her and I do aspire to be like her: loved by her husband, soon to
be mother of two, a successful business woman, author of many books,
living in a beautiful house. Tommi then asked me to work as her stylist
on a TV pilot (hopefully for Channel 4).
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