# Casting a Television Pilot



## bluebuck73 (Oct 7, 2005)

Hello All,

I'm not a spammer here. I posted in one other topic. I'm a producer in Los Angeles looking to cast a television pilot. We're looking a for a young up and coming chef. We're trying to think outside the box in regards to casting and that's why I'm here on the message boards. Any help you could give would be much appreciated.


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## rivitman (Jul 23, 2004)

You are beating the "young up and coming chef" thing to death.

How about a middle aged guy that worked his arse off, toiling for years and years in relative obscurity to earn his reputation, instead of all this flash in the pan bollocks?

The REAL up and coming young cooks are being worked like galley slaves right now, and doing it without complaint, without fanfare, without face time and groupies.

Go, go to a hotel kitchen, a busy restaurant, a big catering operation. Look over in the corner. Find the guy tournee'ing cases of spuds. Putting out plate after perfect plate all night, with machine like consistency. Well into his twelfth or thirteenth consecutive working hour. He might be your guy.

But likely you will seek out the guy that gets a big plate, puts two tiny bits on it, plays connect the dots with sauce and beatify him as the culinary second coming. IF he is photogenic that is.

You guys in the media and entetainment business have it so wrong about us cooks, what we do, why we do it, and who we are.


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## pjmomrunner (Jun 24, 2005)

Unh...I guess it depends on what you call young, but I'm not sure the young are even represented on the Food Network, nevermind overrepresented. Who are you watching Rivitman? There are some young women in their "kinda sorta homemade" color-coordinated kitchen or their retro-modern quickie kitchen, but the serious chefs are middle agers.

Personally, I think your audience would go for a chef from the hood. Seriously. My teenagers are the ones who watch cooking shows in my house and they would definitely get into watching a hip-hop intro to an ethnic cooking show with a guy with tattoos, wearing low-slung jeans with his chef coat and a bandana saying, "Ah-ight?" Foshizzle.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Up and coming, what does that mean? You don't even get good until you're 10 years into the business. Skills take time to develop.


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## rivitman (Jul 23, 2004)

_ "Who are you watching Rivitman?"_

Not Rocco DeSpirito, I'll tell you that.

The last thing we need is another one of him.

As an aside, the entire food network has gone right in the dumper. What is on there now is so stupid and uninformative as to be laughable. 40$ a day? bleh. Roker on the road? GAG!.

Give me reruns of Julia and jaques, give me the twenty + years old Keith Floyd show, 'Floyd on food'.

I like Emeril. Emeril can cook. Emeril's background speaks of an expert chef. I'm way beyond tired of Emeril's TV persona.

I'd rather watch the surveilance cameras placed in any on of his restaurant kitchens.

And if I never saw Bobby Flay again, I'd never notice.


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## botanique (Mar 23, 2005)

You guys make me smile. I wake up, 0445, can't sleep, slip out of bed so my toss and turns don't wake my husband... get online and have to stifle giggles hand over mouth -- my husband probably thinks I have an online affair going  

I happen to watch the food network. For me, its noise in the background and entertainment. I DO like Rachel, though I don't "cook like her" -- however her personality gives me a lift. Paula has so much energy, she cracks me up -- I admire her for what she has done, but I don't "cook like her" either. There are other cooks/characters on there as well that I enjoy, and every once in a while I do get some good info as I walk through the family room and pause in front of the tv. Of course, there are some that I have to turn off because its like nails on a chalkboard! BUT who am I to talk??????? Actually, I am reviewing a book right now from someone with a show so I have been watching a bit more... jury's still out on that one.

Back to the original topic at hand here -- I don't know what network you are from bucky, but I know this 35 year old former botanist/cook/photographer/mildly intelligent member of the community isn't looking for young blood when I turn on the tube for advice about kitchen creations (although that "naked chef" sure is a kick in the pants). You know who my favorite is? Mario -- he's someone I'd love to share a bottle of wine with, light that kitchen fire, cook up a storm and gab with until 0200. 

I agree that perhaps you should take a few field trips into some restaurant / hotel kitchens and see what really goes on. But watch out, the adrenaline from the fire pit may give you a woody -- and your creative focus will flame up and the residual alchohol will leave you with a production hangover. :smoking: 

I'm so bad.... LOL


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## mikeb (Jun 29, 2004)

The food network sucks. The only shows that are any good are those that cover actual restaurants. I can't stand watching Rachel Ray, Jamie Oliver, or any of those type shows... Iron Chef America is a joke too.


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## botanique (Mar 23, 2005)

Geeeeeeeeez! What side of the stove did you wake up on this morning??? ;-)


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## gogs (Oct 8, 2005)

Hi Chefs

Have to agree must cookery shows in Britain are all gameshows with bells on. Any decent chef like Alistair Little (I know he has now retired from the trade), Roux Brothers, etc are shunted by "Ready steady cook" where we have guest uninterested in food having 2 celebrity chef cook for them, why?
Even Gordon Ramsay has sold out to the Stardom and the millions with shows where he does nothing except curse people for fun, amusing for a few minutes but where is the food????

This just encourages more young chefs to think they are chefs as soon as the put on there first pressed chef's jacket. 20 years it has took me to get this far and i still don't think I'm ready, 


but we have a saying here everyones a chef except the chef!

Gogs the real Chef! :chef:


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## katbalou (Nov 21, 2001)

can anyone picture the kitchen b***ch from "kitchen confidential"  
i'm perfect for the part!!! i wonder if i knew mr. bourdain in my youth. 
can't quite recall all the foggy memories.
kat


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## rivitman (Jul 23, 2004)

The thing that makes Bourdain appealing is that he never falsified himself to anyone. He never hesitated to tell the truth about himself, and even in his TV shows, while exercising a lot of bravado, seems somewhat sheepishly embarassed by the level of notariety he has acheived. He's made his own faults and imperfections work for him somehow.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Here I'll give some real input here. If you want chefs go to where chefs work. Don't go to some fancy trendy restaurant, go to a top notch hotel like the Peabody, or the Peninsula, or the Four Seasons. Start in the morning and watch the pastry department, then watch the cooks prep for the night banquets, then watch the chefs come in and kick out banquets for 300, 225, 40, 75, and cover line emergencies for the patio buffet, the grill, fine dining restaurant, and bar, skimming the stock and checking in the late delivery at the same time... all this while stepping over the Hobart guy who has been tinkering with the Groen since 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

I bet you hear some Gordon Ramsey kitchen mouth there.


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Bluebuck,
Don't look any further. I am your person. I'm new and up and coming. I am signed with a modeling agency here in town but will cancel upon your request. I own my own joint(bakery). Run totally to the contrary of all other places. Very upscale product. PLENTY of kitchen DRAMA!!!! The HAPPIEST associates ever. Have never been inside the box. Mon and Pop label run by couple with very different ideas. Maybe, picture the Osbournes in the pastry business. I have plenty of off time to shoot. Minimal writer(frozen twinkies).
Business in upscale part of town... three break-ins in 14 months  uh? probably need seperate trailers for the misses and myself. We love whatever network you're going to pitch to. Give me an address so I can shoot you out some headshots and a resume.
Caio
Panini


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## botanique (Mar 23, 2005)

Lol Lol Lol Rotflmao


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## bluebuck73 (Oct 7, 2005)

and that's what happens when thinking out of a box means posting on a message board...


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

There goes that twitch again  I guess some things will never leave you


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Bluebuck73,
Please explain your responce to my post. I thought I had a good premis. If you read between the lines I was proposeing a show based on family business. Not a chef who uses corporations, private investores and other sources of capital. Find someone who risks everything in life and follow the family progress. In case you haven't noticed, corp.s and monopolies are taking over our industry. The stats of individuals opening an eating establishments is about 90 failure and 10 success. I probably should not have used the Osbournes but Orange County Choppers.
There was not one untruth in my post. You really think posting here is going outside the box? Did you learn anything from the posts? If you read between the lines, I think you'll find that most of those entertainers turn food hosts are insulting. The food channel is not a source of education, but entertainment.(no problem with that, I ewnjoy it).
I just assumed your going reality. It sells. If so, I'm reading from chefs, keep it real.
If it's the twinkies, I'm flexible


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

I have just the right person for the job


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)




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## jim berman (Oct 28, 1999)

Live and learn :crazy:


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Kuan,
Have you SEEM me???? HAVE you seen my staff????? We're all 10's!!!!
Please, TV has no more room for middle aged blondes. She is inside the box, right?
PS, I've dropped buckie. I think I'm going to shoot a pilot myself. Care to be involved?


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## markv (May 16, 2003)

Panini: You're absolutely right.

I'll take her off your hands for ya.

I know that's big of me but hey, I'm that kind of guy  

Mark


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Yeah she's inside the box, all her ingredients come from inside a box! 

You know, I have an idea. CHEFSWAP!


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## rivitman (Jul 23, 2004)

Hollywood and the media think out of the box all the time. The problem is they come up with the same tired rehash of their pre-supposed "reality".

The reality for most cooks and chefs is entirly different from what you obviously believe or have been lead to believe.

Don't believe? I pulled 11 hours of heavy banquet prep today, and I feel like iv'e been run over by a freight train. This is day 7 of eleven scheduald days. And no, I'm not getting rich either. Nor famous. The owner doesn't even know my name.

I do all this for reasons you can't possibly fathom in your universe.


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

You know, I have an idea. CHEFSWAP![/QUOTE]

Kuan,
good idea!
I'm a little concerned that you might not get along with my wife as I will with yours :crazy:


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