Yes, I know that Chanukah or Hanukkah started last night at sunset. We did celebrate by eating latkes, applesauce, beef brisket and steamed carrots that Julie made. All very delicious! I even gave a couple of gifts to Maya and Julie, we lit the menorah, sang a couple of songs and just enjoyed the start of the holiday season. People always ask why we celebrate Chanukah if we’re not Jewish. I just say, “Well, I’m not religious at all, but I do like celebrations.” Sure we celebrate Christmas, but it’s more about family getting together than celebrating Jesus’ birthday.
Anyway, I wanted to share a segment from a show I wrote and directed a couple of years ago called “Fresh From The Farmers Market.” We did a themed show on Chanukah and the host of the show did a cooking demo with the chef at the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco — where they made latkes and applesauce. We tried this recipe a couple of times and it’s pretty good. The market chef was super nice and I think she enjoyed recording the segment. After it was over, she came over and paid me a nice compliment by saying that she grew up in the film industry (her family members work in it) and she thought that I was incredibly organized and professional on the shoot. She added, “I’ve seen a lot of directors on sets of cooking shows and other TV shows, and you’re not like them. You bring no ego to the process and focus on the work. I wish more directors were like that, but many of them walk on a set like they are gods and it’s just so annoying because many of them aren’t that good at what they do. But you are.” I thanked her, and told her that the bare bones production budget of the show made it so I had to handle as much of the production solo as possible (that day, one of my camera operators couldn’t make it to the shoot, so I had to handle some of that work while trying to direct). She said, “Well, you kept your cool when things got frazzled.” Anyway, what you’re about to see isn’t going to win me any awards for production values, but I think given that it was produced on the cheap, it looks pretty good and the subject is interesting.
Have a look!
How to Make Latkes and Applesauce from Ted Asregadoo on Vimeo.
One thought on “Happy Chanukah!”
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I did like when you were working on that show, though it had it’s up days and down days, to be sure. It was a show I would likely have watched anyway, even without knowing the director so well. 😉 And yum, latkes!