The Real Husbands of Hollywood

“Cut,” yells the director. 

“Oy” mutters the producer as he surveys the disappointing scene results. 

I had to agree with him. How hard could it be for a vampire on "Trueblood" to bite into my specially baked, beating-heart soufflé, get a mouthful of blood, and then roll around on a stunt mattress making love afterwards? This is the 6th take of this scene and there are still 2 new ones to get through. It’s going to be a long night. 

Well, actually it is extremely hard to make a successful movie or TV show. It demands everyone’s specialized skills, creativity and especially their ‘blood’, sweat, and tears. Yet this is probably the most fun and exciting industry anyone could choose to enter. Small wonder so many aspire to be part of it’s magic. 

Propmaster putting a bow on a pony on the Real Husbands of Hollywood

My part in all this? I am an on-screen food stylist, and for the last 30 years I have lived and worked in Los Angeles helping make thousands of feature films and series. I create fictional food for fantasy characters to eat in make believe settings. I’m the chef and technician who not only crafts the dishes to look tantalizing before the camera, but also makes them in such a way that the actors will find them appealing and consume them with gusto. 

Recently I created a beautiful and enticing feast for a backyard barbeque at Nick Cannon’s house for “The Real Husbands of Hollywood”. Later in the season we created a gourmet dinner for Kevin Hart and his on screen wife. We prepared grilled prawns with a cilantro bean salad and roasted tomato vinaigrette. For the same scene we made a seared salmon filet with a mustard shallot sauce, on garlic red potato mash, and seared baby vegetables. Here are a few pictures from our adventures on the set of "The Real Husbands of Hollywood," as well as the recipes for delicious food we prepared for the principal actors. Follow us and we will unlock the mysteries that lie behind the trials and tribulations of a Hollywood food stylist... 

During shooting the scene of "The Baby Shower of The Century" the actors
played pass the toilet paper roll!

Seared salmon with mustard shallot sauce,

baby vegetables, and garlic red potato mash
Garlic Dill Red Potato Mash
4 lbs. (cubed) red potatoes
8-10 garlic cloves cut in half
½ Cup cream
3 Tbs. Butter
1Tsp. chopped dill

Bil the potatoes with garlic until soft. Drain well in colander. Pour potato mixture in a bowl and add butter, cream, dill, salt and pepper. Mash by hand with a potato masher, leaving the mixture fairly chunky. 

Seared Salmon

1 lb. Pacific Salmon, cut into 2 pieces of the same size

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

¼ Cup white wine

1 Tbs. Dijon

½ Tsp. chopped shallots and garlic

½  Tsp. chopped tarragon

Salt and Pepper

Lavender micro greens

Heat a large non-stick pan over high heat with olive oil. Liberally season salmon with salt and pepper. Place fish, flesh side down in pan and reduce heat to low. After the fish is seared and a golden color, turn it over carefully, and add the wine, garlic, shallots, tarragon, and mustard and allow to cook about 7 minutes or until well browned and cooked about three quarters of the way through until just barely pink in the center.Put a nice oval size shape of warm red potato mash and circle it with the reduced mustard sauce. Place the seared salmon on the mash and decoratively surround it with seared baby vegetables. Take lavender micro greens and delicately place on top of the salmon and serve.

Hey Everyone,

This is Wendy's blog contributor, Sophie. Every week we will be choosing a great restaurant to feature on the Feature Food Blog. The first restaurant we've chosen is La Cevicheria here in Los Angeles. I'm a huge ceviche fan and this place is absolutely fantastic! It's simplicity at its best! The menu features all kinds of amazing fish dishes, but the main attraction is the ceviche. The Bloody Clam ceviche has gained a cult following and is credited to putting La Cevicheria on Jonathan Gold's Best Restaurant list. The clams are drenched with a dark juice that tastes, as Jonathan Gold perfectly describes, "like shellfish fortified with strong beef bouillon."
La Cevicheria is located on Pico Boulevard in Mid-City, sandwiched in-between auto-body repair shops. The building itself is nondescript, don't blink, you'll miss it! Once you get inside you're greeted by wonderful aromas and friendly faces. The owner is usually there during lunch time chatting up the customers, making everyone feel right at home. Just about anything you try at La Cevicheria is sure to impress!

Click on the "Sophie's Choice" icon to learn more about this restaurant, and check back with us next week for another tasty feature!