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<< Back to Top Secret Recipes TV Appearances
MTV News
July 1993 |
This is one of the coolest shows the book was featured on.
When my publicist originally called and said that MTV wanted to do a piece for their Music News and Week in Rock I was like, "Okay, MTV's great, but what's that got to do with cooking?" Apparently the producers considered this book to be a quirky, pop culture-type item that fit nicely into their coverage. Let's do it.
To shoot the package I head out to MTV's studio near Times Square in Manhattan and straight to the employee kitchen. There I meet MTV reporter Alison Stewart, who is wearing a shirt from the Charlie Brown collection. The kitchen had been decked out with boxes, packages and bags full of junk food and other goodies from the book. Wires are everywhere and last-minute adjustments are being thrown on the lights rigged to the ceiling. Alison tells me she had been toiling in the kitchen the night before preparing some goodies for the piece, and would show me the results of her efforts later.
We start the spot by just rapping about the book and discussing what methods I use to figure out a clone recipe (photo 1). I notice the camera guy's zooming in and out and getting all tilted and crazy, just what I would expect from an MTV guy. I tell Alison that to make the recipes I usually start by checking out the ingredients on the label of the product, then make some initial batches, and hone in on the taste and texture. You know, trial and error. Alison asks me, "Did you have to go to a culinary institute to learn how to do this."
"No, are you kidding?" I say. "They wouldn't teach this in a culinary institute. How to make Twinkies?"
Then we start to make the book's version of a Twinkie. We make the molds for the cake from foil wrapped around a spice bottle. We mix up the ingredients. Then I show Alison how to make three holes in the bottom of the Twinkie for the filling (photo 3). Here we're using a chopstick. We squeeze some filling goo into the Twinkie with a pastry bag, and it's done.
Prefaced by saying she's not much of a cook, Alison goes to get the clone Twinkies that she made the night before. Check these babies out! Looks like a couple of sick burritos from the Chernobyl combo plate (photo 5).
Next, it's time for the taste-tests. From somewhere they rustle up three interns and throw blindfolds on them (photo 4). As always, the game is to distinguish between the real and fake products; this time it's Cracker Jacks and Twinkies. Out of the three contestants, one guesses right, two are fooled.
The piece runs about 2.5 minutes long and the editing is MTV-style -- video effects, quick cuts, jerky moves. The music kicks -- a little Blind Melon to open, a funky interlude, and for the taste-tests...U2's "Better than the Real Thing." Dig it, baby!
At the end, Alison takes a big bite from a homemade Twinkie and practically chokes.
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