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<< Back to Top Secret Recipes TV Appearances
Oprah
July 1997 |
For an author, this is the show. The Big One. The Grand Poobah of Daytime Talk. Oprah Winfrey's talk show has done more for book sales than practically all of the other talk shows combined.
Before we get to the show, I'll explain that pre-taped piece. In one of many pre-interviews for the show I was asked if I would accept a challenge to clone a random product picked by the producers. I took the challenge, and was soon on my way to the nearest T.G.I. Friday's to investigate the chain's very popular Jack Daniel's Grill Glaze -- a sauce that I had not yet tasted. After a few days I called back to the Oprah Show and reported that I had figured out how to clone the stuff (click here for the TSR version of the glaze). I also mentioned that I had used one of my "special" techniques to determine the ingredients. Once the producer heard that, he decided to send a crew out to Vegas to the restaurant to tape a recreation for the show.
So, one hot summer morning at about 11:00, I met the Oprah crew at the local T.G.I. Friday's along with a handful of Fridays corporate reps who were refreshingly cooperative, and receptive to the great publicity opportunity. They let us do pretty much whatever we wanted and then treated us all to a free lunch. Very cool, considering we had shut down an entire section of the restaurant for our taping, during the weekday rush hour.
My job was to show the viewers at home some techniques for creating clones of brand-name products, including the exact method I used at that very restaurant only days ago. It was a little uncomfortable to run into the same waitress I had previously lied to. We joked about the incident, laughed a little, then she punched me in the stomach, threw me to the ground and stepped on my face (exaggeration alert). For the piece, we used someone else -- the best-dressed Friday's waitress with the most pieces of flair.
Of the many hours we taped, this is what made it on the air: I talk about how the restaurants are not likely to let you go snooping around in back kitchens to watch the preparation of the food, so we have to come up with another way to figure out a recipe. I attached a cotton ball to my arm with medical tape (photo 3). Then, pointing to the cotton and calling upon finely-honed acting skills, I tell the waitress that I'd just seen a doctor for severe allergy problems (photo 4). I say the doctor had asked me to keep a list of everything I eat for the next few days. Then I tell her I'm thinking about ordering the ribs that are brushed with the sweet Jack Daniel's glaze, but I need to know all of the ingredients. She goes back into the kitchen as if to ask one of the cooks for a list of ingredients (as did the waitress when I used this scam for real). She then comes out to tell me what's in the sauce, and I smirk, dorkishly, into the camera.
Next, I demonstrate how, when cloning recipes, you may want to order several different items so that you can take most of them home in doggy bags for later analysis. Since I'm am most interested in cloning the glaze, I ask for an extra serving of the stuff and pour the extra into a resealable plastic bag that I just happened to have in my pocket (photo 5).
I tell the waitress that I'm full and that the rest of the food can be boxed up (photo 6).
At this point the segment producer asks me to look into the camera and give another sly, mischievous smirk. Having previously tapped into all of my intense and compelling acting ability, I find that the shallow well of raw talent is bone dry, and come up with nothing but a blank gaze leading to nervous laughter. He uses it.
The short taped piece is shown at the top of the Oprah segment as my introduction, and then we come live to the set (photo 7). It's me and Oprah in the studio, and she says something like, "Todd, the actor." Translated: "Todd the bad actor."
We talk a little about the usual stuff, such as how I got the idea for the books and what type of recipes can be found in the books. Then we meet another guest that the show has flown in just for this segment. His name is Don Gorsky, and his claim to fame is that he has eaten 2 Big Macs a day for the last 25 years (photo 8). But wait. Before you whip out the calculator I'll just tell you now; that comes to a total of 14,837 Big Macs! The guy even freezes them in the winter in case the weather prevents him from getting to McDonald's. When I hear this, all I can say is, "You're the man!" What I'm thinking is, "You've got to be kidding!" For real or not, he's the one who will be taste-testing our Big Mac clone.
We give Don the first hamburger, he tastes it and says, "pretty good." Then we give him the second burger, and his low-key response is much the same. We ask if he can tell which is the real Big Mac. He says, "Well I'm not a connoisseur of food, as you can tell."
Oprah responds, "Yes, but you are a connoisseur of Big Macs." The audience laughs.
Big Mac Don takes a wild guess, and just so happens to pick the right burger. We ask him what he thinks of the recipe and he says it was pretty close, "I'd eat that." The audience chuckles.
Our next taste test is for the Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pizza clone. Up from the audience comes a man and woman. I accidentally reveal which is the clone since I mention that the one I made has pepperoni on it. Doh! They easily guess which is which and Oprah asks the woman how she knows. "Because I'm a college student," she says.
Next comes the taste test for California Pizza Kitchen Barbecue Chicken Pizza. Oprah brings up a couple of women to taste the real pizza and the clone and tell us which they feel is the homemade version.
The two start in on their slices and Oprah says, "Ooooh, I'm livin' vicariously through you."
See, Oprah could not eat any of the food we had there that day. She was on a diet preparing for an acting role in a movie later that year. She could only watch and salivate as audience members did all the tasting.
Knowing that Oprah could not eat the food we had prepared, I presented her with one of her favorite goodies -- a big ol' bag of Baked Lays Potato Chips. Looks like she digs the gift, eh (photo 13)?
After the break we move on to taste the Jack Daniel's Grill Glaze as it was prepared on some baby back ribs. A couple of audience members from Houston, Texas who called themselves "rib connoisseurs" came up to compare rib recipes (photo 14).
Unfortunately, the grocery store we went to for our cooking supplies did not have baby back ribs. So we used pork spareribs. That made it easy for the two to figure out which was which.
Finally, I was glad that it was Oprah's chance to do a little taste-testing herself. Should couldn't eat, but at least she could drink.
I gave her a glass of real Snapple Iced Tea and a clone. I explained that it's very easy to make this recipe with Lipton tea bags, some water, sugar and lemon.
Oprah takes a glass in each hand, closes her eyes and does an analysis (photo 15). She says, "So close I could not tell. Ooh, refreshing...really good!"
Unfortunately, time is running out on the show and we don't have a chance to get to the Snickers Bars, or the Oreo Cookies (photo 16) or the York Peppermint Patties, but at least the table was packed with plenty of goodies just in case.
Oprah goes to a commercial and says, When we come back we have a surprise for our audience. Hope y'all are hungry! We'll be right back."
When we come out of the break Oprah tells the audience that California Pizza Kitchen has a surprise. "There's pizza for everybody courtesy of California Pizza Kitchen. Come on out guys (photo 17)."
Out comes several C.P.K. waiters with dozens of boxes of pizza. They hand each audience member a whole pizza and the credits roll (photo 18).
It was a lot of work preparing all of that food, and I had very little sleep before the show (in fact I fell asleep in Oprah's chair during rehearsal). But the show went great and for the next several months I was getting e-mail from all over the world -- Amsterdam, Finland, Australia, Singapore -- as it aired in other countries.
It was amazing. |
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