I love our little Cultural Weekends here in New Mexico. I mean yes, the whole point of CW's has been to experience and see things we've never before, and yet somehow every weekend the new things we experience and see have consistently FAR EXCEEDED our expectations. We're like, ?!!?!!! From little things like the dancing poodle and the sopaipillas to big things like the bat flight, meeting online friends and the chance run-in with tarantulas, every little New Mexican adventures have just been incredible.

This weekend so far has been no exception, even as we stick to Santa Fe. For Sunday brunch we finally went to the famed Chocolate Maven after visiting there several times after work for their spicy chile hot chocolate. We were afraid the wait would be long at this popular joint, but the largish group of people milling around outside wasn't because the place was packed, but because the Food Network was inside filming a segment near the front door. Everyone approaching was asked to wait until they finished.

Giada filming a segment at the Chocolate Maven for her new show, coming in 2007.

Ever watch Everyd@y Italian? I've only seen it a couple of times myself. I'm not sure if it's one of the popular shows on the FoodNetwork but I do know that the host of the show is such a HOTTIE. Icy green eyes, an Audrey Hepburn nose, and rows and rows of perfect teeth. I'm in love! And she was really nice. They were shooting her going through the front door for the "first time," and after about the 20th entrance she yelled nicely to the director, "Can we let these people come in and eat now??"

The waiters and pastry chefs, the manager and owner of the place were all giggly about having the Food Network show up (apparently it was very last minute. The network called Friday to say they were going to be there today to tape), and everyone was excited at the prospect of being on camera.

By pure luck Duck and I got seated at a table near her's, where they would film her ordering hot chocolate and eating homemade granola. The owner said to me, "You might be on camera, will that be OK?" and I was like YEAH HUH!!

It was so interesting to watch the filming process. They had a little discussion as to how the waiter would suggest to her the Mayan Chile Hot Chocolate when she ordered a regular hot chocolate, which would make a nice segue into what a chile hot chocolate was and at the same time, show that that was the bistro's signature drink. She wanted to keep the waiter's explanation of it simple and quick.

"Just say something like, 'It has a lot of spices and comes with a kick', otherwise my audience will just tune out." EEENteresting.

She had a little sip of the hot chocolate (licked her lips afterwards and kept drinking more after the camera stopped rolling), and then a bowl of granola topped with fruit, and after shooting her commentary on that a couple of times, they had the waiters bring around a new mug of hot chocolate and a new bowl of granola for their close-up glamour shots.

Duck and I were sitting sort of behind her table. There were a couple of shots where they had the waiter sweep in from behind me (to serve her the hot chocolate and then the granola) so that with any luck, my frontside and Duck's backside will be on TV!!!! Duck's right earlobe is gonna be famous!

And yes I did manage to appreciate what I was eating in between bites of ogling Giada's movie-star profile. I had Cottage Cakes (pancakes made from less flour and more cottage cheese, and lemon rinds) and Duck had a sandwich consisting of ham, green apples and gruyere. Holy crap it was good. And then to top it all off, at one point Giada -- yes we're on a first-name basis -- turned around, we locked eyes, I grinned, she flashed a gorgeous toothy smile and winked.

HEE HEE HEE PRETTY LADY WINK AT ME!

After they finished filming the eating part, they were going to have Giada get up from her table with the camera following her out of the room. Which meant that I was going to be in the shot again heh heh!

But just at that moment when she swept behind me, I uncontrollably decided to PICK MY NOSE. They did another take, and again I pathologically HAD to touch my nose. And so naturally the camera man decided he didn't want to follow her out the room. She would get up, and instead of following, he would train the camera up and just focus on the pastry chefs working in the adjacent room (you can sort of see the work area behind the glass wall behind where Giada's sitting).

They did that take a couple of times and then the director decided she should wave at the pastry guys as she got up, and they would wave back. Good idea. Except the two pastry chefs were like, actually busy making stuff and couldn't really pay 100% attention to what was going on in the next room. They couldn't get that shot. At least not linearly. She would wave, but then only one of the chefs would see and wave back. Or she would wave, and this time the OTHER chef would wave. Or she would wave, and both of them would ignore her. Ha ha!

So they had to shoot them waving in a separate shot, after she was long gone. They waved to the director, but someone in the editing room will make it look as if they were waving to her.

After our meal, we were at the counter paying for some desserts for dinner at Scout's tonight (the adventures never end!). They were shooting Giada's entrance into Chocolate Maven*again* but before the camera rolled, the camera man leaned over to us and said "Thank you for putting up with us, we really appreciate it." Are you kidding?! It was the most awesome Sunday morning we've ever had!

So this new show is called something like Weekend Getaways with Giada. They're filming a few more restaurants in Santa Fe, and then will head to NYC, Honolulu, Chicago, Cabo, in that order. Not exactly geographically logical, but it seems like fun. Who wouldn't like to travel and eat for a living??

The show doesn't air until sometime in January 2007, so STAY TUNED!

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Filed Under: Travel | Santa Fe