Television tapings hard, fun journies
Two Albany chefs will appear on upcoming ‘Chef Boot Camp’ episodes
Kizzy Williams, the chef-owner of Allie B’s Cozy Kitchen in Albany, spent two years in talks to be on a Food Network show before finally shooting an episode in January.
For Shahila “Shy” Abbasi, head chef at Mcgeary’s Pub, also in Albany, the period between initial contact and being on set for the same show was about five weeks — but then she had to wait almost a year and a half to see herself on TV.
They say it was among the hardest things they’ve ever had to do professionally. And they would welcome an invite to return to Food Network for more shows.
Both women are part of the debut season of “Chef Boot Camp,” which premiered last week on Food Network. Abbasi will be featured on Thursday’s episode. Williams will be two weeks later, on April 29. Original episodes air at 10 p.m., with at least two repeats, according to Food Network’s website.
“I think it happened so fast because they had another woman lined up, she fell through, and they needed somebody quickly,” said Abbasi, who has run the kitchen at Mcgeary’s since owner Tess Collins took over the downtown pub in September 2010. (She previously worked for Collins at the Lark Tavern in Albany prior to its closing after a fire in May of that year.) Abbasi said she filmed for four days, in New Jersey and Manhattan, in November 2019.
The series is hosted by Cliff Crooks, culinary director of Manhattan-based Esquared Hospitality, which owns multiple dining spots under its BLT Restaurant Group brand. A Food Network description says the series “takes a deep dive into one of the most critical and essential elements of restaurants everywhere — the chefs running the kitchen. … (E)ach episode … will put a trio of underperforming chefs through a grueling series of challenges to test their real-world culinary skills and fitness for the role.”
According to Abbasi, 45, and Wil
liams, 42, episodes include segments of chefs cooking a signature dish for Crooks, working a station during service at a BLT restaurant, a mystery-box cooking challenge and a heart-toheart involving a significant person in a chef ’s restaurant. For Abbasi that was Collins, as Mcgeary’s owner; Williams’ wife, Holly Francisco-williams, who manages Allie B’s, is on her episode.
Both said the shoot at a BLT restaurant taxed every bit of their cooking skills. They’re assigned a station, instructed verbally for 30 minutes — but no demonstrations — by the staffer who usually runs that station, then expected to perform the job under the gaze of cameras and glare of lights.
“I’d say that’s the hardest I’ve ever worked in the business,” said Abbasi, who, after a decadeplus of churning out food at a place across the street from the 2,800-seat Palace Theatre, thought she knew what high pressure was like.
“That’s the only part of the show that’s ‘real’,’” she said of the restaurant segment. “There are no retakes. You just go. The moment they start rolling, there are cameras in your face, a producer is under the camera asking you questions, people are screaming at you, and it’s a kitchen you never worked in, making dishes you don’t know. It’s crazy. When it’s busy like that, I’m usually the one doing the screaming.”
Williams, who seven years ago founded the small, communityfocused Allie B’s, where the emphasis is on takeout soul food, had never worked a traditional restaurant kitchen line, with chefs responsible for different stations and dishes.
“That was a real challenge,” Williams said. “To have 10 tickets in front of you that you have to get out in five minutes while everybody’s yelling — it was definitely a lot of hard work. But it was right where I wanted to be. I cooked some right, and I burned some up.”
In previews of upcoming episodes shown during the series debut, Crooks tells Williams, “The chicken’s dead. You don’t have to beat it up.” He tells Abbasi, “I have such faith in you, but you’re aggravating me.”
The show seems to play up Abbasi’s naturally sparky and voluble personality; the middle word in the title of her episode, called “Sloppy, Snarky and Silent,” refers to her, and Food Network’s description says “she has an attitude problem that could mean the end of her run.” Abbasi and Collins have had great fun with the depiction on social media and even commissioned a custom T-shirt with a photo of Collins throttling a knife-wielding Abbasi above the words, “Her attitude sucks.”
“It’s reality TV,” Abbasi said. “They’re going to make me look how they make me look. I’m not bothered by it at all.”
Said Williams, “All in all it was a great opportunity. It reinforced what I knew. It’s great to go out and find people creating new dishes, but at Allie B’s is where you go to find history, to taste the culture in the food, and that’s exactly what I should be doing.”
Said Abbasi, “It really was so much fun. They paid me, but I’d have done it for free.”