Tag Archive for 'stories'

SuperForester Craig Presents: Real Food, Real Kitchens!

heather published on May 15, 2011 in art, food and zeitgeist. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Food is very important to us here on SuperForest.org, so when SuperForester Craig contacted SuperForester Jackson about his new show, Real Food, Real Kitchens, we knew we had to help him get the word out. Since I’m one of the biggest foodies here at SF, I took on the task of finding out more about Craig and his show, posted about it on my blog, After the Harvest, and now (finally) I’m sharing it on SuperForest!

Real Food Real Kitchens – Season 1 Official Trailer from Real Food Real Kitchens on Vimeo.

Have you ever learned a recipe from someone in your family? Cooked up a storm with a friend? Shopped for ingredients at the market and then headed home to whip up a delicious dinner? Explored your cultural heritage through food?

Sometimes I feel like among us home cooks, cooking is a lost art. Even though we’re bombarded with Food Network shows and food blogs (my own included), how many of us actually cook from scratch? How many of us follow family recipes or spend an afternoon with Grandma in the kitchen?

Well, I think I’ve found the antidote.

Real Food Real Kitchens highlights home cooks who have a passion for food and family.

Real Food Real Kitchens tells the intimate story of a person, their family, and their culture, and how food creates an emotional bond that connects them all together. It’s not just another cooking show, but a lasting documentation of family traditions that are often lost.

I had a chance to connect with the show’s producer, Craig Chapman, to find out more about Real Food, Real Kitchens:

SuperForest (SF): What networks will air Real Food, Real Kitchens?

Craig Chapman (CC): I always imagined the show would probably fit in best on PBS, so I sent it out to many of the bigger PBS Stations around the country and Eight in Phoenix, AZ liked it. They will now be our representing PBS Station. They will also act as the distributor to PBS Stations around the country. I am so excited for it to begin airing. We are still working heavily on the show in post production right now.

SF: How did you get involved?

CC: I have been living in NYC for the last 14 years working as a Production Coordinator and Manager for networks like MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, People.com, and I also worked on several independent features. I was also an Editor at Seventeen Magazine and InTouch Weekly. I was between freelance jobs and had a couple weeks off before the next one was going to start and decided to use that time to create and develop several different TV show ideas. I had always wanted to produce my own show and make that leap forward. Real Food Real Kitchens was one of those shows I thought about for a long time and of all the shows I created in those two weeks, RFRK seemed to make the most sense. I love shows that tell the stories of different people from around the world and I think a great connection between people is food. I was sick of watching all of the celebrity cooking shows on TV so, about 6 months later, I saved up some money and shot a pilot in Brooklyn, NY.

SF: What inspires you to do this?

CC: My inspiration for film and TV creation is that I have always been a creative person since I was young. I started publishing my first punk rock zine when I was 15, started a small record label and by the time I was 17 I toured the US with a band on my label. I was always a DIY kind of guy. I love the struggle, the energy and the passion. Working for larger companies was great because it taught me as I got older how and where to invest and spend money in creative projects and how to find the money to get them done. Not to mention everyone is impressed when you say you work for MTV. My inspiration now is when we go out on a shoot and I sit down with a guest on the show and really get to know a person on an intimate level that I would have probably never met in my lifetime. It really is amazing how food and the memories of food can bring up so much emotion inside of a person. It’s proven to me that food isn’t just something you have to eat to stay alive but something that is a part of life.

SF: Do you have any signature dishes or family recipes of your own?

CC: This is a funny question! Everyone assumes that because I produce a cooking show that I am a big foodie and I am actually not. I have been a vegetarian for the past 25 years so most of what we shoot for the show is food I can’t eat anyway. But the crew insures me that it is some amazing stuff! Imagine having a home cooked meal be a part of your day at work! My parents sort of threw in the towel when I told them as a child I no longer was going to eat meat and I had to teach myself to cook. These days you will find me eating lots of salads, soup, sandwiches, and lots of snacking. I eat probably 6 times a day, anything that is light and easy, I’m always in a rush. If I was to cook for a date, I would make a salad and pasta dish of some sort, simple and easy, and to drink, an Orangina.

For more information on Real Food Real Kitchens, you can check out their website, or visit their Facebook Page and become a fan!

Thanks Craig for your time and energy – you are motivating me to get in the kitchen and make some real food! If you have any updates on RFRK, please feel free to leave them in the comments of this post!

Yours Forever Grateful for Real Food,

SuperForester Heather

*All photos courtesy of Real Food, Real Kitchens

Awesome Blog Saves The World! (Part Four)

jackson published on October 3, 2009 in art and zeitgeist. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

The adventures of the ladies of Awesome Blog continues!…

Here are parts, ONE, TWO, and THREE.

picture-10(image via johnlund.com)

Awesome Blog was now a year old, and was read all over. The girls had been amazed to receive emails from all over the world with suggestions for things that could go on Awesome Blog. They had asked people all over to join in the quest for the happy green planet, by starting Awesome Blogs of their own.

So, what exactly are we waiting for? is what they had asked for a while, but the answer had always been the same. You’ll know it when you see it, the girl would say with a wink.
So they wrote for Awesome Blog. They captured the world as a grand adventure, as a place of golden opportunity, and they shared this vision with the anyone who wanted to read it.

The ladies of Awesome Blog were editing a short piece on the school’s newly installed solar panels when an email came in.
I wonder what that could be? thought they all.

Ladies, said the girl, gather round. This is what we’ve been waiting for. This is Step Three.
And she showed them the screen.

Hello Ladies of Awesome Blog!
My name is Jackson SuperForest, and I run a blog of my own.

It seems that we are fellow superheroes in the epic fight against sadness, anger, and negativity.
I and my fellow SuperForesty Superheroes have also decided that we are the environment, and we offer your our partnership, that we may better spread the word.

With our strengths combined, we can make even more people happy, and who knows, with enough happy people maybe big things could happen?
With Love, Respect, and Admiration… Jackson SuperForest.

Step Three ladies, she said with a smirk, is for all the Awesome Blogs to join hands, and get to work.
SuperForest is an Awesome Blog, and Awesome Blog is a SuperForest.

Their readers can be our readers and we can share information and experience. When everybody shares, everybody wins.
And the girls all smiled at each other and they knew that this was true.

For their constant exposure to happiness had transformed them, and they felt like they were on their way to saving the environment, which was themselves.
The next day, Awesome Blog wrote about SuperForest, and SuperForest wrote about Awesome Blog.

And both blogs found new and interested readers. New discussions began. New information was shared. New ideas were created and these led to newer ideas, and newer ideas on top.
Now there were two of them. Two happy little blogs in the world wide web. Each of them spreading happiness.

In no time at all, there were four blogs all putting only happy things on them. Then there were eight. Then there were sixteen. Then thirty two.
And the idea spread and spread.

The environment is a small thing, it is yourself. You can save it by treating the people and things around you with love and respect, and by sharing that love and respect online so that other people may see it and be inspired to pass it along.

It was a happy time for the girls, and it was a happy time for the world. People from every continent were reading each others blogs, and getting into debates, sharing new ideas, arguing about which was best in life. It was a very happy time for all.

And the ladies of Awesome Blog had a meeting. They said, what then is Step Four, oh fearless leader, of the trip to happy green planet?
Now we get to have the most fun of all, she said. We have our lovely blog in place, and we have people who read it.

Now we get to make things. And remake things. Now we get to remake ourselves…

(Continued in Part Five!)