Contact:
Danica Michels
KQED, (415) 553-2863

San Francisco, February 1, 2000 ... They chop, they blanch, they peel, they perfect — they work their fingers to the bone to make the star's work look easy. They are the unsung heroes of the cooking series. They are the back kitchen culinary staff.

Michael Laukert is the impeccable back kitchen supervisor for Season by Season. "The key is organization," he says. Each recipe that is prepared in front of the camera has duplicate dishes — known as "twins" or "seconds" — in different cooking stages in the back kitchen, to ensure that what is shown on camera is just right. A recipe for lamb shanks required the staff to prepare thirty-two different lamb shanks, in five different stages — from raw, to seasoned and seared, to fully cooked. "Nothing goes to waste," says Laukert. The delicious leftovers are served to the crew.

Laukert's familiarity with Michael Chiarello and his cooking style is a strong advantage when working under such intense conditions. "I've known Michael for almost 10 years," says Laukert, who worked with Chiarello at Tra Vigne, and is now the Director of Product Development for Chiarello's new company, NapaStyle. "It's much easier to anticipate changes if you know him, and know how he wants things done."

Amy Wilmoth, a back kitchen assistant, agrees. "Just when you're all ready, everything changes on a whim. But thanks to the professionalism of the staff, everything goes smoothly."

Always? "Well, the baking show was a little crazy," says Laukert. "See, in baking, you can't cut any corners. If the recipe says the dough has to sit 12 hours, then it has to sit 12 hours. One cookie needed a twin, and the one we made in back looked totally different. Luckily, the cookie that Michael prepared on camera turned out perfect, so we ended up not needing the twin. The irony is that it was the last day of shooting, we had been performing miracles for three and a half weeks, and suddenly I couldn't make a darn cookie."

For Chiarello, the word "family" involves everyone, whether at home or in the restaurant. Many of the back kitchen staff — which includes Susie Heller as Culinary Producer, Angie Spensieri as back kitchen coordinator, and David Shalleck as a back kitchen assistant — have come to this series having previously worked with Chiarello in other capacities. Wilmoth first knew him when she became his children's babysitter. She then began working at Tra Vigne, and is now a server at Gordon's House of Fine Eats in San Francisco, a restaurant in which Chiarello is a partner.

"Working on this series re-ignited the discipline of cooking for me," says Wilmoth. "It reminded me of how well a kitchen can run. You economize with your time as much as you can, and need to be prepared for quick changes. You prepare more of everything than you think you'll possibly need. And everyone's job is as important as the next person's."

Wilmoth reflects on how Chiarello's perfectionism translates to the back kitchen. "The seconds have to match the food that's on camera perfectly. Grill marks have to match up. The dicing has to be perfect. There can be no inconsistencies." On TV, Laukert points out, everything is shown in close-up — large and noticeable.

"Michael's recipes are very easy to follow," says Laukert. "The Tra Vigne cookbook is the first one I ever picked up and cooked from cover to cover, where the product came out looking like it was supposed to, just like the picture. Ordinary people at home will have a wonderful time cooking these recipes."

The back kitchen chefs put in long hours, from about 6:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night, six days a week. They don't cook for the fame, but because it's what they love to do. Laukert enjoys seeing the fruits of his labor on television, for all to see. "The rewards are when Michael is satisfied, and my new group of friends involved in this production are happy. Then you're happy inside."