I finally got the golden ticket! After years of my mom and I taking annual trips to New York City I finally scored us tickets to a TV show taping. When I went to college in Los Angeles I enjoyed being in the audience of American Idol, Dr. Phil, and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. I wanted my mom to share in the fun and when I saw @TheChew was offering tickets I was determined to get us some! I went to The Chew’s website and was able to put in my request. I had only a tiny sliver of hope but since it was a month and a half ahead of time I crossed my fingers and waited.

Me with Clinton Kelly! ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014

Well, dreams really do come true, people! This week I attended a taping of The Chew, a show about cooking and entertaining hosted by a medley of interesting and talented people: Carla Hall (see a recipe I made of hers), Mario Batali (see my recent stop at his amazing food emporium, Eataly), Clinton Kelly of “What Not to Wear” fame, Michael Symon from Iron Chef fame, and healthy living expert Daphne Oz (daughter of Dr. Oz).

My golden ticket! ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014

My mom and I showed up outside the ABC Studios to line up to go inside. They saw be there promptly at 11AM but we were there at 10:20 and there were already about 30 people in front of us! Since it is still first come-first serve for seats, although a ticket is still required!, I was nervous. But we went in no problem and were seated inside in the 2nd row right behind the tasting audience members who were members of the Marines and Coast Guard (for Memorial Day weekend/Fleet Week). They tell you to wear bright colors so my mom wore bright orange and I wore cobalt blue. You can see us on this video from the show while Daphne Oz  and guest host Curtis Stone were making a prime rib with horseradish cream sauce.

On set before filming begins–prep chefs ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014

We had so much fun! Carla Hall danced with audience multiple times off camera during “commercial breaks”. We got to see one of my favorite actresses, Lea Michele, from “GLEE” as a guest making stuffed strawberries and zucchini fries. She was so sweet and even off camera was telling Clinton Kelly and Carla Hall how excited she was to be there and never stopped smiling! And in the end we got to take home 2 free books, one from Lea Michele and one from the other guest, Terry Crews from “Brooklyn 911” and my personal favorite “Everybody Hates Chris”. And at the very end of taping the hosts stick around a few minutes to take photos with you if you want. I pretty much attacked Clinton Kelly and Curtis Stone to get photos with them.

That’s a wrap! ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014

Me with Chef Curtis Stone ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014