Wow, this one was a fun challenge! How do you feed the cast and crew when you aren’t able to be on set?

With my youngest son in school and my husband filming 2 hours away…what was I thinking when I said “Yes, I’ll make all the food for your next film!”? This one took some research and a lot of creativity!

In late 2015, I found myself feeding 20+ people over a 15 day shoot, but this time I had advance notice and time to do some planning. With the production scheduled out of town and the hubby scheduled to be away from home 3 days in a row, at times, what can I make that would hold up well until the day it is eaten? See, my hubby would transport all the food for production with him each time he would head out for filming and then he would bring back all the empty containers 3 days later.

Lots of large freezer meals! I learned that you can freeze just about anything…I made vats of chicken parmesan, tubs of pulled pork, barrels of lasagna rolls…well maybe not barrels but I sure felt like I was cooking for an army! Because I was making 3 days worth of food at a time, for about 20 people each day…I spent at least 4 days in the kitchen each week baking goodies, cooking food and freezing the meals that wouldn’t be served for at least 4 to 7 days. The day before hubby was scheduled to leave for set, I would prepare the meal for the following day so everyone would have at least one fresh meal cooked each week during production. The AD (Assistant Director) would receive all of the food for 3 days of production along with reheating instructions. I would also color code everything so that it could be easily organized for each day it was scheduled…wow, what an exciting time that was!

What I remember most about all that time in the kitchen is first, thinking how much I needed a bigger kitchen!!!…and second, how dry my hands had become from the cold holiday weather, washing so many dishes and cleaning so many fruits and vegetables. I thought the chopping of fruits for the morning fruit trays would never end!

I was told that the food went over well during production and that everyone was very grateful for the meals. Though I didn’t get an opportunity to visit set during the filming, I did get an invite to the wrap party and I had the pleasure of meeting most of the people that ate up my food!

Behind The Scenes

Feel free to take a peek at the Behind-the-Scenes mini feature by clicking below, you can see my handsome hubby!

https://vimeo.com/159619605

Food Pictures

For the initial table read (The 6th Degree had a couple of table reads) I made a few light treats, two of which I was able to capture with a picture. A shortbread cream cheese fruit tart and some Greek salad skewers.

And here’s a small sample of the baking I would do weekly, during production. Countless loafs of various quick breads and muffins came out of my kitchen…these were lemon loaf, zucchini banana bread, cinnamon bread and grain free banana nut mini muffins. Man, I wish I would have taken more pics!

With The 6th Degree filming over the holidays, I wanted to do something special for Thanksgiving. The set got a full Thanksgiving meal that included turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes with crispy scallions, dressing, Brussels sprouts with butternut squash and pomegranate molasses drizzle, cranberry sauce and a vegetarian shepherd’s pie (the huge orange tray on the left by Henrik’s head). I don’t know how I gathered the energy to make another Thanksgiving meal for the family, but I did!

I finally got to meet everybody!

As I mentioned, I wasn’t able to make it to set during the filming but here’s a picture from the wrap party…I’m way back there to the right….”Hi”!!!