Creating a television show about Iowa food and the people who celebrate it while also
discovering clever ways to prepare it is an incredible experience.
And there is a lot that goes into it.
So get ready because we are about to dunk you head first into the somewhat hectic but
always fulfilling world of Iowa Ingredient as we go behind-the-scenes.
3, 2 -- Nebbe: And now I'm in the kitchen with Chef
Tom.
What are we going to make?
(music) Debra Herbold: Iowa Ingredient is a local
show produced right here at Iowa Public Television by Iowans and it has got one central star
of the show, something we all appreciate and visit with every day, and that is food.
Beautiful!
(music) That's a little messy.
Sorry.
Herbold: It's a cooking show.
It's kind of a foodie show.
But it's really just a vehicle to be able to tell stories about Iowa and Iowans and
our resourcefulness here in our state.
Charity Nebbe: I am an Iowa girl.
I spent the first five years of my life in central Iowa, in Ogden, Iowa, actually right
outside of Ogden.
And then we moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa.
For me it was the summer between kindergarten and first grade.
And so I really, I grew up in Cedar Falls and I graduated from Cedar Falls High School
and I went to Iowa State University.
And I did move away from the state for a while, for actually 10 years.
But for at least five of those years I was trying to figure out a way to get home and
now I am.
Cozy up.
Smile.
We'll go in 5, 4, 3, 2 -- Nebbe: And now we are in the kitchen with
Jay -- Herbold: Charity Nebbe is the perfect host
for this show.
She is so genuine and so warm and that really comes through on camera.
The viewer can totally see that.
And she's kind of like the girl next door, you know, who might ask the questions you
would ask if you were in the kitchen with that chef or on the farm with that farmer
or producer.
She has just got this natural infectious love of Iowa and that really comes through and
she's just a pure pleasure to work with.
Nebbe: Alright, and so at the beginning I look at the camera briefly and then I turn
to you and after that neither one of us is supposed to look at the camera.
Nebbe: I have to say that I am not much of a cook, which may surprise a lot of people.
My husband does 90% of the cooking in our house and I love that.
I think that's just wonderful.
And there are a number of recipes that I have just loved and I have thought I will make
this.
The wonderful pumpkin bread pudding that Melissa Freidhof-Rodgers from Ross' Restaurant made.
I made that and that's going to be a holiday tradition at our house.
That is just, it's really rich, it's really decadent but it is so delicious.
(music) Nebbe: So when you watch an episode of Iowa
Ingredient it's all about one ingredient.
You see me do the introduction and then you see the producer profile and the restaurant
profile and the cooking segment and the on the side and then I say goodbye.
But all of those pieces are shot separately.
They're so yummy.
Look how red they are.
Cameron McCoy: Because we want to feature ingredients at the peak of their growing season,
at the peak freshness, we're shooting throughout the year.
So sometimes we'll be recording something in May for trout, then something else in October
for walnuts.
So we're guaranteeing we're getting them at the peak of when you want to see them growing.
McCoy: And because we're Iowa Public Television, we want to get across the state and show how
amazing Iowa is as a food producer.
So in one week we could literally be across the state in Dubuque one day and Shenandoah
the next meeting really interesting farmers, interesting growers who are doing amazingly
innovative things with food.
(music) McCoy: Sometimes the best part of my job,
the most special part of my job, is going out with Charity and the other producers and
recording the intros and exits to the show.
We find some of the most spectacular and beautiful places in Iowa, rolling hills, scenic wooded
areas, beautiful gardens even.
Any time we get to go out it's just always a perfect day.
Sometimes it's just the most beautiful weather possible, the most beautiful scenery possible.
It just makes my job that much better.
Nebbe: Yay!
Okay, that's a wrap.
Nebbe: You've got to be over here sweetie.
It's okay, he's not going to attack you with that camera.
Nebbe: We try to find something that fits the episode.
So I'll stand on a raspberry farm or in front of a herd of cattle, in the middle of a herd
of goats, that was really the highlight for the upcoming season.
We usually have a pretty good time although I don't have a teleprompter so the scripts
that I do on the show I have to memorize and then repeat and I'm a much better memorizer
early in the day than I am by the end of the day, that's a lot harder.
Nebbe: Prepare their own catfish and bass that they catch from rivers and lakes -- sorry.
Nebbe: Use as a delicate balance between chemistry and art.
Why can't I get past that?
I'm so sorry.
Nebbe: And even car tires have -- Nebbe: Experience helps a lot too.
Maytag Blue Cheese -- I'm so sorry.
Nebbe: Also, memorable metaphors like -- Nebbe: In fact, in ancient times, only the
leaves were eaten until -- Nebbe: And a delightful addition to many appetizers.
Phew.
You were rolling, right?
Nebbe: By the end of the day when I'm completely exhausted and can't memorize things very well
is usually, it's such a golden period of light, it's a time of day when the light is just
beautiful but also the sun is moving very rapidly so there's all this pressure to memorize
and deliver and then move so the sun is on you again and then deliver the line again
and then you know what let's just skip and do the next one and we'll come back and do
that one and it gets extremely stressful and exciting.
At the end we seem to like that adrenaline.
Nebbe: Okay, I'm ready now.
Better do it fast.
(music) McCoy: The taping of the kitchen studio segments
is what I like to call organized chaos.
There's just a ton of stuff going on.
It's a little less pressure for Charity at this point.
She can ask questions and keep the conversation going but the pressure is really on the chefs.
That's been 20 minutes already?
Wow.
Time flies on TV right?
Yeah.
McCoy: The thing is everyone does amazing.
We've never had a bad chef.
They have two hours of prep time and kitchen time to get it right and they always get it
right.
The cooking is fantastic, it's always an exciting time.
It's chaotic because we're taping several chefs in one day.
But at the same time it always pays off in the end where we have an amazing cooking segment
for the viewer to watch.
Yay!
I cut you off there, sorry.
(music) Nebbe: There are a lot of really little details
that take a lot of time and a lot of attention.
And that whole, when that segment hits the air it can be maybe 10 minutes tops, that's
one of the longest we've ever done and two recipes at least in there and we've spent
at least two hours between all of the prep and the actual shooting and putting that together
and then many, many more hours later in the editing room piecing all of the pieces of
the puzzle together.
So a lot of effort goes into that little segment.
Confit a l'orange.
Thank you very much, Chef Ryan.
Thank you for having me.
Nebbe: The chefs come in from all over the state.
We have a prep kitchen in back so somebody is working to get all of their food ready
and then we come out onto the set kitchen.
We talk it through, we talk through exactly what we're going to do, we put everything
in the places where it's going to be and then we get all ready and then we stand there for
ten or fifteen minutes while we wait for everything else to be ready and then we shoot the cooking
segments.
(music) Herbold: Continuity is a big part of the show,
of the cooking section of the show because in cooking there's a lot of stopping and starting.
Should I open the oven with my left hand and move this way with lots of energy?
Herbold: We have to make sure things are picking up where they should so that when we edit
it all together it's smooth and seamless.
Okay, Charity, you're going to be swirling the butter in your left hand.
You have that chicken in your left hand and you're salt and peppering still with your
right hand so just -- Herbold: Theresa Knight is a producer on the
show and on the cooking segment taping days she's our floor director.
So we're all on headsets.
I'm out in the truck with some of the crew.
Theresa is back in the studio with other crew so we can all communicate.
And Theresa is kind of that continuity master out there, she keeps everything under control
because when you're taping a cooking segment you really have to pay attention to the details.
Stop, sorry.
We're having a microphone issue.
We're going to take a moment here -- Nebbe: All the pieces of the puzzle come together
in the end but there's a lot of wait, stop, was that there?
Oh, you weren't holding that spoon.
Can you put that spoon down?
And then sometimes there are things you can't redo because the food looks different.
If it's cooked those onions did not look like that in the last shot.
There's nothing we can do about that.
Nebbe: They have taught me to never do anything until they tell me to do it.
I'm happy to do that.
Herbold: Charity makes sure we don't scare the chefs too much with all of our crazy details.
Nebbe: That was great, no it was wonderful.
That was almost a disaster.
Nebbe: No, it wasn't.
Nebbe: So I'll look at the camera for like four seconds and then I'll look at you and
then we pretend that they're not even there except when they yell at us for moving stuff.
Don't touch that!
They do that.
Nebbe: Thank you so much, Chef Tom.
Excellent.
Thank you.