Author: play_surron

Highway To Health This weekend, Chef JJ and our kids cooking show cast participated in the HealthCorps’ Highway To Health Festival at South Street Seaport @ Pier 17. The festival was a free event open to the public of all ages to celebrate the variety of resources in their neighborhood to help them lead a healthier lifestyle. The event included health screenings, fitness experts and workouts, cooking and nutrition tips, and lifestyle tips with live entertainment and Guest speakers.

Custom Chef Coats by Crooked Brook Thanks to the warm reception of Helena Judd, the festival’s Associate Producer, we were able to promote our new Play Pretty, Play Pals Project and Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ merchandise to help spread the Let’s Move! message to fight childhood obesity through fun and flavorful activities around balanced food choices.

Chain Reaction Spinning One of the many fun activities Chef JJ and our “behind the scenes” reporters & crew got to participate in was the Jack Rabbit Sports and New York Sports Clubs sponsored “Chain Reaction Spinning” event to promote fitness and wellness through cycling.

The Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ cast members (with the exception of Morgan) were under 14 so they couldn’t actually ride the cardio bikes, but we thought they’d make good 1-on-1 motivators for Chef JJ, Morgan, and our 2 young crew members. How fast can you ride for 10 minutes without stopping?

Please Applaud To Show Your Support We even created signage for the Teen Battle Chefs showdown main event to encourage the crowd to show some love for all the NYC coordinators, students, judges, vendors, and sponsors like VuMee who helped make the free event possible.

The dark shades were actually provided to Chef JJ by HealthCorps during registration, but our young “star” cast member (Jelani) insisted that he’d be a better representative to sport the glasses.

“Stirring Up Change.” The highlight of the festival event was the Teen Battle Chef Showdown hosted by Chef JJ of Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ. Our kids got to participate in a press presentation with Dr. Oz, celebrity judges Chef George Duran & Chef Denisse Oller, star student judge Elizabeth “Liz” Cordero Hernandez of Edward A. Reynolds Westside High School, and the ten (10) Teen Battle Chef students from various NYC high schools like Kurt Hahn, Aviation, George Washington, West Side, University Heights, and South Shore.

Let’s Move! To End Childhood Obesity Dr. Mehmet Oz, the HealthCorps Co-Founder and daytime Emmy-winning host of The Dr. Oz Show, was more than willing to mingle with the crowd to show his sincere appreciation and passion with the fans. Our mission is to help fight childhood obesity in America. Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring Chef JJ and Dr. Oz together again in future episodes. To be continued… 🙂

Kids Food Festival Yesterday, Chef JJ and our kids cooking show cast participated in the first inaugural Kids Food Festival event at Citi Pond @ Bryant Park. Thanks to the sincere welcome of Rachel Bonham Carter, we were allowed to promote our new kids cooking show t-shirts and help spread the Let’s Move! message to fight childhood obesity through fun and flavorful activities around balanced food choices.

Let’s Move! Fun Food Facts Q&A Our “behind the scenes” reporters got to quiz Cricket Azima, the co-Founder of the Kids Food Festival, and Victoria Jordan Rodriguez of James Beard Foundation about childhood obesity using a fun Q&A game developed by Young Faces Smiling founder, Ardella McClarty.

Will You Sign The Pledge With Us? We even signed Share Our Strength’s pledge to make No Kid Hungry in America a reality, and interviewed a team of passionate young volunteers about why they decided to spend their weekend helping to support the non-profit organization.

One teenager who was a fan of Chef JJ shared his passion for cooking and desire to attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in the Fall of 2012.

Ironically, his nickname was also JJ.

“Changing the world one meal at a time.” The highlight of the festival event was a visit to KickinKitchen.TV screening room where Chef JJ and our kids got to meet Natasha Lance Rogoff, CEO & Executive Producer of the premier kids entertainment media company producing transmedia programming for TV, the web and mobile applications.

Mrs. Rogoff and her daughter Juliane (cast member Stacy) were more than willing to answer questions from our kids about their show, which takes the comedy and format of a sitcom, the utility of a cooking show, and the connectivity of digital and social media, and smashes it together into a ground breaking transmedia property, empowering kids to actively participate in their own food choices, cooking and health.

We’re excited about the opportunity to potentially collaborate with Natasha on our show. Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring Chef JJ and the KickinKitchen cast together in 1 or more episodes. To be continued… 🙂

Welcome to the Garden State Market Today, Chef JJ met with Ellen Haddigan and Musa Durgun at their produce store located at 77 South Dean Street in Englewood, NJ. They discussed several creative ways for us to collaborate on the Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ TV program.

Kids Love Free Produce Some of the ideas shared with us were a Garden State Market/Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ branded produce truck that travels to urban communities and schools in NYC to give away free fruits & vegetables.

Who Wants To Be A Vegan? Another idea centered around a Vegan episode with Russell Simmons’ assistant Simone Reyes and celebrity activist Suzanne Africa Engo, daughter of late United Nations Ambassador Paul Engo; and an on-premise cooking episode at The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with Chef JJ and our Broadway Stars.

These we’re all brilliant show ideas proposed by Ellen, who might have just earned herself a Producer title to add with her current Executive Director role at the MSKCC organization.

We’re 100% sold on partnering with the Garden State Market founders.  Now we just have to put our creative minds together to seek out the right financial relationships to help bring our ideas to fruition. 🙂

A Meeting of Brotherly Love Yesterday we met with Kathleen Gerrow, Executive Producer and James Huth, Director of Business Development for NBC in Bala Cynwyd, PA (Philly) to pitch the Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ TV show. After 15 minutes into the presentation, we received a passionate praise from both key executives and agreed to move forward with discussions on a potential multi-platform distribution partnership.

Kathleen gave us a tour of the studios and even took the time to shoot the co-creators of the kids cooking show in the NBC studio. If all goes according to God’s plan, they’ll both be extremely busy producing 52 episodes in 12 weeks.

Much love and thanks to Marcus Smith, Michael Gaskins, and the “Fabulous” Aniesia Williams for helping us get a foot in the door. We look forward to doing BIG things with The Beleza Group.

Go Run Tell Dat! Today, we interviewed Ron Surrey and Chef JJ discussing their new cookbook-music CD project called “Run Tell Dat”. They shared a laugh or two as Ron gave Chef JJ his inspiration for how he came up with the idea for ‘Good Looking Food’ and why ‘Clean As You Go’ is the perfect educational song for adults and kids.

The first Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ cookbook-music CD of the series will contain 52 original recipes from Chef JJ, plus 7 songs written and performed by Ron Surrey with special guest appearances by our Broadway Stars.

1. Run Tell Dat
2. Clean As You Go
3. Good Lookin’ Food
4. Chobani Greek Yogurt
5. Sho’ Love Watermelon Salad
6. Farmers Market
7. Spaghetti & Grass Fed Meatballs

The plan will be to introduce 4 seasonal cookbooks that will highlight Chef JJ’s favorite kid friendly recipes and what’s being sold at the farmers market during that particular season.

Click To Download Free Chobani Greek Yogurt Song

In Episode 1 of Chef JJ’s new series, “The Golden Chef” JJ teaches former and current members of The Lion King cast, plus other talented kids how to prepare 10 minute kid friendly recipes at the Pellegrino Restaurant & Lounge.

He then travels to a local Greenmarket farmers market where he introduces our kids to the freshest fruits and vegetables, plus the healthiest ingredients that are available and picked daily to their market.

From 100% grass fed beef to raw cow’s milk cheese, Ostrich eggs to flying pigs, goat milk ice cream to champagne grapes, the farmers were happy to speak with Chef JJ and his young cooks about organic farming practices.

Click To Download Press Kit Package

American Express Insight Online Tool Today was the last day of a 6 week creative consultancy project with Digitas in NYC. We had the honor of working with the agency on a new business software application tool called American Express Insight Online. The assignment consisted of software design, art direction, motion graphics for video, script writing, and storyboard development.

American Express Business Insights What was originally suppose to be a 4 week project turned into 2 more weeks of creative direction and branding on the Business Insights video campaign. Thanks to my partner Mallie Mickens of Pixod we were able to add another blue chip project to our portfolio.

Union Square Greenmarket Yesterday, we filmed day 2 of the ‘Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ” TV pilot with our Golden Chef as he traveled to a local farmers market to introduce our kids to the freshest fruit and vegetables, plus the healthiest ingredients that is available and picked daily to their market.

Thanks to Jeanne Hodesh, 
Publicity Coordinator 
of Greenmarket/Grow NYC, we had the honor of interviewing several upstate farmers to learn about organic farming practices. From 100% grass fed beef to raw cow’s milk cheese, Ostrich eggs to flying pigs, goat milk ice cream to champagne grapes, the farmers were happy to speak with a few members of our kids cast.

Welcome to Beth’s Farm Kitchen We received several invitations to take our kids upstate on a tour of the local farms. One warm welcome came from Beth Linskey, a jam maker extraordinaire who uses local fruit in her jam. While she’s not a grower, she’s a great chef, and will be a fun experience for our kids to visit Beth’s Farm Kitchen in a future episode.

Pellegrinos Restaurant & Lounge Two days ago, we started filming day 1 of our new kids cooking show with Chef Joe “JJ” Johnson. The restaurant was located in North Haledon, New Jersey roughly 37 minutes (or 22 miles) from the city. Despite a late production start and minor setbacks, we were able to capture what we needed for our first pilot shoot thanks to the owners of Pellegrino’s, Donny Giordano and Pellegrino Mongillo.

Bullying Behavior & Peer Pressure Around Food Chef JJ was very pleased and appreciative of the personal bullying stories, diverse talent, and unique personalities of our kids:

JOSHUA JACKSON (mother Tawanda Jackson)

ALPHONSO AND CAMILLE JONES Alphonso (mother Kathy Jones)

EDEN SANAA DUNCAN-SMITH (mother Nicole Duncan-Smith)

KHAIL TOI BRYANT (mother Choddie Bryant)

AUBREY AND JELANI JOSEPH (mother Melissa Beech Anderson)

ALESSIA MASTRANDO (mother Angela Mastrando)

Because we were filming the kids cooking show pilot as part our anti-bullying documentary story, we asked Alessia Mastrando to share her “tear-jerking” personal bullying story with the group to start the discussion.

A special “Thank You” goes out to our brave Champion for helping to make the pilot shoot a worthwhile experience.

Lets Go Cooking! After the group discussion with the kids, we introduced our young cooks to their new chef hats and aprons provided by our friends at The Chef Hat. Thanks to Jeff Fountain for helping us out with the quick turnaround and fast delivery on the chef merchandise, we were able to provide Waist Chef 4-Way Aprons, Youth Bib Chef Aprons, Adult Bib Chef Aprons, Toque Chef Hats, and White Scull Cap with the Play Pretty, Play Pals Project logos on them that the kids were all excited about.

Kids Love The Chef Hats & Aprons We’re truly appreciative of their “perfectionist embroidery lady’s” meticulous nature, the style and quality of the merchandise, and the timely delivery. We definitely look forward to doing more business with The Chef Hat.

Kid Friendly 10 Minute Recipes Chef JJ teamed up with Play Pretty, Play Pals Project on the production of the show to get kids to start cooking and to help parents to be more conscious of what they put in their bodies. His method is to incorporate local ingredients and modern cooking techniques, all with a sense of love and humor to his food.

WATERMELON SALAD

Ingredients:

1/4 of Watermelon

1 cup Ricotta Salata

4 sprigs of Mint

1 cup of Balsamic reduction

Salt

Pepper

Instructions:

• Take watermelon and cut into small dices place in bowl, then take mint leafs and pull apart with hands and put into same bowl. Take balsamic and reduce in sauce pot by 1/2. Once reduced by half, place 2 tsp into bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Lastly, take Ricotta cheese and peel with peeler and place on salad…1/4 of cup.

CHOBANI PARFAIT

Ingredients:

1/2 C (4oz) Strawberry 0% Chobani Greek Yogurt

1/2 C granola

1/2 C mixed berries

Instructions:

• For each serving, layer 1/2 Chobani, granola, and berries in parfait glass. Repeat.

MIXED BERRY FROCHO POPS

Ingredients:

1 C fresh or frozen mixed berries

1 C (8 oz) Plain 0% Chobani Greek Yogurt

3 Tbsp hone

Instructions:

• Puree fruit, Chobani and honey in food processor until smooth.

• Fill 6 freezer-pop molds or 3-oz paper cups three-quarters full. Insert sticks and freeze until completely firm, about 6 hours.

• Dip molds briefly in hot water before unfolding.

MEATBALLS (Grass Fed Beef)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground chuck

4 ounces dried bread crumbs

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup grated Romano

1 cup grated Spanish onion

2 each finely diced fresh garlic

4 springs finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

4 springs finely chopped fresh basil leaves

4 springs finely chopped fresh oregano

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

• Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. If mixture seems a little loose add more bread crumbs.

• Roll meatballs loosely about the size of a golf ball and place on baking sheet. Add little water to bottom of the sheet pan. Place into preheated oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes cover with aluminum foil.

PAN SEARED DIVER SCALLOPS (Cauliflower Puree, Summer Vegetables, Peach Vinaigrette)

Ingredients:

U-10 Diver Scallops

2 each Local Jersey Peaches

1 head of cauliflower

1/2 pound butter

5 each patty pan squash

1/4 cup champagne vinegar

1/2 cup blended oil

1 shallot sliced fine

Salt

Pepper

Instructions:

• Vinaigrette directions

• Small dice peaches. Julienne the shallots or slice thin. Place in bowl with champagne vinegar, blended oil and mix. Also season to taste with salt and pepper.

• Cauliflower Puree

• Clean cauliflower place in pot with water and butter. Bring to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Once fully cooked place in blender with a cup of the liquid. If too thick add a little at a time to thin out…Should coat the back of your spoon.

• Patty pan squash and cut into four. Place in bowl and season with salt, pepper, and oil. Put into 400F degree oven for 10 minutes or until the patty squash is golden brown.

• Take your diver scallops season both sides with salt and pepper. Get pan smoking hot, place scallops in pan and cook on one side for 4 minutes or until golden brown, then flip over and turn off heat.