Food

Behind the Scenes: A TV Shoot

I was out of my kitchen today and into the studio of WSFB, Hartford’s CBS affiliate. The station has a great local news magazine show, Better Connecticut, and I’ve made a few appearances since December. Those two crazy kids in the photo are Scot Haney and Kara Sundlun, the show’s hosts. I think they’re fantastic.  […]

Three people are standing together indoors, smiling at the camera. The man on the left is in a suit and tie, the woman in the middle is in a black cardigan, and the woman on the right is in a blue dress.

Photo Credit:
I was out of my kitchen today and into the studio of WSFB, Hartford’s CBS affiliate. The station has a great local news magazine show, Better Connecticut, and I’ve made a few appearances since December. Those two crazy kids in the photo are Scot Haney and Kara Sundlun, the show’s hosts. I think they’re fantastic.  I’m hardly a television veteran, but I’ve done enough TV demos/interviews to know that for many hosts, it’s a struggle to appear interested in the yet another segment about xyz. I can’t say I blame them—how many interviews do they  pull off in a given month?—but it can feel like pulling teeth to keep the conversation lively. But Scot and Kara always make it fun. They ad lib, they joke around, they dance when needed, they keep everyone on their toes. Here’s a photo of me with the dynamic duo.
Scot, Amy, Kara
The crew is great, too. Here’s Sheba, one of the stage managers. She’s always quick with a friendly hello, and she likes Yankee‘s recipes. I look a little posessed here, I know. Another plus: I grew up in Windsor, just north of Hartford. Not only do I enjoy being on the show, but I also get to visit Mom and Dad. I was going to post a photo with them but someone was feeling a little camera-shy, so I’ll just give them a shout-out: Hi guys! Here’s the link for my segment. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I made O’Rourke’s Irish Soda Bread French Toast from the March/April issue. Everyone loved it, and they all said the same thing: “Why didn’t I think of that??” Try the original version at O’Rourke’s Diner in Middletown, CT.    

Amy Traverso

Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee and cohost of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with GBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.

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