A gorgeous day in Erfoud today, I woke up this morning at the Hotel Belere, nice crisp air and beauty all around. The desert air is amazingly clean. Darren, my chef , and I had breakfast at the hotel and met our driver Khaleed, to go to the dunes. A half hour drive on a single lane road, through the little town of Rissani, then 45 minutes on a rutted dirt road to the Auberge Yasmina at the foot of the dunes. Absolutely amazing, a moving mountain of sand that is constantly shifting with wind. We checked out our base camp area for Tuesday, our opening day. On my way back to the cooking school where our home base is, I stopped by the production office to get some info and started talking to the production manager about the plans for Monday's lunch. Our original plan was to do a burger bar on set for rehearsals, but it turned out that Monday is going to be a running around for the cast and crew, driving the course for the first challenge, so I was asked to do the burger bar tommorow for the production meeting lunch. That set a whirlwind in motion since there is no such a thing as hamburger buns in Erfoud, I had to go and show a bakery how to make them which they are doing now, at 1030 at night. Chocolate chip cookies are next on his plate then oatmeal raisin. All the tastes of home that these poor guys who have been here for a month miss terribly. Rumors started that we are doing mexican food on Tuesday, never have I seen so much love shown to me for something I haven't done yet. The baker showed up with tortilla samples for me to taste, which were devoured before I could even smell them. Half of our crew is from California and mexican food is something they love. Tomorrow we will start at 0600 making the burgers and our sauces, Yuzu Aioli, Cilantro Lime Mayo, Teriyaki sauce and Guacamole and all of our condiments. It should be a fun day. We are now known throughout this project as Cookie Monster for Christopher and miracle man for me....More to come.
Can't wait to see the burger bar!
