After beating all other U.S. dessert chefs this month in an international culinary competition, Sally Camacho, the pastry chef at downtown L.A.’s ritzy WP24 and a sometimes reality TV personality, is getting ready to represent the entire country in the world finals.
And if she wins Valrhona Chocolate’s C3 Culinary Competition in January, it might be with the help of Angelenos.
Camacho said she will tinker with recipes at WP24, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant on the 24th floor of L.A. Live’s Ritz-Carlton tower, serving potential award entries to unsuspecting customers and getting their opinions. She just has one request: don’t tell anyone that it may be in the competition.
“I don’t want that to get out,” she said. “God forbid it’s on Twitter or Facebook.”
The 31-year-old, who has appeared on the Syfy channel’s reality cooking show “Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen,” said she never expected to take on the stress of competing in a solo competition.
“I used to help my former boss at the Four Seasons with his competitions,” she said. “When I saw all the stress he had, I said, ‘Forget this.’ But when the opportunity arrived, (I thought) why not?”
Handel’s Way
Entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel might be the king of Hollywood strike sound bites, but it wasn’t always that way.
During Southwestern Law School’s Biederman Entertainment and Media Law Institute “A Conversation With” speaker series two weeks ago, Handel discussed with institute director Steven Krone his rise as an oft-quoted industry expert – which coincided with the 2007 and 2008 Writers Guild of America strike – in addition to his moonlighting as a journalist and his new book, “Hollywood on Strike.”
Handel began talking to entertainment industry bloggers as the writers’ strike loomed. But as more news publications started to quote him, Handel realized that he needed to know the studios’ and Writers Guild’s contract demands like the back of his hand.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is dangerous,’” Handel said during a phone interview last week. “If I’m going to be treated like an expert, I better become one.”
And Handel made himself an expert. He created a color-coded chart outlining the sides’ contract demands, which he got printed on T-shirts, coffee mugs and even ties, and now sells through his blog.
However, selling tchotchkes isn’t the only bonus to being a Hollywood labor expert.
Handel recently became a contributing editor at the Hollywood Reporter and he self-published “Hollywood on Strike,” a look at the history of entertainment labor unions.
While Handel has many titles, his role as entertainment industry expert has generated some of his most memorable moments.
“I did an interview from the recovery room of a hospital where I had some outpatient surgery,” Handel said. “I still had cotton mouth … but I gave the interview anyway.”
Staff reporters Richard Clough and Alexa Hyland contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
