If I Only Had a Press Badge

I'm very tardy in telling you about my Food Network telephone press conference with Keegan Gerhard on Monday. Let me just give you a sample transcript:

Host: I want to welcome you all to the conference and you can go around and introduce yourselves. We'll start with Keegan.

Keegan: Hi everyone.

Me: Oh my goodness! I'm talking to Keegan Gerhard!!! Is it you? Is it really you? Is Tyler Florence there with you?

Keegan: {Nervous laughter}

Host: Could you please state your name and tell us your website?

Me: Oh my goodness!! I'm Denise from There's Always Room For One More. Do I get to ask my questions now?

Host: Let's go around and get everyone else's name and then you can ask your questions.

Other people: Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Host: Okay, we'll start off with Denise. You may ask Keegan your question.

Me: Do you know Tyler Florence? You have to because you both work there. I bet he's there in the building with you right now! How many times a day do you get to see him?

Keegan: {Clearing throat} Um, you do realize that I'm the host of Food Network Challenge and this press conference is about our new 4 week series Last Cake Standing? It's a first for us because it combines challenges with elimination. It was a very intense series and we're excited for people to see it.

Me: Yada, yada, yada. Cakes. Competition. People eliminated. Do you know Tyler?

Keegan: {laughing} Yes, Tyler and I have met a few times.

Me: Is he there right now? What was he wearing when you saw him? Did he smell good?

Host: Denise you are only allowed to ask two questions and you've gone over your limit.

Me: But he didn't even answer them! Besides at White House press conferences they always ask multiple questions and call it part of one question. Mine's all about Tyler: one question. Is Tyler there in the Food Network building right now?

Keegan: {laughing} Actually he's down the hall taping a segment of Tyler's Ultimate right now. I think he's cooking Veal Parmesan.

Me: He's there? Right now? Are you on speaker phone? {yelling} TYLER! TYLER! CAN YOU HEAR ME? I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN!

Host: Thank you, Denise. Moving on.

Me: I'm not done yet!

Host: Yes you are.

{Dial tone}

I bet they are so totally asking me to do that again.

Okay, not really. Not the the not asking me again part, the transcript part. It really wasn't anything like that. We did start off stating who we were and what site we were from. I must say, I was a bit humbled. Out of six people asking questions, 3 were REALLY big sites. Moms Salon (Mom Bloggers Club), The Deadbolt.com, Deal Seeking Mom. I was really wondering if they had made some kind of mistake when they asked me. "There's Always Room For One More? We thought you were with May We Have Some More!" Click. Dial tone. Thankfully, they didn't figure that out while we were on the call.

Keegan was a really nice guy, very personable. We were each allowed three questions and none of mine were about Tyler Florence or Crack Bars. Shocking, I know! My first question was "Do you have any say in what the challenges are? Do you all sit around and brain storm ideas?" Keegan said that he does suggest things and some suggestions even come from contestants themselves but ultimately it's decided by the powers that be at Food Network.

My second question was "I'm sure you get asked what your favorite part of hosting the show is but I want to know what your least favorite part is." Keegan said that his least favorite part was probably when contestants showed up for a competition unprepared. Here they were putting their reputation on the line, not to mention the prize money, and then they show up unprepared. And then he added that sometimes he wished he could compete himself.

My third and final question was "I would imagine that you would have favorites in a competition and maybe some people you didn't like. Do you have a hard time not letting that show while you are hosting?" Keegan said that he rarely had people he didn't like, although he might be aggravated they weren't prepared, but he does have favorites sometimes and it was hard to hide that sometimes. But then there's the beauty of editing.

I have to admit, although I've seen Food Network Challenges, I hadn't necessarily given Keegan much thought before (sorry Keegan!) but I found him to be a really nice guy. He seems really excited about his upcoming series and Julia and I are planning on watching it. My only problem is that it starts Sunday night, April 5, and airs at 8:00 PM ET and PT /7:00 CT. Guess when The Amazing Race is on? Good thing my DVR can record 2 shows at a time!