Thank You For Being A Friend

The 1980’s. I was working in Hollywood at a place on Melrose and Vine. About 3 blocks from Paramount Studios. Cable shows were new and many being taped on the lot. A few times a stage hand (Bill) kept coming into the bakery asking for food for the prop department. The sitcom show “It’s A Living” was going into production and the story took place in a restaurant. Bill came in asking me how to create ice cream that would not melt under the hot lights and tasted great. Plus, it had to be chocolate with texture in it. I came up with using raw cookie dough. And started producing about 3 different flavors for the show. Then I was hired to transform their glass cake case. All the cakes had to look real and stand up for a season. I made Styrofoam dummies and added chocolate sprinkles and maraschino cherries that I replaced for the next season.. The show lasted 2 years, then was picked up for syndication so they had to produce enough episodes to reach the magic number of 100. Then a spin-off of Dynasty. The Colby’s. It also too lasted two seasons. They ate more than the Dynasty show. Every show seemed to need food. I created all edible foods that had to last and taste great. My first Duck Al l‘Orange was such a hit that the producers flipped a coin as to got to take it home after. Another show.. Brothers it was a new comedy on this new cable thing. Lots of foods for that show.. Now brings me to ABC.

I was asked to create a simple yet elegant wedding cake 4-tier and a smaller carrot cake. The wedding cake. bottom layer edible. Had to look white on camera. So we did test colors of the icing being yellow as it deflects the lights and make it look white. This was for a new TV show they hoped would be picked up called Golden Girls. It was shot at Sunset Gower stages, a group of 3 older ladies with their live in male cook. Then.. about 12 months later, I was asked to create a cheesecake for the same show. It was getting picked up by the network. For the run of the show I would create 7 cheesecakes for the Friday night taping. They moved production to the stages very close to Paramount (Ren-Mar). I would box up 7 cheesecakes by 4pm.. all identical. Every season the cakes changed, Season one: plain, season two.. whipped cream trim, season three berry topping and so on..

This past week.. I have heard from so many people regarding my cheesecakes from the show.. All the way from Norway in fact. I have written three cheesecake cookbooks, with one in Italian. But I forgot to include the Golden Girls Cheesecake. A new café is opening in New York, highlighting Golden Girls. I contacted them regarding the original cheesecake recipe and they wanted nothing to do with it really. (I had not even talked compensation yet). Two weeks ago, I was the guest speaker at the current owner of the apartment that Mae West lived in for years. Only a few blocks from where Golden Girls was shot. I took a cheesecake.

Here is the recipe for you to take or share with a group of your friends at night! PS: My next book on cheesecakes will include this recipe and it will be out in 2018.

Golden Girls Cheesecake

Cookie Dough that I used for Ice Cream                 

4th of July!

Blue Cheese Pistachio Cheesecake

In 2002 my first book came out. 125 Best Cheesecake Recipes, then a number of years later The Cheesecake Bible. This recipe was in both books and is a fast easy cheesecake to make. If you have not had it in one of my classes or parties here is the recipe.

Blue Cheese Pistachio Cheesecake

When I worked for Disney it was pretty much a given you would be working on the 4th. The motto was "We Work While Others Play". Since 1994 (My last year at the park) I have played while others worked! Except the year I did a food segment on the Santa Monica Pier which was shown on the 4th but we taped it the month before!

I am headed to Rapid City, SD. The birth of my father, grandparents and other family members. I have not visited since 1999, so it will be a fun weekend.

Here is a little preview of my next book.. This windmill Denny's used to be a Van de Kamps Bakery and Coffeeshop. These buildings dotted the southland. This is the only one left and it is in the city of Arcadia close to Pasadena. One chapter is all about the Van de Kamps bakeries.. With recipes too! 

I am doing the edits on the manuscript and we will have it out in the stores soon! Be looking! 

Have a great 4th! 

George

SDLiving.. December 17th, 2014 Chocolate and Mint

SDLiving.. Tomorrow (Wed) Live! 

My segment will be LIVE at 9am San Diego time.. On the CW6. I have two recipes...

Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

Chocolate Peppermint Cake/Cupcakes

Are you receiving my 12 days of Christmas Recipes? over 36 recipes total from appetizers to drinks! email me to get on the list! We are half over!

George

Thank you for being a friend... National Cheesecake Day on SDLiving!

The Golden Girls...

Many of you know my story on the Golden Girls...  Back in 1982, I was working at Safeway Supermarket in Hollywood close to Paramount Studios as the bakery manager.  Daily we would get the strangest requests for food. That's how I started doing prop work for the studios. The (pilot) first episode of GG was taped at the Sunset Gower Stages, I created a carrot cake and also a wedding cake. Blanche (Rue) was left at the alter.. The show moved across town to the Ren-Mar Stages (846 N. Cahuenga Blvd). Side note: Ren-Mar was at one time Desilu-Cahuenga where seasons 3-6 of I Love Lucy were filmed, now it is called Red Studios.  After the GG moved they incorporated cheesecake into their evening talks around the dinner table. Over 100 of the shows had a cheesecake incorporated into the storyline. The show was taped on Friday nights and I would make 7 for the show. If one opened the fridge it was a working real fridge (unlike the stove). You would find 7 identical cheesecakes and coke, diet coke and sprite.

I then created crazy foods that were edible kinda for shows such as Dynasty, Falcon Crest, The Colby's, It's a Living, Brothers and many more..   Worked with the great Norman Lear for a time too. He would want a cake a week delivered out to his Brentwood house.. 

Here is the Golden Girl Cheesecake! Sit around the kitchen table with your besties and enjoy! Recipe