A new segment in The Feather’s blogosphere is The Hungry Eagle. This vlog (video blog) is meant to be enjoyable, educational and a fun way to learn how to cook. Every other Tuesday a new blog post is published. The hosts for the show are Emily Shakeshaft, ’14 and Stephan Melendez, ’13.
The goal for the show is to allow those who do not know how to cook to learn in an easy and innovative way. It allows views to learn how to cook with items at home. Since both Shakeshaft and Melendez share a passion for the culinary arts, they thought this would be an awesome way to help others.
“I’ve had a passion for cooking and the culinary arts,” Melendez said. “I want to teach people what I have learned so that way they can live a more simple life. I just wanted to help other teens who may not even know how to turn on a stove and to make simple things that everyone can make.”
The idea for the show was thought of last school year during the middle of the year. Difficulties in transportations came about, thus not making the show a possiblity.
“Basically last year me and my friend Hannah Avila, ’14, wanted to do a cooking show, however, we were unable because of the living arrangement,” Shakeshaft said. “However, Stephan can drive a car; he loves food and he is a food critic. We decided it would be fun to do it and a good friend of ours Juan {Ruelas, ’13}, said he wanted to film it. It benefits me because I might want to go into media and TV broadcasting, so it works out great.”
The show is not always a simple smooth filming process according to Ruleas. There are a lot of distractions and disarray sometimes when the friendly play comes out on set.
“It’s fun filming Emily and Stephan,” Ruelas said. “Seeing them fighting like brother and sister, and watching Emily’s mom come down to the kitchen, trying to ruin the filming process and her little brother is running around while we are filming. Sometimes we have to stop filming and tell him to move but other times its really enjoyable.”
Being in front of the camera can sometimes serve as a difficulty for Melendez but with Shakeshaft, he can do it.
“I do not necessarily enjoy filming,” Melendez said. “I am kind of awkward on TV but Emily helps me a lot. She is the one to mainly speak, I kind of awkwardly stutter sometimes and am a little camera shy.”
The acting on the Hungry Eagle is a little different from real life. The personalities for the two hosts come out a little stronger when on camera.
“In real life we are like brother and sister but for some reason the camera brings out the worse in us,” Melendez said. “I don’t understand why. Her {Shakeshaft} mentality is, ‘You’re my Su chef’, Su chef before main chef. So we are constantly fighting for a positions and butting heads but it makes the show much more enjoyable.”
Even though the show has just started filming, there have already been some cons to the process. Shakeshaft enjoys the show and looks forward to its progress.
“There are more pros then cons, so thats good,” Shakeshaft said. “A couple pros is its a fun time to film, we make memories, laugh and get the chance to eat the food we make at the end of the day, so its a good time. Filming gets challenging sometimes though. It can be loud and that makes things get tough in order for the process to go smooth in a timely manor. We all have busy schedules and it is hard to find a time where we can all be there and not feel so rushed.”
Hoping to help others learn how to cook help serve The Feather, the hosts have a fun way of getting people involved. The idea is to have special guests on the show, Shakeshaft continues to share.
“Ultimately, we want to have guest stars on the show,” Shakeshaft said. “We want the show to expand and help others in a positive way. We are just looking for any one that is interested in food, fun and easy to interact with on camera also someone who is interesting to watch. Anybody, younger kids up to adults from the school or a family member, anybody really, we want to include who ever wants to be apart of The Hungry Eagle.”
Junior, Sarah Lim, hopes to be apart of the show someday. She thinks the show is very enjoyable and hilarious. The menu for the show is one thing Lim would like to see changed.
“I think they do a good job on the show,” Lim said. “I think they should do meals that we can’t do. Everyone knows how to bake brownies but I think they should do meals that are more of a challenge. ”
Despite this minor hope of change, Lim still has a very positive attitude about the show.
“The show is hilarious,” Lim said. “Stephan and Emily are really funny together, they do a great job and someday I would like to be on it. ”
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