Because I have the coolest gig on the face of the earth, I get to work with some of the coolest people on the face of the earth.  Take Ethan Pines, for example.  He was a photographer I worked with on a recent behind-the-scenes shoot of “Hell’s Kitchen”.  

I think Ethan and I were separated at birth … he’s a former Ivy League grad who became a writer early in his career.  Score bonus points for both!  Eventually, he switched gears and became a photographer living in LA.  (Be sure to check out www.ethanpines.com, yo!) He’s quirky, quippy and the quintessential creative genius.  Thank God fate somehow brought us together. 

Any time you do a shoot in a restaurant, it can be harried.  You have a limited amount of time to make things look dazzling.  Because we were shooting alongside the crew of “Hell’s Kitchen” and the notoriously temperamental Gordon Ramsey, it could have been a recipe (pun intended) for disaster.  Mercifully, everything went off with out a hitch. 

I was doing a magazine article on “Hell’s” reigning culinary champ Christina Machamer.  She’d race out to do an interview and then race back to finish prepping her Lamb Valentino.  Then she’d zip back out for a series of shoots with Ethan and scoot back in to the kitchen for more slicing and dicing.  And this is all before 11am, mind you.  Chefs rarely start to function or come alive before 3pm.  But Christina was perky from the second I hit “record” on the digital recorder.  She and Ethan even humored me when I jumped in to one of their shots.  For the record, I never met a chef … or a camera … I didn’t like. 

When I spotted Gordon Ramsey unexpectedly roaming around the restaurant, I made it a personal goal to get a picture with him.  I was undaunted.  Ethan was undaunted.  But his handlers made it virtually impossible to get near him.  Typically, I’m never flummoxed, but I could not seem to catch a break.  The Über-cool, super-trendy Ethan quickly jutted out his hand, introduced us and managed to snap a picture of me and Gordon in one fell swoop.  (I owe you one Ethan!) 

Gordon is pushing 6’3″ – which you wouldn’t know by looking at him on TV.  He’s seems genuine … although I noticed a lot of his crew would avoid eye contact with him.  The weirdest part?  He didn’t *&^%$ swear once.  I thought for sure he’d tell me to bugger off.  Nope.  We chatted, exchanged pleasantries, shook hands and parted ways.  

The president of my company worships Gordon Ramsey, oddly enough.  Good thing too … because I had to turn in an expense report that included a $38 omelet at Gordon’s restaurant.  The CEO didn’t even bat an eyelash. He simply wanted to hear about the restaurant and meeting Gordon.  Thank God for that … because he would have had a stroke if he knew what lunch cost.