'Down Home with The Neelys" Food Network stars Pat and Gina Neely were in town recently to promote their popular cooking show, which can now be seen via Cignal. Photo by Bernard Testa, InterAksyon.com.
Some people will often tell you to never work with your friends, or worse, with your spouse, especially since you might lose time for yourself or lose the boundaries between your professional versus personal life.
For Patrick (Pat) and Gina Neely, these warnings did not matter and the couple proved everyone wrong. Even more amazing, they’ve also refuted another age-old saying on too many cooks spoiling the broth. In their case, their cooking just became even tastier, exciting, and followed by their avid TV viewers in the US.
Pat and Gina Neely are known for their cooking show “Down Home with the Neelys,” which is aired on Food Network, a television channel in the United States and a network seen in more than 90 million households that features best recipe ideas, cooking techniques and other food-related topics. Also, Pat and Gina have endeared their viewers with their jokes and their singing and dancing skills while cooking.
Pat and Gina Neely on the set of their real-life home kitchen. Photo source: www.foodnetwork.com.
The cooking show was aired in February 2008 and in the five-year history of Food Network’s “In the Kitchen” weekend show, it became the highest-rated series debut. The Neely’s keep their wholesome personalities and cuisine as authentic as possible by filming episodes in their house in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s sort of like welcoming viewers each week to their actual home and kitchen.
During the couple’s recent visit to the Phiippines, InterAksyon.com was very fortunate to have an exclusive interview with the cooking duo and hosts behind the successful “Down Home with the Neelys” show in US.
The couple gladly shared their stories and experiences behind the scenes, on working together, and keeping their passion alive for cooking and each other!
On doing a cooking show
It all started when Gina did a segment in another Food Network show hosted by Jamie and Bobby Deen called “Road Tasted”, a TV show that searches for the best family-run food businesses in US while the hosts are driving around the state.
“We were on the show called the Road Tasted and Road Tasted was a show that you can ship a product so we were shipping our BBQ sauce and I actually partnered a segment with Jamie Deen and we were all just having a good time and the producer just sort of noticed our chemistry and said what do you guys think of doing a TV show?” Gina said.
“We didn’t find TV, TV found us,” Gina added.
For more than four years now, since the couple started working together on TV, they’ve been sharing their secrets behind their dishes and passion for food. In that span of time, there’s still a challenging part: “I would have to say that the show itself is the most challenging part. The exact measurement of the ingredients that you have to describe to the camera and to the audience,” Pat revealed.
However, the easiest part for Pat was “Gina and I have been cooking together for over 20 years as husband and wife way before ‘Down Home with the Neelys.’ We have a great chemistry, we enjoy cooking together and we know how to work well together.”
Gina also added that the one of the best parts of their show was that it is is not scripted and there’s no teleprompter. “All we have are the day’s recipes. I never really tell Pat what I’m to say. He doesn’t say what he’s gonna say so when we get on set, we just kinda play with each other.”
On managing work, relationship, and marriage
When asked on how they manage working together plus their marriage relationship, Gina humorously said: “Balancing work and marriage? He stays out of my way.”
“My mouth is closed,” Pat replied delightfully.
But on a more serious note, the two shared that they know the limitations and the boundaries of their relationship as workmates and as a married couple. “But when business is business, whether it is the business of our household, the business of restaurants, or as co-hosts in the show or co-authors in cookbooks, we work pretty well together and most of the time we know what each other is thinking. I never had to cook a pot roast and say, ‘I wonder if Gina would want carrots and potatoes in it.’”
On their recipes and dishes
Pat and Gina are popularly known for their BBQ dishes and recipes. Last 2011, the couple opened their first New York restaurant, the Neelys BBQ Parlor. But what most people think wrongly is their dishes are only BBQ recipes. “Based on the fact that we’re running a BBQ restaurant, people think that they’re gonna BBQ and people have labelled us as such. I think a lot of people would be amazed at (and not really shocked) but the fact that we also do a lot of savory dishes and a lot of stews, chilies, lasagnas and spaghetti,” Pat said.
On the other hand, Gina is proudest of her ox tail’s stew because the dish has a sentimental value for her. “That was my great great grandmother’s favorite recipe..and it is more about paying homage to our ancestors. That was the greatest dish I ever made because it has memories for me as well.”
For Pat and Gina Neely, there’s something beyond than doing the cooking show.
Pat added, “‘Down Home with the Neelys’ is so much more than a cooking show, we hope a lot of people get a lot from our show and particularly even here in the Philippines. We love cooking great dishes, we love cooking traditional dishes that were handed down from grandparents to parents but more so we want to stress about family —cooking with your kids, inviting family members over, and cooking with your spouse,” Pat said.
The Philippines can now watch and catch some Southern BBQ recipes and culinary tips from Pat and Gina Neely. “Down Home with Neelys” will be shown on Food Network Asia in High Definition (HD) on Cignal.
Just for taste, here’s a sampling of of one of Pat and Gina’s popular grilled chicken dish from www.foodnetwork.com :
Known for their tasty but easy grilled recipes, here's Pat and Gina Neely's Butterfly Chicken with Lemon and Thyme dish that Filipinos families will love to prepare and eat. Photo source: www.foodnetwork.com.
Butterfly Chicken with Lemon and Thyme
For the chicken:
1 (1½ kg) chicken
60 ml olive oil, plus more for greasing griddle
2 tsps lightly crushed fennel seeds
2 tsps chopped fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Simple green salad, for serving (recipe follows)
For the simple green salad:
140 g spring mixed greens
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Juice of 1 lemon
60 ml olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Butterfly chicken with lemon and thyme
For the chicken:
1) Turn the chicken breast-side down. Use kitchen shears to cut out the backbone of the chicken. Flip the chicken back over and press it down flat with the palms of your hands against the cutting board to open it up like a book. Place the chicken in a large zip-top bag.
2) Whisk together the olive oil, fennel seeds, thyme, garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Pour the marinade over the chicken and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 1 day.
3) Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.
4) Use a clean tea towel and wipe the grill grates with oil. Remove the chicken from the marinade and place skin-side down on the grill and close the lid. Grill until the skin is nice and golden and crisp, about 15 minutes.
5) Once the chicken has nice golden grill marks, turn the grill to medium-low heat. Flip the chicken again, close the grill lid and continue cooking until a thermometer reaches 70 degrees C when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, 20 to 25 minutes longer. Check the chicken occasionally to make sure it’s not burning and rotate as necessary.
6) Cut into 6 to 8 pieces before serving. Serve the chicken on a platter with the simple green salad.
For the simple green salad:
1) Add the greens to large bowl. Add the mustard and lemon juice to another bowl. Drizzle in the olive oil while whisking to emulsify. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. Toss the greens with the dressing and transfer to a platter.
• Cignal is a Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite provider. It broadcasts commercial venues nationwide to several households using the DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) technology. Food Network HD on Cignal is on Ch. 102. (http://www.cignal.tv/Home.aspx)
