Nah, nothing like that. She and her husband Guy seem quite happy together.
She is a nice lady and comes across offstage much warmer than she does on camera.
That being said, this year was my least satisfactory experience doing the Simon Mall's Superchef series. I've done it here in Memphis all three years of its existence.
There was very little backstage "control," caused I think by the fact that the traveling "chef" was a 20-year old girl. This person is responsible for all the set up for the demos and organization. This person must also exude a sense of knowing what's going on and control. Don't know how this situation came about. The previous two years this position was occupied by 40-something year old male chefs with many years experience. Backstage was chaos.
The producer offered no explanation.
Also, when I agreed to do this the deal was my students would volunteer their time *all* day and I would be there most of the day in addition to doing a 45-minute food and wine pairing demo with a sommelier. In exchange for this I asked only that my books be made available on the WaldenBooks kiosk alongside Mary Ann's. I had asked her if she minded and she said no problem.
I don't ordinarily donate a day of my time to a commercial event (i.e. non- charity) gratis. I do this event primarily so my students will get some exposure to "celebrity"chefs and see what really goes on backstage at these things.
The producer would not allow my books on the kiosk until I did my demo - which was quite late in the day.
Mary Ann was great. Bill Boggs was just dandy as usual. But, I think next year when they call and ask my students to volunteer a day of their time to help out, we'll pass.
I think they will be hard pressed to find competent help elsewhere around here.
