Back in the summer of 2001, Fox & Friends was hosting a Labor Day Cookout show and they invited three chefs to prepare outdoor recipes and somehow or another I made the cut. So I reached out to Bell & Evans Chicken and they wanted in so I went to NY and represented Bell & Evans Chicken. I prepared Grilled Andouille stuffed Chicken Breast. The morning of the demonstration I was all ready to go. Myself, Marc Murphy and another chef were set up on Sixth Avenue waiting our turns. A few minutes before air time Steve Doocy and E.D. Donahey came over to me and introduced themselves. We quickly went over how my three minutes (or less) would go. I was a little nervous but had rehearsed many times so I was confident and this certainly wasn’t my first rodeo. Yet E.D. was strikingly beautiful and every time she looked at me I had trouble concentrating. About thirty seconds before air she asked me how to pronounce my name.
“Is it May-Lick or Mah-Lick?”
“Mah-Lick” I replied, “John Malik.”
“Malik, Malik, what a great name, E.D. Malik.” The words came out of her mouth so slowly, as if she were channeling Ginger from Gilligan’s Island. “I’d love to have that for a last name.”
I was somewhat taken aback.
“Are you proposing?” I asked.
“Ten Seconds,” hollered the director.
She faced me, her eyes lit up, she put her right hand on her hip, smiled and asked, “Are ya single?”
“Well no ma’am, that’s my wife and son right over there.”
Long exhale. “Well then, I guess I’m not proposing, am I.”
At that point the director stabbed his finger in our direction and we were on. E.D. eventually married Joe Hill.
5 Responses
ha! great story! those TV demos can be a lot of fun, but the stress and preparation that leads up to them is a lot to handle (I did a few when The Book Lover’s Cookbook was published). She must have had every confidence you could pull it off. 🙂
God, your right, you have always looked old, what was she thinking LoL
Only kidding, great story
It’s cuz you’re so damn cute!
😉
Made me laugh! Thanks for sharing. What a fun memory! 🙂