Gannon students dish up cooking shows

Asociated Press

ERIE, Pa.

Gannon University’s communications department has taken its students out of the classroom and into the kitchen.

The video preproduction and performance class at Gannon had 13 communications and journalism students put together their own show from beginning to end. That includes all the production, editing and on-screen performances.

The end product was their own cooking show called “A Knight in the Kitchen.”

The concept was simple: in each episode, the students prepare an easy, college-friendly dish for under $20 while sharing the history and trivia about each dish.

A grant from the Schuster Fund for the Arts paid for the food used in the production, and some of their work will be translated into part of a student-faculty art show.

“Our chairman kind of challenged us to do something different,” said Mary Carol Gensheimer, one of the two instructors of the class. “He said, ‘Why don’t you do something that would give folks good portfolio experience?’”

Each episode was filmed in Gensheimer’s own kitchen. Gensheimer was in charge of the performance side, while fellow communications professor David Blaetz watched over the production.

The kitchen presented its own challenges, like low-hanging lights getting in the way for one of the performers or Gensheimer’s pets making unscheduled cameos on screen.

“When you’re doing something on live video and you can’t do two takes of flipping an egg over when you need that egg late, you kind of have to learn to roll with the punches,” said Abby Badach, a senior journalism and communications major.

The students also had to produce “field packages,” in which they went on-scene to places like Mason Farms to add an extra dimension to the episodes.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been asked to go and shoot a full production on a site. I’ve never been told in a class to go on location every single class,” said Beth Gaertner, a junior communications arts major.

Episode subjects have included things like chili, a “spooktacular” breakfast, ramen noodle salad and cooking out on Gensheimer’s back porch.

“Every episode takes on a life of its own,” said Badach. “It’s fun to just see how things unfold. Every host has a different style, so coming from a production side, you really learn to be flexible. ... Everything you learned in other classes comes together in a very real context.”

So why food?

“I don’t know. We saw Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri, and students are always interested in food,” Gensheimer said.

Each episode rotated in different performers and directors and shuffled around the production crew so everyone got varied experiences.