RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Martha Stewart to meet Joe Barnett on national TV broadcast next week
That's already pretty tall cotton. But on top of that the custom drapery designer will also get to talk about the joys of his high-end custom work in Southern homes and inns with one of America's top decorating divas, getting enormous free publicity. To top it off, he'll get to tell the world not only about Washington and Wilkes County, but the Georgia wild shrimp industry while he's on national TV - all in two sixminute segments. Is he ready? "I'm ready for them, but I don't know if they're quite ready for me," he said with that trademark grin. He's already taken the producers and staff of The Martha Stewart Show by heart. They tell him they've been looking forward to his visit since they first watched his highenergy audition video.
In the short video made by Bradley and Katherine Barber's Hanna's House Productions, Barnett cooks up his award-winning shrimp-andgrits spiced with subtle Southern humor, served up by a classic Southern man with an infectious laugh; a man who talks and thinks a whole lot faster than most folks expect, even with his generations-deep Georgia accent. The staff, of course, fell in love. In the video, Barnett pokes fun at non-Southerner's stereotypes of Georgians. He had the staff in stitches suggesting a wine to go with the dish - "a nice Washington State Riesling, which comes highly recommended by my friend Bubba down at the truck stop." The rest of the world will discover Barnett on Fox TV nationwide nedxt week during two segments of The Martha Stewart Show's feature "America Cooks." In addition to showing Martha Stewart how good wild Georgia shrimp can be, Barnett hopes to get across a taste of life in the rural South. "The show features people all over America who really love to cook, and have a close relationship to their area, who have a strong sense of civic pride," he said. "I want to show that living in Washington is like going back in time 50 or 60 years, in all the good ways." They also will be talking about Joe's business, Style South Custom Draperies, and he'll be glad to tell Stewart about it. "I absolutely love what I do," he said. "My job is like a time machine. When I come to work, I work on things like the 1841 cornices originally from Robert Toombs' house. I'm working on three hotels and seven homes, and the youngest one dates from 1891. I just get in my time machine and go back." He also hopes to talk about the Georgia wild shrimp industry, which sponsored the inaugural Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival at Jekyll Island last September. His signature recipe for General Oglethorpe's Cajun Style shrimp and grits, prepared with the assistance of his wife, Debbie, and son, Bryan, was first place winner in the contest. That recipe is being retired, and he'll return this year as reigning champ with another favorite recipe, a Northern Italian dish, to try out. His former teammate, son Bryan, will be his competitor at the Jekyll Island festival. "It's going to be something," Joe said. "They said they expect 30,000 people this year." After Tuesday's live cooking show, Joe said, the Barnetts won't be hanging around long in the big city. "We were up there shopping just last summer," he said, "and I'm not that big a fan of New York City - I've got too much country in me. So in a couple of days I'll be looking for red clay." In Washington, the Martha Stewart Show is seen at noon on WFXG broadcast channel 54. On Comcast cable, WFXG is on channel 10. DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers can see the show on their NBC station at 10 a.m. each day. Segments of the program are expected to be rerun later in the season, Barnett said. And Barnett's visit will stay a Martha Stewart staff favorite.
"Whenever they need to get away to Washington, Georgia for a few minutes, they can just pop us in there," he laughed. "It's got to be tough, living in New York City."
|
for larger version       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
)
