American Music Awards Gifting Suite: Behind The Scenes With A Celebrity Chef And Dancing With The Stars
Saturday was an exciting day for a certain crazy cook from Tuscany, Italy!
We were at an undisclosed Hollywood studio location for the American Music Awards pre-party gifting suite. A place where up-and-coming celebrities get to meet vendors and sample products, before the awards. The way it works is that celebs are personally invited to the party and show up with their agents, where they are introduced to the room and collect a giant bag of “swag”.
Hollywood Icon Magazine was there to cover one of the most amazing people we have ever met… she is a spunky, joyful sprite of a woman, who does not speak a word of English… but, boy can she cook! There is never a dull moment with Mamma Mariella, aka “Crazy Mama!” She completely charms everyone who meets her, with her bubbly personality and mouth-watering cooking. She has a special way of communicating, across culture and language lines. She makes you feel like the world is full of wonder.
Oh, and the food… Well, let’s just say that dozens of Hollywood celebrities were stopped in their tracks by Mamma’s delectable lasagna! Actor after actor had their mouths hanging wide open and their bright eyes told the story… this food is out of this world!
Mamma spends 6 months a year in Italy and 6 months in Orange County, teaching cooking classes which include her crazy personality, mixed with some serious learning! She is about to release a new book which highlights her cooking and we cannot wait to see it!
As the day went on, Mamma met stars like USA Soccer star Cobi Jones, Bobby Ray Shafer (Bob Vance) from The Office, Marilu Henner (Taxi) and Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show). It was an exciting day, to say the least. Mamma is famous for carrying a giant rolling pin- 3 to 4 times as long as a regular one. This is what she uses to roll her scrumptious dough. The celebs were laughing and eating and jumping up and down with love for Mamma. She had many of the starts hugging her and kissing her cheeks. Some of them would even converse with her in broken Italian. We thought that the day could not go any better…
Or so we thought…
Near the end of a long, 5 hour day, the gifting suite announcer asked for the room’s attention. It seems that Dancing With The Stars finalist, Kyle Massey, had loved Mamma Mariella’s food and the show was requesting her to come cater for Dancing With The Stars! What an incredible breakthrough! It took a few minutes to translate to Mamma, just how big this accomplishment was. Of course, she was elated and was looking forward to the week of cooking.
These are the types of stories that happen, behind the scenes, in Hollywood all the time. This is what makes this city exciting! We look forward to see what is in the future for our lovely celebrity chef!
Props to Caren Lazarus and her wonderful company, Design Visage, who hosted the day!
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