Don’t look now, but Susan Sands of Alpharetta will soon be appearing on TV screens nationwide.
After submitting her story on winning a cooking competition using Tony Chachere's® Famous Creole Cuisine, Sands found herself being whisked off to New Orleans to play a major role in a national TV commercial for the seasoning company.
It all started when Sands responded to this Facebook post: "We’re looking to feature you and your award-winning recipe in a national television campaign! If you’ve ever won a national, regional or local cooking competition at a festival or at the fair, and your recipe included Tony’s, we’d love to hear about it."
Sands, author of "Again, Alabama," submitted a chicken and rice recipe that had taken top honors in a todayshow.com Home Chef Challenge.
“I grew up with that familiar green Tony Chachere’s can always in the house,” said Sands in a press release. “I am also an avid recipe blogger and many have a local flavor to them – and include Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning.”
The 30-second TV commercial, which airs nationwide, is set at a festival during which Sands tells the nation how she uses the seasoning in her recipe.
Sands was born in Lafayette, La., not far from the Tony Chachere headquarters.
Sands' family has ties to the Chachere family, too: "My dad grew up in the same town where the Chachere family is from," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She said her grandfather knew the titular Chachere, Tony, and hunted with him.
“Having the chance to come back home and be in a national commercial was a truly wonderful adventure for me," she said in the release.
Sands didn't do any prep work for the filming, she told the AJC — except, "I got a manicure and got my hair done."
The set, with its many different extras, was just like a movie, she said. "When it (came) to looking at a camera and having 50 people staring at me when I'm trying to be expressive, it was unnerving," she said.
But the director and other crew were "awesome" and "very supportive," she said.
The food stylist for the production, who actually made the dish for the camera from Sands' recipe, had kind words for her, too: Sands said she told her, "When I get somebody's recipe who's not an actual chef or cook, I have to recreate it my own way. (But yours) came out perfect!"
Tony Chachere’s Famous Creole Cuisine, based in Opelousas, La., was founded in 1972 by Tony Chachere, the “Ole Master” of Creole cooking.
