Rock ‘n Roll Ghost: How did you first get involved with Food Wars?
Camille Ford: I’ve been traveling and eating my whole life. It was just a natural fit. Somebody I had known told me that they were looking for someone to do this job. I went in and I talked to them and it just made sense. I literally love to travel. I am incredibly competitive. And I’m a huge eater, so the idea of hosting a show about competitive eating is something that made sense.
What has the experience been like so far?
CF: Awesome! Okay, let’s pretend for a second that you get to travel and eat awesome food in random cities and you get paid for it and then get your hair and makeup done on top of that.
Everything else but the hair and makeup maybe…
CF: You don’t have to pretend with me. I know you like it.
What was the most interesting trip of the first set of shows?
CF: Definitely Chicago. Chicago’s insane. Chicago’s one of those places that’s definitely an onion. There’s so many layers. I’ve been to Chicago many times before for many different things and every time I go it’s a completely different experience. There’s so many characters there. There’s a reason why Chicago is the city it is. The corruption, the passion, the food, the museums, the history…when you think of Chicago from the 1800s on, it’s been a pretty powerful city. I feel like a lot of the families in Chicago stayed in Chicago, so you still have really strong personalities and blood lines. That makes a difference. When you’ve been a DiStefano since the 1800s when the DiStefanos first moved to Chicago then you’re still a DiStefano and you can feel that blood line. It’s pretty incredible.
Can you tell me about your career history before this? Did you have any culinary or food writing experience?
CF: I’ve done some undercover food writing stuff, as far as in the city going to restaurants. A lot of my friends are food critics, so I’d go with them and kind of dabble in that. It’s like music. You either get it or you don’t. You don’t have to have a master’s degree in music to know when Led Zeppelin sounds amazing or when Jimmy Buffet sounds like [an idiot]. I think it’s the same with food. If you have a passion and a desire to really dissect what you’re eating and to appreciate every flavor and note.
What city was the most pleasurable for food that you’ve filmed so far?
CF: I really love me some pastrami. And New York really puts together a pastrami sandwich. There’s really nothing better than a hot, juicy pastrami on rye with mustard. I don’t care if it’s winter, summer, fall or spring, pastrami always tastes good.
What were the restaurants for that show?
CF: It was Second Avenue Deli and Katz’s.
Katz’s is the one that everyone outside of New York knows. It’s going to be an interesting battle to see.
Where are you from originally and where are you located at now?
CF: I have seven brothers and sisters and that segues into this conversation because when you have seven kids your dad kind of moves around a lot to make sure he has a good job. Oregon, Utah and Arizona. I spent most of my high school and under grad in Arizona, so I guess that’s where I’m really from. I live in New York and I’ve been in New York for about eight years.
What were you doing before you got on board with the Travel Channel?
CF: I had done some stuff with the Food Network and some stuff with Sirius satellite radio. A lot of theater, a lot of indie films, a lot of voiceover stuff in New York. I’m also an adventure guide. So I was taking people white water rafting in Virginia or ice climbing in New Hampshire.
How did you get into that?
CF: I don’t know if I ever got out of it. I kind of started when I was 2, jumping off of cliffs at the lake near our house. My nickname growing up was ‘Cami Kamikaze” I just loved putting myself in tricky situations. When I was 14 or 15 I started taking people on crazy hikes and it just blossomed into a little bit of a career?
How many episodes will there be for Food Wars and do you expect there to be more?
CF: Right now we filmed twelve. I love watching this show and so I hope that other people love watching the show.
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