Baton Rouge residents can embrace their appetites for life downtown today.
“Appetite for Life,” a Web-based MSN show hosted by Andrew Zimmern, is filming at North Boulevard Town Square in front of a live audience from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
“We’ll be at Town Square [today] rain or shine,” said Woody Thompson, the show’s creator.
Thompson said the show’s theme for this season is Southern hospitality, and New Orleans, Gulfport, Miss., Jackson, Miss. and Vicksburg, Miss., are on the agenda after this stop. The crew is visiting five cities in five days.
Two award-winning chefs will face off in a jambalaya cook-off, and the public will judge the best dish, said Christina Zito, communications coordinator for Visit Baton Rouge.
Zimmern will assist the competing chefs by helping cook and sharing a few tricks of the trade, Thompson said.
Zito said the jambalaya will be sold to the public for $5, with proceeds going toward Capital Area United Way.
There will also be a food truck round-up where each truck will sell Cajun-themed dishes, Zito said. Ten percent of the food trucks’ profits will be donated to United Way.
“We want to attract a big crowd and get people downtown to check it out,” Zito said.
After the jambalaya cook-off, Zimmern will meet a local accordion maker and learn how to fais-do-do at Boutin’s Restaurant.
“If people show up, we’ll definitely get them integrated in the piece, whether it’s judging, dancing or cheering the chefs on,” Thompson said.
The portion of St. Louis Street crossing Town Square will be blocked off from 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. because of the filming, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.
 
 
 
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Contact Emily Herrington at [email protected]