If you smelled some delicious scents wafting out of a Humphrey Street backyard last month, there’s a good reason why. Resident Alli Berkey is a culinary producer for “America’s Test Kitchen,” and she filmed a new series called “Grill Next Door” over three weeks in her backyard this month.
“It’s a new show about outdoor grilling, and it’s based around Morgan Bolling,” Berkey told the Current. Bolling is the executive creative director for Cook’s Country Magazine.
There are eight episodes of “Grill Next Door,” and each episode has a different “hosting theme with smart technique tips,” Berkey said.
The first episode is called “Burger Two Ways.”
“Morgan and another coworker developed a burger recipe,” she explained. “One is for a charcoal grill, and one is a smash burger cooked on a gas grill.”
They cook and eat the burgers at side-by-side grills.
Other themes included “outdoor steakhouse” and “tailgate.”
For the tailgate episode, Bolling prepared charred guacamole, smoked chicken wings, make-ahead ice cream sandwiches and pull-apart pizza dip. That was Berkey’s favorite episode.
The 15-person crew worked 14-hour days.
“It was a pretty big thing… lights, camera, grip. It was like a real film set,” Berkey said. “My backyard didn’t feel big enough.”
Her neighbors “either loved us or hated us,” she said.
“We did feed them pretty well,” she added.
The filming went fairly smoothly, except for the time when Berkey’s labradoodle, Joey, stole a raw tenderloin off the kitchen counter. He also lapped up a kettle of Carolina fish stew that spilled.
The series now goes into editing and should be ready to view in April, Berkey said. Then she’ll pitch it around and see who may want to pick it up.
Meanwhile, Berkey is leaving her backyard and heading back into the offices of “America’s Test Kitchen” in Boston to work on other projects.
“It’s back to the normal routine for me,” she said.
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist.
