Over the weekend, I got to hang out, cook with and eat with Anna Olson (yes! you can scream, like I did when I found out I was going to shoot with her). Now to give you a bit of perspective to how great of a chef/host/person this women is, here are her credentials:

1) She has been hosting her own shows since 2002

2) She has 7 cook books under her belt (Inn on the Twenty Cookbook, Sugar, Anna & Michael Olson Cook at Home: Recipes for Everyday and Every Occasion, Another Cup of Sugar, In The Kitchen With Anna: New Ways With The Classics, Fresh with Anna Olson and Back to Baking: 200 Timeless Recipes to Bake, Share, Enjoy)

3) She is married to a chef and lives in Niagara Ontario, Canada. I told her my diploma is Canadian, she was like no way! and gave me a high five!

4) She is possibly the nicest human being I have ever met in my entire life

Safe to say, that last Saturday was possibly the best day of my life. Not only did I get to take her out to my favourite part of KL (Petaling Street) I also got to feed her our favourite breakfast Nasi Lemak with Kopi Ice. Then we moved on to my kitchen where I taught her how to cook a variety of rice dishes (I can’t tell you what, you will just have to wait for the show to see) , which she said was the biggest takeaway from our time together in the kitchen. Anna Olson was delighted that someone taught her how to make rice fluffy!!! and that person was me (pats myself on the back)

My biggest take away from the day was how to be open and to talk about what you know, to share about who you are, and what you stand for, on screen. She shared that it was this very attitude that got her on TV. She was making an apple pie for her first screen test and could not stop talking about the apples she had brought. In her head she said ‘stop talking about them bloody apples Anna!’ but that was what the TV station liked about her screen test and she was chosen because she was sharing what she knew. She also shared some insights on cooking and baking and we shared some grandmother stories on how we learnt how to cook. All in all the experiences are way too similar, but mine are just slightly premature, that is all.

Truth be told, there were so much giggling and sharing of what we knew that it seemed like I was hanging out with a friend. I thank my lucky stars to be able to meet amazing people like Anna and her crew who made me feel so comfortable on set and were so open to me just being myself.

My snippet with Anna Olson will be out on Inspired with Anna on Asian Food Channel in July 2016. So stay tuned to more updates.