THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608060172
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 147 lines
IN TWO WEEKS, internationally syndicated TV journalist Burt Wolf has learned more about Virginia Beach than many residents will know in a lifetime.
Wolf has visited Oceana Naval Air Station and watched a jet squadron fly in from sea duty. He has toured the Virginia Marine Science Museum, the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Center at the de Witt Cottage and the Old Coast Guard Station museum.
He's eaten in restaurants across the city from Blue Pete's in Pungo to the Lucky Star off Shore Drive. He's taken in the city's bountiful harvest by visiting the Farmers Market and Baybreeze Farms, a roadside stand near Sandbridge.
Wolf has read Stephen Mansfield's ``Princess Anne County and Virginia Beach, A Pictorial History'' and met with Mansfield for lunch. To learn even more about the city's history, he's toured the Adam Thoroughgood, Lynnhaven and Francis Land houses.
He's walked on the beach, gone on a dolphin watch and ridden on a Coast Guard boat. All the while, he was videotaping his experiences.
``The idea is we go to a city, hang around, read about it and see what I think makes that city unique,'' Wolf said. ``What's different here in this city?''
Now, the award-winning journalist is boiling his visit down to four 30-minute television programs that will be aired next year. Two will be on ``Burt Wolf's Origins'' series on 275 Public Broadcasting Service stations and two on ``A Taste for Travel with Burt Wolf,'' a Travel Channel series.
Short vignettes of his visit will be aired in several 1 1/2-minute segments, known as ``What's Cooking with Burt Wolf,'' a daily news report on Cable News Network. These should begin showing up in a couple of months.
An estimated 190 million viewers worldwide watch Wolf's various programs. That means his take on Virginia Beach's ``origins'' will reach viewers right here in the United States as well as in far-away places like Europe and Asia.
Barker Campbell and Farley, the advertising agency that arranged Wolf's visit for the city's Department of Convention and Visitor Development, estimates the TV exposure to be worth about $5 million in advertising.
For 22 years, Burt Wolf has been reporting from around the world on good cooks, great places to go and high feasts, while celebrating a city's unique history and folklore.
As part of his visit here, he was hanging around the Francis Land House last week as families visited for a special Wednesday program on the way Colonial residents used the bounty of the land. Parents and children had the thrill of being filmed as Land House volunteers showed folks and camera alike how to process flax, make a candle or cook over an open fire.
The area's history is one of its unique attributes, Wolf discovered. ``It's the origin of the United States,'' he said, ``because the settlers landed here in 1607.''
The Navy presence in Virginia Beach is another of the city's unique features, Wolf said. The most profound experience he had here was watching the jet squadron return to Oceana from deployment exercises.
As a man who travels all over the world, the sight of the planes made him realize how free he really is, free to learn, free to work and above all, free to show up every day working for a press ``that is really free,'' he said.
``I'm sleeping tonight real comfortably,'' he went on, ``because these guys are out there on patrol. I'm never going to forget the return of the squadron.''
As for food, Wolf said, fresh seafood, fresh vegetables and good cooks are the city's special characteristic. ``There are a lot more talented cooks here than I would imagine in a metropolis this size,'' he said.
The first week of his two-week visit, Wolf was in residence at the Cavalier Hotel alone. That's when he visited various attractions, read up on the area's history and wrote the script and faxed it to his executive producer Emily Aronson in New York each evening.
``I spend time looking around,'' he said. ``I do the scouting and writing on my own with the help of the city and the agency and then the crew comes in.''
One day early in his visit, he met with Mayor Meyera Oberndorf for lunch at Timbuktu Restaurant on Atlantic Avenue where he would later film a cooking demonstration. The mayor, Wolf discovered, is another of the city's special features.
``Your mayor is fabulous,'' he said. ``If every elected official were like your mayor, this country would be a wonderful place to live.''
The second week, Aronson, Wolf's executive producer of 22 years, arrived with cameraman Robert Haley and audio soundman Edward Santano. Daniel Harrell, a local man, was the ``gaffer,'' who ``does everything else,'' as Harrell explained it.
Last week, the foursome could be found making pictures all over the city. Among the chosen sites was Baybreeze Farms, a roadside fruit and vegetable stand on Sandbridge Road.
Wolf put his money where his mouth was when he said Virginia Beach's fresh produce is one of its special features. He purchased a jar of bread and butter pickles and ate a whole ear of sweet corn, raw, right from the corn cart filled to overflowing with the juicy ears.
Virginia Beach resident Mia Adams had stopped at Baybreeze to buy corn for a crab picking she was hosting that afternoon. As she loaded corn by the dozens into sacks, she looked up and there was Wolf standing across the corn cart from her. Adams recognized the man with the distinctive white hair and beard and genial manner instantly. She told him she had just seen him yesterday and he was in Europe! On TV, that is.
``It's awesome! I'm excited,'' said Adams, who like everyone else, was thrilled at Wolf's presence in Virginia Beach.
Wolf filmed cooking demonstrations at both Timbuktu and the Lucky Star Restaurant. At Timbuktu, chef Willie Moats cooked up for the camera his lump crab cakes with shrimp and lobster, topped with pineapple salsa, served over fried leeks and garnished with fresh oregano flowers. In the five-hour session, Wolf also videotaped Timbuktu's busboy Jordan Cross creating his double fudge chocolate chip cake.
``He was laid back and all the staff liked him,'' Moats said.
Moats is speaking from experience. He got to know Wolf well over the two weeks he was in town because the TV star ate dinner at the restaurant three times and also came in for breakfast and lunch.
``I served him everything I could think of,'' Moats said. ``He'd come into the kitchen and we'd experiment. We really had a nice time with him. It's a high compliment that he came back so often.''
Wolf also did a film segment at the Old Coast Guard Station on the Oceanfront. Director Fielding Tyler said the group spent about 2 1/2 hours filming and looking around the museum. When Wolf scouted the museum the week before, Tyler had given him two background books to read and Wolf had done his homework, Tyler noted.
``When he came back, he had obviously read them,'' he said. ``He was a real charmer and easy to work with.''
And that's the way the rest of the beach also responded to this gourmet historian who took the time to get to know his subject well. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
STAR OF THE SHOW
Staff photos, including color cover, by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Burt Wolf, who has shows on PBS, the Travel Channel and CNN,
photographs activities at Francis Land House as part of a four-part
series.
Fresh seafood, fresh vegetables and good cooks are the city's
special characteristic, Wolf said. ``There are a lot more talented
cooks here than I would imagine in a metropolis this size,'' he
said.
Staff photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Burt Wolf's executive producer, Emily Aronson, interviews Vicki
Harvey, a program specialist for the Francis Land House.
ABOVE: Wolf takes notes while filming at Timbuktu Restaurant on
Atlantic Avenue for part of his four half-hour programs on Virginia
Beach.
LEFT: Wolf interviews Jordan Cross in the kitchen of the Timbuktu.
Cross, a busboy, makes a chocolate fudge chocolate chip cake
(pictured on the cover) that Wolf wanted to highlight.
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT by CNB