www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday July 12, 2006 - 27 Zappacosta at Jazz on the Sixteen Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate, in partnership with The Invidiata Team Remax Aboutowne Realty Corp., is presenting the sixth annual Jazz on the Sixteen on Saturday, Sept, 16, featuring premier jazz artist Alfie Zappacosta. This evening begins with cocktails and live music on the West Porch, followed by a mouth-watering fusion feast. Guests will be treated to the sounds of Alfie Zappacosta. Multi-award winning actor, songwriter, musician, and premier vocalist Zappacosta promises to deliver an evening of original sultry jazz tunes as well as timeless standards all performed in Zappacosta style. "Jazz on the Sixteen is Oakville Museums' annual fundraiser with a lot of pizzazz," said Susan Crane, Manager at Oakville Museum. "Proceeds of the evening will go towards phase two of the Erchless Historic Wall, Gardens and Fence Restoration Project a restoration of the Erchless Estate gardens back to the original 1920's courtyard." Tickets for Jazz on the Sixteen are $100 per person or $750 for a table of eight. Charitable tax receipts will be issued. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Oakville Museum at 905-3384400. Jazz on the Sixteen would not be possible without the generous support from The Invidiata Team Remax Aboutowne Realty Corp., Arborlea Residential Design Group, Wave 94.7 FM Smooth Jazz, WEST of the City, Oakville Today, Paradiso Restaurant, House of Flowers, Oakville Blue Printing & Copy Centre, Royal Bank of Canada, Higgins Party Rentals, Pats Party Rentals, The Hilton Garden Inn Toronto/Oakville, Circus Chocolates and Yamaha Canada Music Ltd Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate is located at 8 Navy Street in downtown Oakville and is open Tuesdays to Sundays and Holiday Mondays from 1 - 4:30 p.m. For more information call 905-3384400 or visit www.oakvillemuseum.ca. BARRIE ERSKINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER FULL PLATE : Oakville resident Naela Choudhary is the co-producer and director of I Do ... Let's Eat! now airing on the Food Network across Canada. Oakville TV producer sinks her teeth into wedding menu in I Do ... Let's Eat! By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF "Mom, I want a job PROGRAMMING VIDEO GAMES" Your child is a 9 to 17 year old "gamer" who is good at math without trying. Some day, s/he may even want a job programming video games. We can teach your child game programming using real programming languages such as Visual Basic, Java and C++. Experience matters. Summer 2006 will be our 6th summer camp in Oakville! Young kids can use Visual Basic to create Pacman, Frogger, King Kong, Worms or Donkey Kong games. Teens can start in more advanced projects such as building a Mario game or creating their own 3D worlds in Direct X. The really advanced can use C++ to program RPG games, Half-Life Mods, Game Engines or Online RPGs! The maximum class size is only 4 students per instructor. To schedule a FREE TRIAL CLASS Call Real Programming 4 Kids 416.469.9676 www.realprogramming.com Naela Choudhary's mom made a special request for a rice dish at a family wedding that spurred the idea for a TV series. To ensure the dish was included on the menu on wedding day, a second chef had to be brought in. "There was all this drama, and I asked my mom, `Why does it matter so much?'" said Choudhary, a Mississauga native who moved to Oakville four years ago. "My mom said, `There are only two reasons people go to weddings. One is to look at the bride, the other is to eat the food.'" That was the beginning of I Do...Let's Eat!, a documentary series Choudhary co-created that tracks the importance of the wedding food of diverse cultures while showing the emotion and excitement of the big nuptial day. "It's really the story behind the food at a wedding, and what's at stake for everyone," said Choudhary, who is also series director of the 13-episode documentary, which airs on the Food Network. "In a lot of cultures, food is key it's the most important thing." The show follows a bride and the chef on the day before and day of the wedding, while meeting the rest of the family, wedding planner, and documenting their experiences, all with a focus on the food. "One bride told me if the food isn't good, the wedding isn't good," said Choudhary, who has been producing and directing TV programs for more than a decade. "There are all kinds of customs around the food. For some, it's quantity, for others, it's that the food is hot." After ranking in the top 10 on the Food Network last year, I Do...Let's Eat! is currently airing its second season. "Every show is different, every story is very different," said Choudhary, who got her start in TV journalism at the CBC, where she worked as a researcher, writer and associate producers for shows like The National, Sunday Report and Newsmagazine. "Sometimes it's a story about the bride, sometimes it's a story about the mom, the chef, the food." Sometimes the wedding runs smoothly. Sometimes it doesn't. "You never really know what's going to happen on the wedding day," she said, smiling. "There's always something, whether the guests know it or not." Brides showing up an hour late, power outages during meals, disasters in the kitchen I Do...Let's Eat! has documented a lot of different situations. "This show is a lot of fun to work on, I absolutely love it," said Choudhary, who admitted it's "very different" from her work at the CBC and with other networks, like The Discovery Channel and Global TV. "I like the real emotion in stories, which we get here. We celebrate with the couple, and every story is so unique and different. That's the joy for me." After producing programs for The Discovery Channel, documentaries for Vision TV and a lifestyle series on Global TV, in 2002, Choudhary became a freelance director and has since directed a number of lifestyle series'. "I always wanted to be a director, ever since I was eight years old," she said. "This is my love." With I Do...Let's Eat!, she's managed to combine that love with something else she's always been a fan of food. "It's a passion," she said, smiling. "I'm fascinated by kitchens, especially industrial kitchens, and looking at how you deal with really large quantity cooking where you have to make 700 cabbage rolls instead of a dozen. It takes a full team working at 100 per cent to pull it off." The show has been a learning experience for Choudhary, who is unmarried and has yet to go through the hectic preparations for a wedding banquet herself. Each hour-long episode usually takes a few months of research, meeting the bride, groom, chef, wedding planners and family members, before it's ready for taping. "It's important that the couple is 100 per cent ready for this," she said. "At the end of the day, it's someone's wedding. We don't want to ruin that experience." Couples interested in applying to be on I Do...Let's Eat!, which airs Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. on the Food Network, should email weddingbanquet@sympatico.ca -- Krissie Rutherford can be reached at krutherford@oakvillebeaver.com Look for XS Cargo's flyer in Wednesday's Oakville Beaver (*Selected areas only) 1224 Dundas Street East, Mississauga - 905-270-3933 Unit C,1510 North Service Road, Burlington- 905-335-6533