Camille Komine is bracing for the power of television.
When her food truck is featured Monday in the Food Network series "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," the producers of the show told her to expect sales to increase anywhere from 30 percent to 400 percent.
The popular series, hosted by restaurateur Guy Fieri, visited Komine in April to shoot a five-minute segment on the "Coast to Coast Chow" episode. Her food truck, Camille’s on Wheels, specializes in "comfort food with a twist," said Komine, who lives in Kaneohe. She served Fieri a pair of Argentine-inspired dishes: tacos with beef cooked in chimichurri sauce and a sausage sandwich called choripan. Dessert? Mango pie.
"The parting words from Guy were, ‘You’re going to blow up,’" Komine said.
And then Fieri left with a second mango pie.
For the 53-year-old Komine, her appearance on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" is a bit of deja vu. She spent 27 years in the film and television industry, working mostly in set decoration, purchasing props to make a scene look authentic and as a food stylist making beautiful food to fit a scene. Her resume on IMDB.com includes the TV shows "Baywatch: Hawaii" and "Entourage" and the films "Battleship," "The Descendants" and "The Tempest."
In January 2011 she decided to leave the industry and pursue her passion for food, jumping into the business with a bright blue-and-green truck with fusion tacos, pies and her homemade green chimichurri sauce.
"My heart is singing again," she said. "The first question is no longer, ‘Do you know this celebrity?’ Instead, it’s, ‘Did you make this?’ It’s heartwarming."
Komine isn’t sure how "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" found her — maybe because of the good reviews she received at the online sites Yelp and Gayot — but it was a complete surprise, she said.
When the cameras rolled, Fieri was a spiky-blond force of nature.
"He’s way over-the-top," Komine said. "I would say there is definitely a persona, but he is authentic. However he gathers himself, he does, and when he is on, it is all him."
HIGH ABOVE Hawaii, cameras have been rolling since June on a new reality series that features the drama involved in emergency medical transport.
"Hawaii Air Rescue," which will air on the Weather Channel starting Sept. 5, will focus on crews from Hawaii Life Flight as they fetch patients from the neighbor islands and fly them to Oahu, said Chuck Smith, the series producer. There will be six half-hour episodes.
It’s been a grueling but rewarding experience.
"Our camera people are on call, 24 hours a day just like the flight medics but they never get any days off," Smith said. "I go to bed at night and never know when the phone will ring."
The 49-year-old New Yorker recently produced a series about pilots in Alaska.
The weather here hasn’t contributed much to the stories, although landings on Maui have been turbulent and Waimea on Hawaii island can be shrouded in clouds. Instead, the story is as simple as a burly firefighter-turned-paramedic holding the hand of a frightened patient, Smith said.
"Yes we have had some drama with the flights but it’s more about the caring of the patients," he said. "These flight medics and paramedics are seeing people during their worst possible nightmare times. It is their job to keep people comfortable and it’s wonderful to watch."
AND that’s a wrap …
Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
