FYI’s new original series, “Rusty’s RockFeast: Backstage with Zac Brown Band,” follows Chef Rusty Hamlin, and the Grammy award-winning Zac Brown Band, as they tour the U.S. and cook up gourmet, locally-sourced cuisine for loyal fans. Seven half-hour episodes are set to premiere on Thursday, July 23rd at 10pm ET.
In “Rusty’s RockFeast: Backstage with Zac Brown Band,” Chef Rusty, Southern Ground’s Executive Chef, tours across the U.S. with Zac and the band, cooking up southern cuisine in a state-of-the-art, 18-wheel mobile kitchen named “Cookie.” At every tour stop, Chef Rusty and his rock-star culinary team prepare for their famous “Eat & Greets,” an intimate, one-of-a-kind, sit-down meal for a few hundred fans of the Zac Brown Band.
“Our love for music and food had me and Rusty thinking about how to give our fans the most memorable experience,” said Zac Brown. “It breaks down all barriers with the fans when we are at their service. We serve them up amazing food and it’s the perfect way to really get a chance to meet them and do something different. I’m constantly impressed at how Rusty pulls it off every night not knowing what groceries he’s going to have. It’s off the cuff every day and he makes it look so easy.”
Viewers will see the entire meal process, beginning with Chef Rusty and his team arriving in a new city on the band’s tour. The culinary team then only has a few hours to source all the ingredients needed for the meal. They explore local farms and markets, and with each menu improvised on the spot from the freshest ingredients available that day, every tour stop presents a new set of obstacles for Chef Rusty and his intrepid team to overcome. To make sure the fans have an experience they won’t forget, they never serve the same menu twice.
“It may seem like an impossible task to roll an entire restaurant around the country and whip up a completely new meal every night, but we truly love what we do” said Chef Rusty. “What the crew and I pull off every night is nothing short of a culinary miracle. We feed fans and the band in a farm-to-table experience unlike any other.”
“Rusty’s RockFeast: Backstage with Zac Brown Band” is produced for FYI by School of Humans. Chad Crowley, Brandon Barr and Nina Joseph-Makowski are executive producers for School of Humans. Rusty Hamlin and Zac Brown serve as executive producers. Executive producers for FYI are Gena McCarthy and James Bolosh.
