Lombard couple featured in new Food Network series ‘Me or the Menu’

Can a Lombard couple’s partnership survive the stresses of starting up a new foodstuff truck business collectively?

Television set viewers will find that out with the new Meals Network docuseries “Me or the Menu” debuting Thursday, June 30. Kathleen Murray and Nate Albert of Lombard are a single of 4 restaurateur partners whose life in Houston, Brooklyn and Chicago had been all captured by reality Television set crews for the 5-episode sequence.

“Most likely the most significant point about this show is the in-depth look at the impression of our personal marriage while making an attempt to operate a business jointly,” reported Murray, who was cast on “Me or the Menu” final 12 months not long soon after she and Albert introduced Saucy Kat, a Wheaton-dependent Italian delicacies food items truck.

“It was an online job interview, and evidently we did superb,” Albert said about the audition course of action.

This just isn’t Murray’s 1st time showing on a fact Tv set present. She briefly appeared in episode 3 of year 11 of the Fox display “MasterChef,” which put Murray on the casting radar of Food Community producers.

But “Me or the Menu” was a diverse Television set production beast. As a substitute of a studio-sure cooking opposition, “Me or the Menu” was an all-encompassing documentary venture.

“Obtaining cameras on me from the moment I wake till the moment I go to bed, possessing GoPro (cameras) in the auto and staying mic-ed up all day prolonged — it definitely delved into the driving-the-scenes of lifetime and what it can be like to run a company,” Murray explained.

“When they 1st began filming, I was so awkward,” Albert mentioned. “But the a lot more you did it, the additional you got employed to it.”

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Lombard resident Kathleen Murray, proprietor of Saucy Kat food stuff truck, fries some eggplant in her dwelling kitchen area in preparation for a loved ones meal on “Me or the Menu.” The new Food Community fact Television collection debuts on Thursday, June 30.&#13
– Courtesy of Meals Network&#13

Murray notes that she also has a 9-to-5 company task as a main inventive officer for a engineering business. COVID-19 cutbacks very last 12 months meant that Albert was laid off from his task at a vineyard, which allowed him to be devoted to the food items truck.

Saucy Kat was a way for Murray to categorical her really like of cooking and share family members recipes stretching back again generations. It also permitted Murray and Albert to stay away from the comprehensive challenges of managing a restaurant whole time — a luxurious not afforded to yet another “Me or the Menu” few, James Martin and Jessica Neal, who run the Chicago restaurant Bocadillo Industry.

But Murray and Albert say the preparation for food items vans is even now significant.

“I don’t imagine people have any thought of the pressure and get the job done and labor of love of what goes into making an event,” Murray stated. “I commit six hrs producing my sauce. And then occasionally, I go home at 3 a.m. in the morning, and I am back up at 6 to prep the truck.”

Both of those Murray and Albert are nervously anticipating “Me or the Menu” airing and seeing how their life will be edited and depicted on screen. When they were interviewed, neither experienced witnessed a whole episode still.

“It’s lastly starting to sink in. The online video previews are on the web,” Albert reported. “Kathleen has experience with being on Tv set, and I don’t. So it is surreal.”