Meals On Reels December 21, 2005 The crew from Television New Zealand was coming to Crete to film an episode of Taste Takes Off, their award-winning culinary travel program. They asked us to introduce them to the people, places and cuisine that characterize Crete. Long before the crew arrived, Kostas Bouyouris and I conducted a recce, pronounced ricky. It's film lingo for researching story ideas and coordinating shooting schedules. With our growing network of great farmers and chefs, we had to make agonizing decisions. What are the most important stories? Who are the best people to tell them? To minimize crew travel time, we had to choose a single region of Crete, and decided it would Rethymno on the northern coast. The casting decisions required several visits and lots of meze to work it all out. Not everyone in the world wants to be on television, especially foreign television that may never be aired in Crete. Some farmers are indifferent to such exposure and suspicious of people asking questions about their cheesemaking techniques. But New Zealanders are historically friends of Crete, and many people went out of their way to help. More on Slowfood Author : Nikki Rose