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

Can a Lombard couple’s marriage survive the stresses of commencing a new meals truck business enterprise collectively?

Television set viewers will locate that out with the new Food Network docuseries “Me or the Menu” debuting Thursday, June 30. Kathleen Murray and Nate Albert of Lombard are one of four restaurateur couples whose life in Houston, Brooklyn and Chicago ended up all captured by actuality Tv set crews for the five-episode series.

“Most likely the most vital issue about this demonstrate is the in-depth appear at the impact of our personal partnership although trying to operate a enterprise together,” claimed Murray, who was cast on “Me or the Menu” past calendar year not lengthy right after she and Albert launched Saucy Kat, a Wheaton-primarily based Italian delicacies food stuff truck.

“It was an on the web interview, and evidently we did fantastic,” Albert claimed about the audition method.

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

But “Me or the Menu” was a various Tv manufacturing beast. In its place of a studio-sure cooking levels of competition, “Me or the Menu” was an all-encompassing documentary challenge.

“Owning cameras on me from the instant I wake right until the moment I go to bed, getting GoPro (cameras) in the car and becoming mic-ed up all working day extended — it definitely delved into the guiding-the-scenes of existence and what it’s like to run a enterprise,” Murray explained.

“When they first started off filming, I was so awkward,” Albert claimed. “But the more you did it, the a lot more you received employed to it.”

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Lombard resident Kathleen Murray, proprietor of Saucy Kat meals truck, fries some eggplant in her property kitchen area in preparation for a household meal on “Me or the Menu.” The new Foodstuff Network reality Tv series debuts on Thursday, June 30.&#13
– Courtesy of Meals Community&#13

Murray notes that she also has a 9-to-5 company work as a chief innovative officer for a technology company. COVID-19 cutbacks past 12 months meant that Albert was laid off from his career at a vineyard, which permitted him to be dedicated to the foods truck.

Saucy Kat was a way for Murray to specific her like of cooking and share relatives recipes stretching back generations. It also permitted Murray and Albert to steer clear of the comprehensive hazards of working a cafe comprehensive time — a luxurious not afforded to one more “Me or the Menu” few, James Martin and Jessica Neal, who run the Chicago restaurant Bocadillo Market place.

But Murray and Albert say the preparing for food stuff vans is however significant.

“I you should not imagine men and women have any notion of the strain and perform and labor of love of what goes into creating an party,” Murray said. “I commit 6 hours building my sauce. And then from time to time, I go residence at 3 a.m. in the morning, and I’m again up at 6 to prep the truck.”

The two Murray and Albert are nervously anticipating “Me or the Menu” airing and looking at how their lives will be edited and depicted on display screen. When they were interviewed, neither had viewed a full episode but.

“It’s last but not least beginning to sink in. The movie previews are on-line,” Albert reported. “Kathleen has experience with remaining on Tv, and I do not. So it is surreal.”