THE HISTORY OF CHAOS KITCHEN

Aaahhh the memories! The first ideas for Chaos
Kitchen developed in Ceci Deville's kitchen when
she and her husband Chris (Low Budgets) were
living in the Pleasure Bungalow in Philly. I woke up
in their living room one morning after a fierce night
of drinking with the Sleazies (RI) and Ceci was kind
enough to cook us breakfast. While she was
cooking, she and I talked about our love for the
"domestic arts" and joked about the creation of
some sort of punk rock cooking show but that's all
it was - a joke. After thinking about it for about 5
seconds, I realized that this wasn't something that
could only be joked about - it HAD to happen.

When breakfast was over I went back home to my
apartment in South Jersey to think about how this
insane idea could be developed into something
that we could actually work with. I put together
want ads and sent them out into the Providence
punk scene (I was planning on moving to
Providence that summer) and at first the response
was limited. The first two people to show an
interest were Cara (who would later gain the job
title "Resident Drunk") and Tom. That was followed
with a few more people and by the time we
reached the first production meeting our crew
consisted of the following people:

Andrea Witting - Producer/Editor
Nick "Birdie" Malz - Co-Producer
Cara Sooknah - Resident Drunk
Tom Padula - Director, Photographer, Camera Guy
Seth & Rachel - Resident Drunks & PAs
Bastien the Sound Guy - the Sound Guy
Crazy Michelle - Camera/Drunk
Little Drunk Ken - Came to first meeting for beer
Krista - the Original Host of Chaos Kitchen

For the first episode we did a crew themed episode. Krista, the
host, was living near Boston at the time and couldn't make it down
for the episode - so Bastien, Seth, and Nick took turns filling in
with a "Krista Mask" (lost in one of my many moves over the
years). After the second episode (featuring Eyes of Hate) it was
decided that Connie "Righteous" Strychasz would
become the new host of Chaos Kitchen to add a little spice. The
plan was to have all of the episodes filmed in my kitchen but that
soon became a luxury that we could not afford. Due to the fact
that the other person living in my apartment was completely
psychotic (in a bad way), the filming had to be moved to another
location after the third episode with Fleas & Lice. The only problem
was that we didn't have another location! It was at this time that
we at the Kitchen started having issues. We got kicked out of
every location we filmed at, some of our shit got stolen by a
crackhead, our venue (the Providence ALH) got shut down, and
our debt was skyrocketing. After only 3 1/2 months, it was time to
give it a rest.

Sidenote: Even though the kitchen fell apart, we still had some
amazing drunken times, met some awesome people, and filmed 7
ridiculously awesome episodes!!

Over the next two years there were always talks about how the
kitchen needed to make a comeback. We had developed a cult-like
following in the Providence punk scene and the potential beyond
that was limitless - but we had nowhere to call home, no money,
and I had moved back to NJ. The first 7 episodes were never
released and because of the vulgarity - never shown on Public
Access (the original place we wanted to air Chaos Kitchen).

After two long and empty kitchen-less years, I stumbled across
North Jersey's hidden punk rock treasure - the Meatlocker. Located
in Montclair, NJ the Meatlocker is host to some awesome punk
shows and, conveniently enough, doubles as a production studio!
Finally, with the help of Roy J. (the guy who runs the Meatlocker),
Chaos Kitchen is back! Since the whole crew still lives in
Providence, we've adopted some new members from NJ in addition
to the originals (who still come down for the episodes!). The new
Chaos Crew is as follows:

Lindsey Tibbott - the New Host of Chaos Kitchen
Connie "Righteous" Strychasz - Co-Host (when she can make it!)
Andrea Witting - Producer/Director/Editor
Cara Sooknah - Resident Drunk & Co-Producer
Nick "Birdie" Malz - Co-Producer (when he can make it!)
Dave Kinard - Video Technician & the Sound Guy
Roy J. - Video Technician & Cameras

Well, that's about it for our story! There are a ton of stories and
great memories left out - unforunately there just isn't enough
space for all of them! Over the years we've had crew members
come and go but we still love all of them. Here are some of the
behind the scenes members in Chaos Kitchen history...

Katie Kay, Lucas, Rich Maggio, Donna from the ALH, Mike (let us
use his kitchen for the Automatons episode), the other dude that
Nick is friends with that helped build the set, Jami from the
Sleazies

If I forgot to add you I'm sorry! It's nothing personal - I drink too
much and forget a lot. Thanks for reading!

- Andrea