Jessica Bell was previously featured on Lake Effect for her work as a Milwaukee culinary entrepreneur who is both a wine educator and the developer of a disposable wine glass.
Bell developed her love for the field while living in Spain, "the world's produce section." And so in the latest episode of the public television show, Wisconsin Foodie, Bell shares her love for Spain in an episode that takes the show to Europe.
"Over the last five years, we've been taking groups to different wine destinations - usually Spain-based because that's where I have a lot of my expertise...we take a very small group...and we go to these places and see the world through food and wine," explains Bell. "Really what we're trying to do is give you the experience of a country and its culture through the way they eat."
Through Bell's and a colleague's trips to Spain and other countries in South America, the group decided to partner with Wisconsin Foodie to combine the two trips and create a special project.
"We decided 'Hey, let's record this and show people what we're doing and allow them to come on this trip with us by way of television'...It was a lot of work because we not only had a tour, but we were also filming at the same time and we wanted in no way to compromise either experiences for the viewers at home but also the people on the trip," says Bell.
She also notes that while it was a lot of work, the resulting thirty minute episode captures exactly what keeps her love of Spain going strong.
"What I love about it is in a half hour it takes so much of what I love about Spain and shares it with the viewer," says Bell. "I'm excited to see what people think. It's part of the Wisconsin Foodie series, but what we're trying to do is bring home inspiration for people in Wisconsin...sometimes it's good to look outside of where we are and what we're doing to really value and rethink the things we're doing at home."