Lili Kinsman

The Chef
Lili is a professionally trained chef who loves ‘food porn’. If you hear her moaning in the market, which she has been known to do, more likely than not, it’s a ripe bleu cheese or the perfect fig that is the object of her lust. Lili’s last meal request would almost certainly be Malpaque Bay or Winter Point Maine oysters on the half- shell and dangerously cold vodka. Every year on her birthday she has exactly nine oysters on the half-shell. Some of her friends think she has a queer obsession with bi-valves and if asked she would rightfully agree.

The Travel Junky
The other love of Lili’s life is travel. She has been known to leave jobs and run out on husbands on the spur of the moment to cave dive for squid in the West Indies or because she ran out of her favorite perfume which can only be found in some obscure hamlet in France…and of course there’s cheese there too. Let’s hope she never mixes up the two scents. If you find her wandering about the Loire Valley with lavender on her breath and cheese on her neck and wrists, please call the emergency number tattooed on the back of her neck.
She has shared the road with bicycles, buses, motorcycles, donkeys, trains, boats, carts and all manner of life forms, including a fellow who insisted that he was the living incarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte. However, when asked what mode of travel she prefers, her answer is always the same - backpack and thumb and preferably solitario. She plans to single-handedly restore the art of a good hitch, sans mace, but will probably stay off the roads in really weird places like Ohio.
Lili’s favorite country is Ireland, especially the Dingle Peninsula where the people are particularly amusing, the oysters are transcendent and the Guinness flows like water.
Careers

In addition to being a chef and restaurateur, Lili has had other occupations including: barnacle scraper, tarot card reader, art-gallery owner, high-school teacher, fitness instructor, real estate agent and exotic dancer. All true. All fact. She says the only time she felt dirty was during her stint in real estate.
Fave’s
Lili says her favorite color is ‘fog’, but if you looked in her closet you’d think one of three things:
1. Undertaker
2. The love child of Joey Ramone
3. Colorblind
She does not believe in underwear or socks and wears them only when forced to do so.
She thinks diamonds are not only a ridiculous joke, but also an immense waste of money and adores it when men give her hemp necklaces or any jewelry made out of uncooked macaroni or spare auto parts.

Her musical interests run the gamut from opera to death metal, but she has an unadulterated love for all things reggae, traditional Mexican love songs sung up to her window and plucky Irish drinking tunes. If given a choice of one album to take to a deserted island, it would most certainly not be Kenny Chesney – the big-time country singer from whom Lili turned down a private performance during a mutual stay on a very tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Under the penalty of death – we cannot disclose this location because Lili has a peculiar fear of large white tourists and knows this may be the one place on earth she and Kenny can avoid them almost altogether. As she fancies the fine Irish singer and humanitarian Bono, we’re going to take an educated guess at what the deserted island album choice would be. “One” by U2 is her self-proclaimed anthem. When she goes to the big bong-party in the sky, she intends to ask Bob Marley to sing it for her, while she burns a fat one so she can be sure she’s in heaven.
Books & Flicks

Lili is an avid reader and loves foreign films .Her favorite book is “Esperanza’s Box of Saints” by Maria Amparo Escandon. After getting her big break in Travel & Food shows, she plans on producing the book into movie. In her house she is known as “The Sundance Kid” because of her weakness for obscure movies with bizarre endings. Her two favorite movies of the last few years are “The Sea Inside”, an excruciatingly beautiful film about a paralyzed man’s wish to end his life and “Mostly Martha”, a sweet love story about an uptight German chef who finds herself in love with an annoyingly good-natured Italian man- and there’s lots of good food-porn in it too. When she wants a good laugh she goes right for the Peter Sellers or Monty Python classics.

As a Broadcast Communications Major, Lili was turned on to the silent movies of Charlie Chaplin by her professor and now plans to watch them all on a regular basis, as she loves the brilliant simplicity and sublime technique.

Current Incarnation: Producer for Tasty Planet
Birthdays: May 9th - the actual ‘birth’ day and July 3rd –the day she survived a near fatal motorcycle crash
Favorite flowers: Hemp buds and lilacs
Prefers: Paper not plastic
Favorite Season: Summer
Best Friend: Victoria
Lucky number: 36
Stirred, not shaken
Indulgence: Eating Vegetable Lo Mien with her fingers in a hot bathtub
Porn-Name: Misty Messina (1st pet & mother’s maiden name)
Strangest Culinary Experience: Cooked an entire venison roast on the intake manifold of a 1969 Chevelle
Favorite Actor: Gael Garcia Bernal
Favorite Directors: Cohen Brothers, Salma Hayek and Scorcese
Dyslexic, Agnostic, Insomniac (she stays up all night wondering if there really is a dog)

Presently: Trying to dread her hair against the advise of all the white people she knows

Adrian Nieves - Director

Adrian Nieves began his career in television as a freelance operator at a third-world television station in the sultry jungles of South America. Often his days consisted of driving up and down the Essequibo Coast stuffed in a hatchback with a pack of jabbering Guyanese collecting news stories and drinking coconuts, always in sweltering tropical heat. Nieves immersed himself thoroughy into the culture and gained local notoriety through his guest appearances on Birthday Greetings and Death Announcements. His adventures carried him overland into the Guyanese interior, backtracking through pristine rainforest and Amerindian villages, up the Amazon river, and into close contact with bushmen, pork knockers, and holy men alike.

Upon returning to the US, Nieves moved to New York and burrowed his way deep into midtown Manhattan as a communications consultant with Philip Morris Management Corp. He coordinated international satellite broadcasts and wrote position papers concerning internal marketing and communications strategy. Nieves cut his teeth shooting and editing corporate videos as part of the company's rebranding campaign.

During the Manhattan years, his enormous appetites were unleashed upon the city. The 24/7 lifestyle took its toll and he eventually withdrew into the frosty white hills of Middletown, CT.

Nieves began multi-media training which led to full-time work as a studio technician at ESPN. Here he witnessed the full-scope of operations of an international media conglomerate while working third-shift in master control and studio production. Working 12-hour days and weekends, surrounded by monitors and disembodied voices, Nieves chose to end his brief foray into the world of television and made arrangements to move to China (Life on Mars).

It was during this time that he met Lili Kinsman, the producer of Tasty Planet. Despite his imminent departure for China, Lili convinced him to direct the pilot.

Tasty Planet spent ten kamikaze days in Maine in the summer of 2006 and documented their adventure. Stay tuned for further details.

Monique Simon - Photographer

Monique Simon is our valued Photographer. Her eye for placement will thrill even the stoniest of hearts, and if you’ve seen some of the pictures on this website, you’ve witnessed some of her amazing work.

Monique is half Indian, and she grew up dividing her time between India and the U.S. Her aunt introduced her to the world of television and she attended the Asian Academy of Film and Television in India. It was there that her love for the moving image was developed. After she finished her studies at the Asian Academy she returned to the U.S. to further her studies in Broadcast Communications. She earned a degree, then returned to the country where her heritage—and her heart—lie. She worked as an Associate Producer at Asian News International where she produced news and variety segments for both national and international broadcast.

Monique says that travel has been the best way she has found to put her life in perspective and learn about herself. Embracing other cultures has given Monique a healthier understanding of the dynamics between herself and the rest of the world. On Tasty Planet (and in everyday life), Monique has found it extremely rewarding to strive to find the beauty in life. She says, “From this amazing experience on Tasty Planet I’ve learned to cultivate a more diversified palette, forming stronger bonds with my Tasty Planet family, all the while creating a kick-ass show!”

Jacqueline Cascella - Production Assistant

Jacqueline Cascella acted as a Production assistant for ‘Tasty Planet’ documenting the ‘behind the scenes’ travels and experiences of the crew. Jacqueline lives in Maine, and is currently studying Communications and New Media at southern Maine Community college. She has received the M.A.B. (Maine Association of Broadcasters) award for her hard work and excellence.

Jacqueline has worked with Chris Watkins, a New England Filmmaker, to organize and shoot an hour long exhibit and discussion, promoting a local art gallery. Her work is also being used in a promotional video for her college. Jacqueline enjoys working behind the camera, as well as all other aspects of production.

You may contact Jacqueline Cascella at StunningShirriff@aol.com

David Thompson - Audio Technician

My name is David Thompson and I joined Tasty Planet looking to get some valuable production experience in return for some help from a fresh college grad. I consider myself an audiophile. Sound is romantic for me. Some day I would like my work to reflect the same qualities that I find so seductive.

Tasty Planet is a new experience for me. This is the first time I have been involved in a production that is unrehearsed and has no stage or studio. I face new challenges that I have never had to cope with before. My challenge here is the get the microphone as close to the source as possible without intruding on the visual image.

I enjoy Tasty Planet. The food is great and I have never seen so many beautiful places that are part of my own backyard. The crew is very cohesive and pleasant to work with. I look forward to seeing the culmination of our work