SBROCCO’S PERSONAL FAVORITES ARE ROSÉ
AND SPARKLING WINE, WHICH SHE CALLS
“BUBBLY.” SHE SAYS THERE IS ALWAYS A
BOTTLE OF ROSÉ ON HER DINNER TABLE.
August/September 2017 79
WENDY GOODFRIEND
time preparing to introduce “Check, Please!” to the Bay Area, as
the original mother program produced in Chicago was about to
spin off regional versions to PBS markets across the country from
Florida to Northern California. One of the producers happened
to see Sbrocco on the air. He admired her ease in front of a camera
and was impressed by her vino savvy, also on display in the online
wine column she was writing for the New York Times. He insisted
that she be auditioned for host of the new program. The fact that
Sbrocco lived in the heart of the Sonoma wine country added to
her credibility. It also helped that she knew her subject: Sbrocco
studied viticulture at UC-Davis, which offers one of the top
wine programs in the country. She’s walked many
miles through vineyards, barrel-tasted hundreds of
wines in progress, and talked shop with just about
as many winemakers.
Parlaying her savvy and skills, she quickly developed
an enthusiastic audience, which took
instantly to her ebullient personality, abundant
knowledge of food and wine, and her talent for
putting her nonprofessional guests at ease.
“We take three folks off the street and into the
studio,” says the show’s producer, Tina Salter.
“We’re looking for guests that reflect the Bay Area
with good energy, the ability to describe the restaurant
experience well. Leslie is the anchor, the
glue that holds the guests together.” Since anyone
can apply to KQED to be on the program, Sbrocco
has learned to go with the flow, steering the
conversation with good cheer and effortless élan.
There were a few hiccups early on, as might
be expected. During the filming of a first-season
episode, she knocked over a guest’s glass of wine
with an expressive gesture. (She’s addicted to using
her hands when she talks.) The studio dining table was reshaped
with an extended point where she sits, referred to as Leslie’s “nipple,”
that keeps her beyond arm’s reach from the glassware. She
laughs when recounting the event. Another adjustment: Due to
Sbrocco’s height—she stands 5-foot-11, or 6 feet in heels—some
vertically challenged guests appear out of proportion, so extra seat
cushions are often added to even out the height of the diners for
the sake of visual uniformity.
Now, many checks later, as Sbrocco enters her 12th season on
the show, she and Salter are eager to stay current and relevant. In
that spirit, they are skewing “Check, Please!” to a younger crowd,
many who do not watch television but prefer to view the proceedings
online or listen via radio. That, says Sbrocco, presents a
different dynamic. She is continually reminding guests off-camera
to use descriptive words since radio listeners cannot see the sumptuous
close-ups of the various dishes being reviewed.
To better reach a wider and younger market, KQED has introduced
a new online video program, “Taste This,” hosted by
Sbrocco. “We want to take our broadcast audience to the web,”
says producer Salter. These segments, which average about six
minutes, frequently showcase micro-distilleries where alcoholic
spirits are produced using innovative as well as traditional methods
by a new generation of aficionados and entrepreneurs. The
moveable feast format allows Sbrocco the opportunity to “take her
amazing personality out into the field,” says Salter.
In one “Taste This” segment Sbrocco drops in at Standing
Room Only (SRO), an upscale San Francisco tavern, to discover
the secret of making the perfect hangover cocktail. Here mixologist
Aaron Kelley demonstrates how to prepare a “hair of the dog”
flip cocktail for the morning after. Along the way Sbrocco finds a
few seconds to impart another nugget of trivia about the origin of
the phrase “hair of the dog,” which she traces back to the Roman
Empire. “If a dog bit you that had rabies, you would take a hair
from that dog and put it on your wound,” she says. Made with
a fresh egg—but no poodle trimmings—this cocktail is a foamy
Season 12 of
“Check, Please!
Bay Area”