General Hospital just returned to production following its summer hiatus, and the ABC soap is already whipping up some great entertainment for fans. They've nabbed celebrity chef Jamika Pessoa, known for co-hosting The Good Dish and for appearing in The Next Food Network Star, for a guest-star appearance.
According to the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, Pessoa will be turning up in Port Charles as herself in the episode airing Friday, August 5. And the classically trained chef/TV personality is thrilled that she received the call to come play in the soap world.
"I was losing my mind," she enthuses to the magazine. "I was like, wait, General Hospital? Like, the General Hospital?"
Pessoa goes on to explain that though she doesn't have tons of time to watch soaps these days, she did join her grandmother for "her stories," which the chef says "was our way to connect when I was a kid."
Pessoa is no stranger to being on TV, but this was her first scripted TV experience, which means that even though she's playing herself, GH is her official acting debut. She reports that the filming experience was a breeze, but the real fun started when she ran into her old friend Cameron Mathison (Drew Cain); she was a guest on a few episodes of Mathison's former talk show, Hallmark's Home & Family, and she also appeared on Food Network's Clash of the Grandmas, which he hosted.
As soon as Mathison saw Pessoa, he exclaimed, "What are you doing here?" And it was a moment the chef will always remember. "That was so great," she enthuses. "It was comforting to see a familiar face."
But it wasn't just Mathison that Pessoa was happy to work with. She reports that the whole GH cast was super friendly. "You would think on a soap opera people would be divas, but no!" she jokes. "Everyone was so welcoming."
Pessoa launched her television career on Food Network's Next Food Network Star in 2009 and has since appeared on a number of nationally acclaimed television shows including Good Morning America, The Wendy Williams Show, The Tamron Hall Show, and Dr. Oz. In January of this year, she signed on as a co-host of The Good Dish alongside Daphne Oz and Gail Simmons. A self-described Southern belle with Caribbean roots, Pessoa's cooking style is "Caribbean Heat meets Southern Sweet."
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