Sacred Heart Grad Works On Food Network Documentary

FAIRFIELD, CT — A Sacred Heart University alumnus worked on a documentary that recently aired on the Food Network.

“I really enjoyed this opportunity,” Mike Galeotti, class of 2020, said in a news release from Sacred Heart. “Being passionate about food and cooking myself, food is one of my favorite things to film.”

The documentary, titled “Restaurant Hustle 2020: All on the Line,” aired in late December. Guy Fieri, renowned restaurateur and television personality, was the project’s co-director and executive producer.

The film captured the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the restaurant industry. While some restaurants have relied on takeout and delivery services to stay open, others have closed, either short-term or permanently.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the impact on the restaurant industry was immediate," Fieri told the Food Network. " ‘Restaurant Hustle 2020: All on the Line’ provides a real and intimate first-hand look into the lives of four top restaurateurs navigating through it all.”

The documentary features chefs Maneet Chauhan, Antonia Lofaso, Christian Petroni and Marcus Samuelsson, showcasing the difficulties their businesses experienced throughout the pandemic and the steps they took to support their communities. The film premiered at New York City’s annual documentary film festival, DOCNYC, which was virtual, and aired Dec. 27 on the Food Network.

Galeotti, 24, grew up in Chester and lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he works as a freelance videographer and editor.

He began his undergraduate studies at Sacred Heart as a marketing student, adding a minor in film and television as he gained an interest in video production his junior year. After graduation, he spent two years in Sacred Heart’s film and television master's program, with concentrations in directing and cinematography, graduating with a master's in 2020.

“The FTMA program was an amazing experience,” Galeotti said in the news release. “We were taught a wide spread of skills, from writing, producing, shooting, directing, editing and everything in between. The structure of the program revolved around actually doing the things we were being taught through the process of creating our own short films and working on fellow students’ films as collaborators.”

Todd Barnes, the documentary’s producer and artistic director, and a lecturer in Sacred Heart’s film and television master's program, hired Galeotti to shoot without a crew. The pandemic affected the documentary’s filming process, and it had to be shot mostly one-on-one due to social distancing concerns.

“Much of it was shot run-and-gun style by single producers assigned to one of the featured chefs and restaurant owners, with small cameras during the height of the pandemic,” Galeotti said in the news release. “After the production company finished the principal photography and some COVID restrictions eased up, they wanted to shoot some higher-quality food content to add overall production value.”

Galeotti filmed Petroni — former owner of Fortina restaurant group, which has five locations throughout Connecticut and New York — as the chef made pizzas and Italian pastina. The footage was used mostly for promotions and B-roll segments.

“The FTMA program definitely helped prepare me to work on this documentary,” Galeotti said in the news release. “I was able to use the cinematography skills I had been honing throughout my time in the program to deliver the best possible imagery to support this project.