Whoever said there’s no place to eat in Lawrence forgot to tell the Food Network.

A crew from the cable television network taped Tuesday at two restaurants — Wheatfields Bakery, 904 Vt., and Hereford House, 4931 W. Sixth St. — for segments that will be included in the Food Network’s “The Best Of” show.

It’s mostly thanks to the Tuesday night bread lady.

Every Tuesday night, Donna Beecham of Baldwin picks up day-old, leftover bread at the downtown Lawrence bakery and distributes it to food pantries and other charities in the area.

So the bread lady decided to give something back.

Beecham, who watches the Food Network religiously, decided Wheatfields deserved to be on “The Best Of.”

“I just thought that the Food Network needed to know about this place,” she said. “I e-mailed them and lo and behold, they read my e-mail, which shocked me to death.”

The show travels around the country in search of the best food in America. Tuesday, one of the show’s co-hosts, a producer and a camera crew made the trek to Lawrence.

“We’re here to eat. We heard they had good food in Lawrence, Kansas, and we came to check it out,” said Marc Silverstein, co-host.

A crew from the Food Network tapes bread bakers at Wheatfields Bakery, 904 Vt. At left, host Marc Silverstein interviews Jake Tinsley, far right, Tuesday. Also working are Wheatfields employees, from left, Sarah Cunning, Rita York and Amber McIntosh.

The Food Network crew taped two segments in Lawrence for future episodes of the show.

“It’s five restaurants, five states in 30 minutes, for the best of, whatever the topic is,” Silverstein said. “We go around the country, eat and meet great people.”

Tuesday morning, that meant a trip to Wheatfields, where the aroma of fresh-baked breads captivated Silverstein.

“They know how to make great bread,” he said. “You can smell it from here. Do you smell it?”

The segment featuring Wheatfields will air in four to six months on a show highlighting the five best viewers’ choices. The bakery has Beecham to thank for the publicity.

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“I love this place,” she said. “They have the most awesome cuisine. You just can’t find it anyplace else — focaccias, empanadas and the quiches, and they’re all different every night.”

The crew spent Tuesday evening at Hereford House, for a show on the best steakhouses in the country. Silverstein said that choice was simple.

“We’re doing best of steak — it’s synonymous,” he said. “You look up steak in the dictionary, there’s Hereford House.” That program also will be broadcast four to six months from now.

At first, Wheatfields’ employees didn’t believe a national television crew would spotlight a Lawrence restaurant.

“The Tuesday night employees told me, ‘Hey the bread lady says we’re gonna be on TV,’ and I thought, ‘right,'” said Katie Kutilek, general manager.

But Tuesday morning, the cameras started rolling, capturing everything from bakers hard at work making hearth-baked breads to the restaurant’s lunchtime rush.

“It’s exciting. I’m so proud of this place that it seems right that they should be here,” Kutilek said.

Beecham thought all the activity in the small kitchen was exciting, too.

“Oh I think this is huge, this is just huge, and I’m so excited about this. I think it’s just wonderful,” she said. “I think they’re very deserving of this.”