Food television
Can the Cooking Channel revamp food TV?
The lineup for Food Network's new sister channel looks smarter, worldlier and more Canadian than its predecessor
It’s been just over a month since Scripps Networks Interactive, the company that owns the Food Network, announced that it was launching another channel of food programming called the Cooking Channel. The network, which will launch on May 31 and which the New York Times described as “The Food Network, the sequel,” unveiled its lineup for advertisers yesterday morning in New York. The verdict: a somewhat smarter, somewhat hipper, and less polished version of its predecessor, but nothing that’s going to make you sneeze in your soufflé — call it the Food Network’s edgier younger sister.
When Scripps first announced its new endeavor, I spoke to NYU nutrition and food studies assistant professor Krishnendu Ray, who was surprised by the news, in part because ” nothing particularly interesting has happened to food television since the Japanese version of ‘Iron Chef.’” The format of most Food Network cooking shows, he explained, has long since hardened into three genres: daytime domestic cooking shows, travel shows like “Cook’s Tour,” and competition programs that turn cookery into a kind of sports competition. The latter feature professionals using skills that few home chefs actually have — a fact that, Ray argues, makes “cooking more watchable … but also less and less doable.”
So does the Cooking Channel inject anything new into the mix? Well, sort of. The lineup is mostly composed of standard food programming, albeit with a few exotic and intellectual twists. “Spice Goddess” and “Caribbean Food Made Easy” deviate from normal fare by focusing on Asian and Caribbean cooking, respectively. “Drink Up” will feature “creative and complex cocktails served by mad-scientist mixologists in sexy lounges.” On the more bookish end of things, Foodography will feature host Mo Rocca exploring the “past, present and future of iconic, classic and trendy foods” [Full disclosure: Salon food writer Francis Lam will be appearing on Rocca's show] and “Foodcrafters” will “unlock culinary treasures” from across the country (which I sincerely hope involves people eating things they find in safes).
More surprisingly, the New York Times reports that the channel may start featuring “documentary-style programming on topics like bulimia and obesity,” and Ray might be pleased to learn that one show actually bridges the gap between two of the played-out genres (competition and domestic cooking) he spoke to us about. In “Cook Like an Iron Chef,” “Iron Chef Michael Symon teaches viewers the skills and techniques needed” to cook like a reality-TV competitor chef — thereby making high-end cuisine more accessible to at-home cooks.
As Ray pointed out, if the Cooking Channel really wants to change food TV, it should really be looking to other countries — like Korea — to find cutting-edge new formats. The network isn’t venturing to Asia for programming, but it is going to Canada. As the New York Times reports today, at least six of the network’s shows will be imports from the Great White North, including something called “Food Jammers,” in which three hipsters assemble food gadgets, “David Rocco’s Dolce Vita,” and “Everyday Exotic.” It’s a move that makes sense given Canada’s surprisingly wide variety of original cooking-related programming. (Oddly enough, I actually spent two summers working as a production assistant and sous-chef’s assistant for a Canadian cooking show called “The Surreal Gourmet,” which revolved around former Salon writer Bob Blumer driving around Toronto in a giant toaster.)
What do we take away from this announcement? Obviously nobody has gotten a chance to see many of the shows in question, but based on this lineup, the Cooking Channel sounds like it might, without signaling a massive change, be a small step in a more interesting, more relevant and somewhat hipper direction for food programming on TV. It might actually provide programming that bears some relationship with food itself, as opposed to a relationship with competitive and over-the-top food media personalities. And worst comes to worst, it will at least have one sure-fire bit of quality programming: The network also announced that it will be rerunning old episodes of Julia Child.
Thomas Rogers is Salon's Arts Editor. More Thomas Rogers.
“Freaky Eaters’” JJ Virgin on shock therapy and french fries
We spoke to the TLC show's nutritionist about the science of food addiction -- and her "shock therapy" approach
JJ Virgin and Dr. Mike Dow on "Freaky Eaters." JJ Virgin has one of the stranger jobs out there: After spending 25 years studying health and fitness, she now spends her time on TLC, turning around the lives of food addicts on “Freaky Eaters.” (No, that’s not the show about people who eat laundry soap, a similar program on the same network called “My Super Strange Addiction.”) “Freaky Eaters” documents the life of a person addicted to a certain type of edible food — french fries, meat, and corn syrup have all been on the menu — as well as their recovery with the help of two specialists, Virgin and Dr. Mike Dow.
Continue Reading CloseDrew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
The five most ridiculous defenses of Ronald McDonald
A watchdog group is calling for the clown mascot's retirement, but is being creepy grounds for firing?
Who wouldn't accept food from this guy? McDonald’s is under attack again for force-feeding our nation’s children greasy, delicious fries. A group called Corporate Accountability International took out full-page ads today in several prominent newspapers, titled “Doctor’s Orders: Stop Marketing Junk Food to Children.“
And while this grievance might not seem new, exactly, CAI is launching another campaign on Thursday against Ronald McDonald himself, whom the watchdog group called a “Deep Fried Joe Camel.” They claim Ronald’s the equivalent of a drug pusher for MSG-addicted kids.
Continue Reading CloseDrew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
A burger by Daisy Martinez that says “party on my plate”
Figs? Ham? Host of "Viva Daisy" on the Food Network introduces salty and sweet to your hamburguesa
The Barcelona burger is seen in this July 2, 2010 photo. Contrasting flavors that all balance out is the aim of this burger from chef Daisy Martinez. (AP Photo/Larry Crowe)(Credit: AP) For Daisy Martinez, a great burger does a bit of tug-of-war in your mouth.
“I always like to put together flavors that complement as well as contrast each other. This concept is especially important when creating a burger because you should experience that ‘kapow factor’ with each and every bite,” she said in an e-mail.
So for her contribution to AP’s 20 Burgers of Summer series, Martinez sought a balance of salty and sweet, which she satisfied by pairing grilled fresh figs with serrano ham.
Continue Reading ClosePolice arrest Kobayashi for hot dog contest outburst
A former eating champion illegally stage rushes the famous Coney Island competition's award ceremony
Hot dog!
Competitive eater Joey Chestnut has held on to his title at the annual July Fourth hot dog eating contest at New York’s Coney Island, but one of his biggest rivals tried to crash the celebration and has been taken into custody.
Chestnut chomped down on 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes on Sunday to win the annual Nathan’s International Hot Dog Eating Contest for the fourth year in a row.
Watching from the crowd was six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi (tah-KEH’-roo koh-bah-YAH’-shee), who has not signed a contract with Major League Eating to be free to compete in contests sanctioned by other groups.
But Kobayashi went on stage after the competition. Police officers grabbed him, and he tried to hold onto police barricades as they took him into custody.
Ladies, back away from the BBQ
Anthony Bourdain calls it a man's meat, but this female BBQ snob begs to differ
portrait of sexy young girl licking her thumb with bar of chocolate; isolated on white(Credit: Pavel Sazonov) Usually, I’m a fan of chef Anthony Bourdain and his TV show “No Reservations.” He’s dashing, he’s adventurous, he traipses across the world gorging on drink and the kinds of street food that makes vegetarians — and health-code enforcers — shudder. And, in between bites of pickled goats brains and octopus entrails, he serves up a quip or four. Last night’s episode, glibly dubbed “Food Porn 2″ (with king of sleaze Ron Jeremy introducing each segment), yielded a couple such nuggets as Bourdain palled around with chefs and sampled some of the fattiest, richest, most insanely indulgent concoctions known to man. On a strip of aged prime beef at Porter House he cracked, “I think I saw this on a website — www.holyfuck.com.”
Continue Reading CloseMargaret Eby is an editorial fellow at Salon. More Margaret Eby.
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