Have a look at what Krishnendu Ray has to say about food TV (just the most recent comments in his substantial body of work on the subject) in this Salon interview, “How food television is changing America.” I am especially interested in comments like this: “What’s interesting to me is that these [competition-style shows] have become very established genres and they’ve become very predictable and tedious. ….So much of American food entertainment is derived from ["Iron Chef"]. To find something different we need to look to other countries — like Indian TV, or South Korean TV. Centers of empires do not produce cutting-edge genres and formats, margins do.” At the Roger Smith Food Writers Conference that I’ve been going on about, he spoke more in depth about this concept. You can watch the panel here.

Clever, smart, girl-next-door

If you live in New York City, here’s a place you should go to eat:  Roberta’s.  It’s a skip hop from the Morgan Ave. stop on the L train in Brooklyn and well worth the trip even if you live many miles away like I do. They make great pizza in their wood-burning oven, support local farms, have their own garden and serve the kind of meat we (non-vegetarians) can feel good about eating. Roberta’s lot is also the physical home (actually housed in two shipping containers) of Heritage Radio Network, an internet-based radio station featuring a growing crop of interesting shows related to food, drink, earth, culture, etc.  Remember, I told you about it last year? I was a guest on “A Taste of the Past” today, hosted by Linda Pelaccio. Linda was one of the people involved in the early days of the Food Network (then TVFN) and is well-versed in food media and culinary history. You can listen to our conversation here. Don’t forget to check out the other great shows on HRN, too. And a trip to Roberta’s will not disappoint.

Perhaps you’ve heard this already, but the time is drawing near when you will have the opportunity to really and truly surround yourself in 24-7 cooking programming. Presumably, there’s such a craving for food and cooking on TV that one channel isn’t enough. So Scripps is rebranding its Fine Living Network (already pretty strong in the food dept.) as the Cooking Channel. If you’re one of those people who calls the Food Network the Cooking Channel already just because you’re silly, you might want to consider an alternate naming scheme.

Just like MTV needed MTV2 to get back to its roots, so the Cooking Channel promises to lean more in the instructional direction, the path that many complain the Food Network has increasingly veered off in the last decade.  Some of the Food Network’s familiar faces will appear on the new channel (hint: Bam!). The current plan is for the channel to premiere on Memorial Day, just as we’re all digging out our grills and lawn chairs and looking for some inspiration.

See Flay and Ray, et al in May

In the previous post, I told you about the Roger Smith Food Writers Conference that took place on Feb. 13. Today is the day after, and I’m still buzzing. (In fact, I keep absently-mindedly – or perhaps fittingly – referring to the event as a “concert.”) What a wonderful, energetic, sassy, helpful, generous, smart group of people if ever there was one. It was my version of the Green Room at the Emmys. So many gifted and accomplished food writers, historians and media people were in the house, and I got to meet a bunch of people whose books I’ve read or whose comments I’ve pored over as a listserv lurker. Everyone I spoke to agreed it was the best conference ever. On the panel I chaired, “TV and Beyond,” Joe, Geof, Dana and Krishnendu brought the house down! You can see the full video (as well as 3 other excellent panels) here. A lot of the talk on the panels was about blogging, and just as Anthony Bourdain predicted (see p. 250, WWWE), blogging is where it’s at and where it’s going. I learned of so many interesting blogs yesterday, like Irena Chalmers’ book blog, Food Jobs, Elissa Altman’s Poor Man’s Feast, Gary Allen’s On the Table (where he includes a big list of food blogs) and Laura Weiss’s Food and Things. Needless to say, I was inspired.

Thank you to Andy Smith, Ria Boemi, the fantastic staff at the Roger Smith Hotel, and the rock stars of the “TV and Beyond” panel.

Bonus: French macarons from Lily's served at lunch

This Saturday, Feb. 13, a whole bunch of people whose lives depend on food in more ways than one will be gathering at the Roger Smith Food Writers Conference at the Roger Smith Hotel in NYC.  I’m told the conference registration is sold out, but four of the panels will be webcast (here, too), including the one that I’ll be moderating, “TV and Beyond: The Future of Food and Cooking in Broadcast Media.” Look who’s talking: Joe Langhan (creator of the Food Network), cooking show producers Geof Drummond and Kate Rohmann, and NYU scholars Krishnendu Ray and Dana Polan. Food historian Andy Smith organized the event which will also include food writing workshops on Feb. 12 and 14 where there’s still space available. For more information, see the conference web site.

People who love to talk food and theater are never at a loss for conversation. - James Beard

Bubbe’s been around for a while but just recently “hit the big time” as she puts it.  She was featured, for example, in the recent PBS Frontline program, “Digital Nation.” Since 2006 she and her grandson, Avrom, have been posting cooking instruction videos on “Feed Me Bubbe.”  Bubbe (even if she’s not your own) teaching you how to make brisket? What’s not to love? She recommends three recipes/videos for your Super Bowl gnoshing – sweet and sour meatballs, Bubbe’s burgers and potato latkes.

Bubbe and Avrom, psyched for Super Bowl XLIV

Starting out as a “femcee” (think Vanna White), Frances Buss Buch worked her way up at CBS to become the first woman director of any network. No small accomplishment in the 1940s. One of her many credits was the cooking show “To the Queen’s Taste” hosted by Dione Lucas (a pioneer in her own right, see ch. 2 of WWWE) which Buss both produced and directed. Here she marvels at the changes in TV over the last sixty years:

We all know that we learn best from our mistakes. No reason you can’t learn something from other people’s mistakes, too. On “Worst Cooks in America,” the Food Network’s new show featuring a few skill-challenged recruits, you are invited to do just that. The self-proclaimed klutzes are there to get better at making crêpes and pasta – yes, from scratch – and to potentially win the Most Improved Player grand prize. How often do you make fresh pasta or crêpes or win a cool $25,000? All right then. The jury is still out, but it may be that this kind of anti-aspirational convention teaches us more than the scores of flawlessly executed ones we’ve been watching for years. And if you don’t know the first thing about using your stove, it may make you feel like giving it a go.

Like Rosalind Russell said, “Flops are a part of life’s menu and I’ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.”

Don't cry over scorched milk!

As I was interviewing people and watching TV shows for WWWE, I tried to figure out why all these professional/celebrity cooks are so interested in having us all cook at home. I mean, the exhortations can be brutal at times, can’t they? Why do they care so much? It makes sense that they love sharing their passion, and of course, I suppose, what would be the point of most  cooking shows if they weren’t inspiring us to cook? I came up with what I thought was an acceptable answer (see last chapter of the book), but I admit that the question still nags at me at times and most answers leave me wanting. One of the better set of responses I’ve seen so far is from Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, creators of the “crowd-sourced” cookbook project, food52. If you go to this page from their site and skip down to the list after “Because:” you’ll see what I mean. And see if you agree with me. If you want to start a conversation on this or any other food/TV topic, I exhort you to become a fan of WWWE on Facebook and post your mind.

Why is Mario always bossing me?

As part of the NY Times‘ glance back at the decade, Anthony Bourdain waxes about a few galvanizing turning points in 2007 (the same year I interviewed him for WWWE.) Among many saucy turns of phrase, he manages to expertly dis and praise Gordon Ramsay in one glorious compound sentence. And, of course, “The Next Food Network Star” is a prime target, symbolizing just about all that’s gone off the rails in food television.

My subjective, ambiguous end-of-year editorial comment: Here’s hoping that 2010 brings more good food TV, less bad.

Happy new year!