"cooking channel" news and stories

You can almost hear the "Hootie Hoo!" call-and-response now. Former "Top Chef All-Stars" cheftestant Carla Hall is going to be a host on ABC's new food show, "The Chew," debuting in September 2011. Hall will be among a rotating team of hosts such as Mario Batali, Michael Symon ("Iron Chef"), and nutrition expert Daphne Oz (The Dorm Room Diet) to create a show that covers "food from EVERY angle -- as a source of joy, health, family ritual, friendship, breaking news, dating, fitness, weight loss, travel adventures and life's moments," notes an ABC press release. In other words, "The View" comes to the kitchen.

Also on deck at ABC, "The Revolution," premiering in January 2012, a lifestyle show focusing on taking the weight off and changing your life. Hosted by fashion guru Tim Gunn ("Project Runway"), and produced by "Biggest Loser" alum J.D. Roth, "The Revolution," says ABC, features "a unique concept: each week one woman's five-month weight-loss journey will unfold in just five days, with daily results and a final transformational reveal on Friday."

Meanwhile, over at The Cooking Channel and Food Network, there's a slew of new shows coming up.

Debuting on the Cooking Channel this past Saturday, Kelsey's Essentials features The Next Food Network Star's Season 4 "fan favorite," Kelsey Nixon. Though the title didn't win her a show at the time, Nixon went on to co-host a web series on Food2.com called Kelsey & Spike Cook, where she shared the cutting boards with Top Chef alum Spike Mendelsohn as well as appearing on Chef's Vs. City.

On the first season of Kelsey's Essentials, she takes a topic like quick breads, knife skills or roasting and dedicates 30 minutes to demystifying the techniques behind them. The goal is for the viewer to work these "essential" tips into his or her everyday repertoire. Though trained at Hollywood's Le Cordon Bleu and the French Culinary Institute, Nixon doesn't come across as elitist on Essentials -- she connects just as well with amateurs as with pros.

Slashfood spoke with Nixon about what's essential in her kitchen, her days spent as a recipe developer and her lifelong connection to lime Jell-o.

Kelsey's Essentials premiered on November 6 at 2:30pm on the Cooking Channel.

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Food tattoos were on display at the Cooking Channel launch party, the Food Network spinoff set to begin airing Memorial Day.

Chuck Hughes, a Montreal chef who network executives are touting as the next big thing, attended the party at the rooftop bar of the Empire Hotel in Manhattan along with a bevy of hosts from new shows on the Cooking Channel.

The hammy Mr. Hughes, host of "Chuck's Day Off," displayed his inkwork for a photographer: On the inside of his left bicep is a mermaid, her nakedness barely covered with two small shells. On his left forearm is a giant shrimp. Inside his right bicep is a pomegranate. He then he rolled up his sleeve to show a heart with the word "Oysters" and a pearl over it.

Chuck said he has been unable to get much fresh ink in the past few years because the producers of his show have said it would make for continuity problems, confusing viewers if on a new show he has more body art than on a rerun. But now that his show has run for three seasons in Canada already, the producers are easing up.

• Alinea's Tasting Menu Expressed In Jelly Beans [Michele Humes]
• Jim Lahey Reviews The New Domino's Pizza [Ozereky.TV]
• David Chang on the Late Show With David Letterman [Eater]
• Starbucks Faces Challenges in Recycling Efforts [NRN]
• Can the Cooking Channel revamp food TV? [Salon]