"foodtv" news and stories

At the beginning of the year, we mentioned that a special celebrity chef episode of Iron Chef America would be airing in fall and it looks like the week has finally arrived! This Sunday's episode of Iron Chef America will feature both Rachael Ray and Giada de Laurentiis, pairing Rachael with Mario Batali and Giada with Bobby Flay, in what is sure to be an interesting showdown, to say the least.

Who will win the battle of food network personalities? Rachael is primarily self taught and most of her cooking experience comes from actually teaching others to cook, aside from a stint as the chef at Cowan & Lobel market in Albany, New York. Giada, on the other hand, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked at several well-known restaurants, including Spago in Los Angeles, before starting a catering company. This isn't to say that all professionally trained chefs will do better than home schooled ones, but it is the really high-end, innovative dishes that "wow" the judges on ICA and it seems like Giada would be more likely to turn them out than Rachael. Bobby and Mario will have a big part in this two, of course, so based on previous episodes and the personalities of all four "Food Network All-Star" participants, I'm rooting for Bobby's team.

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Most chefs are very proud of what they do. They are used to working under a lot of pressure and the best chefs are the ones who thrive under it. Pressure and pride make a fiercely competitive person, whether they're competing to prove to themselves that they can do better or they're trying to prove it to others. We've seen aspects of this on Top Chef, but these elements are what make the Food Network's new show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, work.

The premise is this: Bobby Flay goes around and finds someone who is the best (or one of the best) at what they do. He challenges them to "throw down" and compete in a one-on-one culinary competition to see who can make the best product. The competitions are judged by different "experts" in each show.

In all honesty, I didn't expect the show to be any good. But it was.

Last night was the final episode of Season Two of the Next Food Network Star in which viewers votes that were called in, emailed in, or text -messaged in were tabulated to determine the winner.

I didn't watch the series, and in fact, I'm not embarrassed to say I didn't watch one full episode, but I did watch the finale, as I had a little bit of California pride. Both finalists, who were announced last week, Guy Fieri and Reggie Southerland are from California. Guy owns several restaurants in Santa Rosa (northern California), and Reggie lives and works in Silverlake in Los Angeles. Either way, West Coast would represent.

Congratulations to Guy for becoming the Next Food Network Star. His series will premiere in late June.

I don't love the Food Network's choices in programming. However, the network recently announced a line-up of new daytime and prime-time shows that have some promise.

Alton Brown will have a new show, Feasting on Asphalt, with a travel bent, and we already know that Paula Deen's sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, will also have a travel-type food show called Two for the Road. Paula Deen herself will venture into live tv with Paula's Cooking Party in which she will be in front of an audience in a studio.

The biggest news is that Nigella Lawson will joining Food Network celebrity-dom. Her show, Nigella Feasts, will be a show about food, family and holidays.

A couple of shows about which I am skeptical are Throwdown With Bobby Flay, and of course whatever spin-off show that the winner of the currently running The Next Food Network Star will host.

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Statistically, the most targeted group in marketing is 15-35 year old males.They often have a large chunk of disposable income and they are considered to be more likely to spend it than to save it. It makes sense that advertisers and television networks would want to have a portion of that income reach them. It does not make sense, however, to do with utter disregard for the population that is actually likely to watch your network or your programming.

According to Sara Moulton, when the new president of the Food Network came in she wanted to make the network appeal to that new target demographic with young, entertaining shows – not cooking programs. The obvious disconnect here is the fact that the network is called the Food Network; cooking shows are a logical component of the programming. Sara even said that a producer friend of hers was told "No chefs please, and nobody with training" when they were pitching show ideas.