Ready for Food Network Part 2?
Scripps Network, the owner of Food Network and others, has seen its thunder stolen by such shows as Bravo's Top Chef. Their response? Start over by creating a whole new food channel. Set to start broadcasting on May 31, the new network is a spin-off called Cooking Channel.
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According to the New York Times, “it is lining up low-key programs targeted at a hipper crowd interested in the grass roots of food culture.”
Bruce Seidel, the senior vice president for programming and production for the new network, was quoted in the article as saying that “The feel and style we're going for is a little grittier, a little edgier, a little hipper.”
I shudder when the words “edgier” and “hipper” are used in any context. But I'll reserve judgment until I see the thing, which coincidentally replaces the Fine Living channel.
Hopefully they don't screw it up. Cooking Channel is purportedly going to highlight ethnic cuisines, with shows like “Spice Goddess,” with cookbook author Bal Arneson, who is Indian.
Even if that fails, I'm still optimistic of the prospect of them rerunning classic shows by none other than Julia Child herself. Now THAT, I'll watch!
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.