So Fresh and So Green

“The feel and style we’re going for is a little grittier, a little edgier, a little hipper,” said Bruce Seidel, the senior vice president for programming and production for the Cooking Channel.

It seems like TLC, The Travel Channel’s action packed food lineup and ABC’s “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” is putting a hurting on the more bland programming of Food Network. The execs got the message and are looking to switch it up a bit on a whole new channel.

The Cooking Channel is targeting the younger, hipster hipper crowd and maybe even the more eco-conscious viewer with younger cooks and fresher programming. I know what you’re thinking, people who cook that are even younger than Rachel Ray and Bobby Flay? Is that even possible? Well it is and apparently Food Network has finally figured that out. Yes, there is always Ace Of Cakes but they’re not enough.

Seems like there will still be no serious discussion about food on this network though and we will have to leave that to Michael Pollan who has had some words about the Food Network in the past. The new network is, however, considering featuring programs that feature killing chickens on air which I guess the Supreme Court would think is ok.

Also they are considering programming on eating disorders and obesity. Can you imagine a food network doing a show on people who throw up food? (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

Photo Credit: Gale Library

Ordinarily I enjoy the plethora of Black History Month programming, but this year I haven’t seen much around, even on PBS. Is our new president somehow to blame for this?

Anyway, I used to get upset wen I would see programs about all kinds of other folks during February and I’ve done my best to balance the lack of Black programming out this year. Here we are on the tail end of this month but I’m going to go ahead an interrupt it for these 5 white folks that I think are worth listening to anytime of year in no particular order. (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

When you go through the supermarket, there is an illusion of diversity. So much of our industrial food turns out to be rearrangements of corn. ~Michael Pollan

I know what you’re thinking- Who is this white man on this so fresh blog during Black History Month talking to me about my food?…or not, but here he is…and by the way that corn thing is serious.

Michael Pollan, the author of The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, wants to get all in your business again and talk to you about your food. Again, without being preachy he just wants you to know what you’re eating and how to get that food to do more for you. Isn’t that nice of him?

His latest book is Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual and he sat down with Amy Goodman and the kind of dreamy Sharif Abdel Kouddou of Democracy Now! to talk about it.

First, a few things about this interview: (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

Author, columnist and food activist Michael Pollan was recently on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Pollan has written extensively about the food industry in the United States and he’s at it again with a new book called “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”.

I’ve featured some of his words before on this site so if you’re a Food Network fan you’ll want to read what he said about those guys in Food Network Addicts Stand Up: Michael Pollan Has Some Words For You.

Pollan promises you can read it in an hour.

His simple recommendation: “Eat food and avoid edible food like substances.”

Easier said than done my friend. He explains in the video…

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!

Duff Goldman, founder of Charm City Cakes, dude on Ace of Cakes. And yes, those are cakes around him.

Recently Michael Pollan took a few shots at the Food Network. For those who don’t know Michael Pollan is an author, columnist, activist, who has written extensively about the food industry in the United States without being an evangelist for vegetarianism or veganism.

I like Ace of Cakes, sometimes BBQ with Bobby Flay and I always enjoy the thinking person’s cooking show Good Eats with Alton Brown. There is a lot that the Food Network is lacking as a whole though.

Sure there are people starving in the world and the Food Network would be like porn to them. I get that. Sure there are mega corporations running the food industry in the U.S. and most Americans have no idea where their food actually comes from. The Food Network offers no discussion of any of this.

Thank God for rappers like Homeboy Sandman that have such an array of subject matter and song titles that it makes my job that much easier. This Queens MC is a fan of variety which is pretty refreshing or should I say nutritious.

Sure they don’t and I caught that, but I didn’t consider some of the observations Michael Pollan put forth in a New York Times article called “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” where he discusses the fact that Americans have been watching food shows more while eating fast food and cooking less.

“How is it that we are so eager to watch other people browning beef cubes on screen but so much less eager to brown them ourselves? (more…)

If you like it then you shoulda put a bookmark on it!