From Scratch
Page 47
Paula might be back on TV somewhere or she might not. She might keep a few endorsement deals or, at sixty-six, just retreat to being the well-to-do and sunny host of a Southern home-style restaurant in Savannah who had a dozen years of amazing adventures. What was clear was that her moment as a key star on an explosively growing food network had ended. Both Paula and the network, if they had it in them, were going to have to reinvent themselves if they wanted to rise again.
“I’m sick that I never had the pleasure of meeting Julia Child. Because I think our style of cooking’s a lot alike. She didn’t hold back on the seasoning, she didn’t apologize for the butter. She didn’t apologize for the cream. She did not apologize.”
—PAULA DEEN
It had certainly been a challenge for Food Network. But they had had them before, and they would have them again. Reinventing themselves was something they’d been doing ever since they began. No matter who came or went, which shows rose or fell, there was always something they could count on: Even as it faces these challenges at the start of its third decade, Food Network, ever-changing, more profitable than ever, remains a source of pleasure to millions of viewers who consider its stars members of their extended families. The outside world can be rough, but the best of them are always there, serving something or lovingly teaching us how to serve.
I think that’s why we tune in and will continue to do so in one medium or another: someone we feel comfortable with is in the kitchen making something good, and it will be ready soon, soon, soon. The cook can be a drill sergeant in a diner, a samurai warrior in silks, or a mom who moved to a working ranch to find herself. We all need a little warmth, and we all have our preferences among those from whom we will accept it.
—
In the middle of 2012, Bob Tuschman went into the hospital for minor surgery. He was in his room resting when Ina came to visit him. She had brought him a cashmere blanket.
“It’s always freezing in the hospital,” she told him, “And you need something warm and soft.”
She had not planned to stay, but Bob seemed fragile and alone.
“I’m going to sit by your bedside all day,” she said, sinking into a chair and taking out her laptop to show she could busy herself. “Because you need someone to be there with you.”
EPILOGUE
June 2013
I met Joe Langhan for lunch in New York City. He was visiting the city to meet with investors about a start-up he was leading called Media Program Network. The idea was to provide newspaper websites with lifestyle videos such as cooking segments. Newspapers got the videos for free and shared video advertising revenues with Joe’s company.
Over Dan Dan Noodles with Minced Pork Chili Vinaigrette, Joe recalled that when he first started working in cable TV in the 1970s, his friends had ridiculed him.
“Joe,” they snickered, “TV is free. Why would anyone pay for it?”
Joe had kept silent, admitting to himself, “I don’t know.”
A plate of sautéed spinach with garlic arrived. I had chosen the restaurant, a Szechuan place near Rockefeller Center.
As to his new business, Joe said it was still unclear how companies like his making on-demand videos would actually make money. “You start the thing and you adapt as you go,” he said. That was how it was with Food Network. How it will evolve you can’t say at the start. Aboard his company were a founder of Thomson Financial, a former RCN executive, and experienced video producers.
“Start-ups are fun,” he added, “but really only if you succeed. It’s not as much fun if you fail.”
Apparently, though, so far, so good. The investors he’d met with at an office building in Midtown were glad to hear how things were going. He had more than six hundred videos up so far.
Before Joe left to start his trip home to Gloucester, Massachusetts, I asked him if he still ate a lot of pizza.
He did. A good thing had happened over the last two decades, he said.
“It’s not as hard as it used to be to find good pizza.”
George Babick (left), the network’s first head advertising salesman, and Reese Schonfeld, the founding president, in front of the original Television Food Network headquarters on West 33rd Street in Manhattan, 1993.
(Courtesy George Babick)
The name and logo for the start-up network as they appeared in the original business plan, 1992.
A meeting between Ken Levy and Joe Langhan, shown at his desk at the first home of TVFN, created the spark that started Food Network.
(F. Heaney)
Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Los Angeles chefs who became known on Food Network as Too Hot Tamales, made their first major TV appearance on Julia Child’s Cooking with Master Chefs on PBS.
(Courtesy Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger)
Cookbook author Marion Cunningham hosted an awkward but charming TVFN show that bestowed a sheen of food world credibility on the network in its early days. Shown here in her home kitchen with her calming dog, Rover, whose photo she kept on set.
(Scott Mitchell)
Debbi Fields taping a promotional segment with Steven Jon Whritner, vice-president of creative services, 1995.
(From the collection of Steven Jon Whritner)
A cake celebrating one year of survival. Notice that the TV is tuned to channel 50, where the network was still carried part time only by Time Warner Cable in Manhattan.
(© Connie Simmons 1994)
Early advertisements for the network. One touts a short-lived fitness show starring the Olympic gymnasts Nadia Comaneci and Bart Connor.
A young and game crew set out to start a new network, including Rochelle Brown (with newspaper), a producer for Food News & Views, and Susannah Eaton-Ryan (in newly installed control room), the director of operations.
(Top photo: F. Heaney. Bottom photo courtesy Susannah Eaton-Ryan)
Providence Journal executive Jack Clifford (center) leads a chili cooking contest with Jack McDavid (left), Bobby Flay (right), and emcee Robin Leach. On the photo banner behind them are Emeril Lagasse, Curtis Aikens, Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger, and David Rosengarten.
(From the collection of Steven Jon Whritner)
Trygve Myrhen, CEO of the Providence Journal when TVFN was launched.
(Allen Salkin)
Jack McDavid and Bobby Flay during a break taping a promotional spot for Grillin’ and Chillin’, 1996.
(From the collection of Steven Jon Whritner)
The Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright (sidecar) and Jennifer Paterson (saddle), squeeze onto a motorcycle and sidecar for a promotional shoot during a New York visit as network staffers grab a chance to be photographed with the rising stars.
(From the collection of Steven Jon Whritner)
Dan Dye (left) and Mark Beckloff, stars of Three Dog Bakery, with Sarah Jean the Biscuit Queen, Dottie, and Gracie—Executive V.P., Eating.
(Photo by Tatiana)
The on-screen name and logo changed in 1996.
(Photo by Chloé St. Etienne/ © Allen Salkin)
Erica Gruen, network president when Emeril Live debuted in 1997, with Emeril Lagasse at the James Beard Awards, 2009.
(Courtesy Steven Rosenbaum / @Magnify)
Elmo has been a frequent cooking show guest. Behind the counter with Elmo and Muppeteer Kevin Clash on Sara Moulton’s Cooking Live.
(Courtesy Sara Moulton)
The intended perspective.
(Courtesy Sara Moulton)
Matt Stillman, creator of the Bill Boggs shirt, former slop bucket boy, Iron Chef and Alton Brown evangelist, New York, 2013. He was on his way to pitch himself as a potential producer for a start-up Web TV show.
(Allen Salkin)
Heidi Diamond, inventor of the term “chunks.”
(Courtesy Heidi Diamond Archives)
Eric Ober in his CBS News publicity head shot.
> (Tony Esparza/ CBS News/ © 1992 CBS Worldwide, Inc. / All rights reserved)
Judy Girard
(Courtesy Judy Girard)
On the set of La Cocina de las Estrellas (The Kitchen of the Stars), a cooking show pilot directed by Brent Keast (left) and improbably starring Charo, Ed McMahon, Chef Claud Beltran, and Frankie Avalon.
(Courtesy Brent Keast)
Chefs Ming Tsai and Masaharu Morimoto sing karaoke at the Harvard Club, New York, 2010.
(Allen Salkin)
Bob Tuschman, a longtime programming executive—known to viewers as a judge on Food Network Star—is credited with bringing Rachael Ray to the network.
(Allen Salkin)
Sandra Lee, one of the non-chefs who became network stars after 9/11, sometimes seems to have more detractors than fans, but has done notable work for hunger charities.
(Allen Salkin)
Pulling off the South Beach Wine & Food Festival requires creator Lee Schrager to do a lot of schmoozing. Here, in 2008, he explains how the day will go to Arthur Agatston, author of The South Beach Diet; rides a cart along the beach, checking tented venues; instructs hospitality staff at the Loews hotel to make sure Paula Deen has a smoking balcony and Alice Waters an airy rotunda room; and takes a call backstage as Rachael Ray, her husband, John Cusimano (seated), and festival manager Devin Padgett await her appearance at the annual Burger Bash.
(All this page: Alex Quesada, Polaris Images)
Paula Deen and her agent, Barry Weiner, greet each other backstage in South Beach, 2012, shortly after the bad publicity she received for endorsing a diabetes drug. Sixteen months later, with her empire crumbling after even worse publicity, she severed their relationship.
(Allen Salkin)
Shep Gordon, inventor of chefs as rock stars, in New York City, 2012.
(Allen Salkin)
Jamie Oliver and Alice Waters at the South Beach festival. The network and its personalities fed the wave Alice and other pioneers began.
(Allen Salkin)
No doors! Few drawers! Fantastik? What Rachael Ray saw from behind the counter of 30 Minute Meals.
(Allen Salkin)
Tyler Florence’s fame has survived his much-criticized Applebee’s endorsement deal. Here, he is greeting fans at the Culinary Institute of America at Graystone in St. Helena, California, during the Flavor! Napa Valley festival 2011.
(Allen Salkin)
The photo of Giada De Laurentiis from the February 2002 Food & Wine magazine that caught the eye of Bob Tuschman.
(Victoria Pearson)
During the holiday shopping season in 2010, the New York department store Barney’s gave its windows over to a food TV theme, praising and lampooning the constellation of established stars. Here are Rachael Ray, Ina Garten, Paula Deen, Martha Stewart, and Sandra Lee.
(Allen Salkin)
Robert Irvine prepares for public appearances by doing push-ups to pump himself up. Yanked from appearing at the South Beach festival in 2008 following a controversy over his credentials, he was a featured attraction by 2012, bigger than ever.
(Allen Salkin)
Anthony Bourdain performing at the South Beach festival. Audience members spin the wheel and Tony delivers what it decrees, from “Dick Joke” to “What’s Your Problem With . . . ?” Along with his TV shows and books, Tony, whose first show was on Food Network, has made a side career as a sort of dastardly Mark Twain, delivering pointed oratory—and Food TV criticism—onstage in a never-ending theatrical tour.
(Allen Salkin)
Gordon Elliott (tall with gray hair, left), producer of The Chew on ABC—and onetime star of Door Knock Dinners on Food Network—gives instructions to one of his stars, Michael Symon, while Mario Batali awaits the start of taping. Food Network faces increasing competition from all directions: networks, YouTube channels, and cooking apps—many of them featuring stars the network helped create.
(Allen Salkin)
Martha Stewart’s company bought Emeril’s catalog of cooking shows and lines of spices, books, and cookware in 2008 for $50 million. Here, he bends to listen to her at a 2011 event honoring him in Sagaponack, New York.
(Allen Salkin)
Brooke Johnson
(Allen Salkin)
Trying to create new food stars for the spinoff Cooking Channel at a 2012 event, including Debi Mazar, Gabriele Corcos, Chuck Hughes, Roger Mooking, Eden Grinshpan, and Ben Sargent.
(Allen Salkin)
It’s just business: Anthony Bourdain has written of Guy Fieri, “If I had to be him for five hours, I’d hang myself in a shower stall,” but the two mug following a 2012 charity roast of Bourdain in New York—during which Guy briefly forced Tony to wear a blond spiky wig.
(Allen Salkin)
Susie Fogelson outside Guy Fieri’s Times Square restaurant with Justin Warner, winner of season eight, Food Network Star.
(Allen Salkin)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It wasn’t easy to resist food metaphors while writing this book! Events really did seem to come to a boil, situations required more seasoning, attitudes could be vinegary, and some hosts did not know their chèvre from their chinola. But the book came together thanks to an array of people who could be (but won’t be, except this once) compared to dedicated sous chefs, maître d’s, managers, investors, and everyone else it takes to make a restaurant run, including you, the customer, to whom I am grateful most of all. Thank you for buying, borrowing, or receiving this book and reading it. I and the following people worked hard on it and we are grateful for your patronage and hope you come back again. Deep gratitude to everyone who lent a hand:
My literary agent, Eric Lupfer, believed in and devotedly shepherded the book from its earliest stages. Original acquiring editor Marysue Rucci was a soothing voice of support and wisdom until she departed for a deserved promotion at another fine publishing house. Neil Nyren, the head wizard who inherited the book at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, used a Coolidgeian efficiency and prestidigitation to bringing this baby home, along with associate editor Sara Minnich. Also top-notch at Putnam were president Ivan Held, Alexis Welby and Katie Grinch in publicity, and Kate Stark, Lydia Hirt, Chris Nelson, and all of the other great people in marketing and promotion.
Absolutely key was the brilliant crunch-time editing of Ruth Fecych—“examine the crystal.”
I heartily recommend the services of Victoria C. Rowan, whose company Ideasmyth helped me and can help you give flesh to whatever creative idea you are carrying—basically can help you make your dream come true.
Marshall Poe, founder of the New Books Network, decorated scholar and so-so guitar player, heroically stepped in to help with a breakneck monthlong mission in late 2012 to help funnel the mass of raw material into manageable form.
I have employed a bevy of talented research assistants, none more dogged and long-lasting than Alex Carp. He transcribed many interviews from the start of the three-year process, remembered many things I didn’t, and fact-checked as we went to publication. Also in this corner were Jamie Feldmar, a passionate and fun-to-read food writer in her own right; Andrea Feckzo, Casey Glynn; and, helping with photo rights and other art matters, Chloe Saint Etienne.
Some of those who read parts small and large, rough and smooth, and offered wisdom include the always effervescent Carolynn Carreno, Liz Rosenthal, Cassie Slane, Deborah Goldstein, Lara Pascali, Tracy Morgan, Sabrina Rotondi, Lara Rabinovich, whose scholarship on the history of pastrami is important work, Nora Isaacs, Jay Dixit, Carole Rowley, and Kathleen Collins, whose Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows was a valuable resource, as was her encouragement.
Guidance with the book business came from Craig Young, Geoffrey Gray, Alyssa Shelasky, Susan Shapiro, Devan Sipher, David Feige, Jennifer Joel, and Laurel Touby.
The food and food media business is the friendliest business I have ever been a part of (beats selling rubber du
ckies and picking tomatoes!), probably because it involves so many eating and drinking pleasures in so many beautiful places. I am very fortunate that among those who offered counsel were Dana Cowin and Christina Grdovic of Food & Wine, Nilou Mohamed and Laura Begley of Travel & Leisure, “Restaurant Girl” Danyelle Freeman, Lockhart Steele, Ben Leventhal and Amanda Kludt of Eater, Diane Peterson of the Press Democrat, Elizabeth Minchilli and Katie Parla, Gabrielle Hamilton, Jordana Rothman, Josh Ozersky, Gail Simmons, Kat Odell, Susan Spungen, Caryl Chinn, Sarah Rosenberg, Rachel Wharton, Laren Spirer, Megan Murphy, Hedy Goldsmith, Heidi Ladell, and Dana Polan.
On the public relations side of that business are a group of unusually passionate people who helped set up interviews with their clients and shared meals and their years of perspective: Steve Haweeli, Philip Baltz, Kimberly Yorio, Sarah Abell, Jennifer Beck Baum, Jennifer Russo, Charlie Dougiello, Caroline Bubnis, Lois Najarian O’Neill, Becca Parrish, Helen Medvedovsky, Lauren Fonda, Alexis Altschuler, Jackie Sayet, Liz Errico, Jamie Siskin, Meghan Sherrill, Jay Strell, Melissa Sgaglione, Jesse Gerstein, Rebecca Brooks, Erika Martineau, Stephanie Jones, Vanessa Curtis, Jee Won Park, Rebecca Carlisle, Georgette Farkas, Karine Bakhoum, Stephen Hall, Sam Firer, Nora Lawlor, Allison Lane Simpson, Tom Fuller, Laura Millet, Ilana Alperstein, Susan Magrino, Paige Green, Lori Lefevre, Lauren Nowell, Diane Stefani, Juliette Daviron, Agatha Capacchione, Erika Pope, Pamela Lewy, and especially Robin Insley, whose persistence in convincing me to meet Lee Schrager for the first time started me on the path leading to this book.