Food Network and Foodies: Loved and Hated?

Last week I brought about the topic of how blogs are becoming more popular when choosing to view food entertainment. Due to the increasing popularity of Food Network and many other networks’ food oriented programming, the food industry is moving in a new direction. Food entertainment is beginning to show face all over bookstores, magazines, television, blogs, and commercials but some people are having a hard time with the idea. This week I chose to comb the blogosphere in hopes of finding some information on my topic of choice, the new dislike for foodies becoming a topic of entertainment and the effects of food network on advertising. The first blog I came across, The Daily Beast (see top left), written in the style of satire by, was created to address issues of interest to the editors. The post, “Foodies Make Me Sick,” discussed one writer’s hatred for people referring to themselves as foodies. Comedian Jessi Klein (VH-1, CNN, Comedy Central) wrote the original post, which made everything she disliked magnified in a humorous way. It did however raise an interesting question about the use of the term foodie in every day culture. After looking on another food-oriented blog, I realized that it did anger some foodies, which made for some interesting controversy. The next post I stumbled upon a post from one of my favorite blogs, Food Network Addict (see right). This post entitled, “Alton Brown New Face Of Welch’s, Can’t Compete With Cute Kids,” discusses how Food Network star Alton Brown has become the new face of Welch’s Grape Juice and that the traditional cute kid is gone for the next year. I chose to comment on each of the posts in hopes to get a response about the popularity of food entertainment and its effects in the advertising world. My comments can be found on each of the blogs as well as below.



“Foodies Make Me Sick”-My Comments:


First off, I would like to thank you for taking the time to write this article. After reading the article I realized that some people probably do feel like foodies are just a bunch of snobs with nothing else to do. Comedians tend to make a big deal out of little things, which is great, but this still raised the point about foodies. You opened your article with, “The other day I passed a fancy new restaurant in the West Village from whose windows camera bulbs were popping with lightning intensity. I assumed there was a fancy-pants magazine photo shoot in progress and peeked to see who was posing. A model? An actress? SJP? Wrong. It was a chicken dish, bathed in professional lights, the center of attention for a team of attendants who were hovering off to the side, waiting to attend to the chicken’s every whim. A surreptitious little piece of tinfoil was propping up the chicken into a sexier, more angled pose, the poultry equivalent of a girl on the cover of Maxim,” which I found hilarious. Obviously you realized this is a food photography shoot, which can be tough due to the nature of cooking.

Just as comedy, music, acting is a craft, so is the art of food design as well as cooking. Due to the increasing popularity of food as entertainment on television, movies, and in magazines do you feel that comedians are going to continue to use foodies in their acts? Do you feel like the term foodie is being thrown around too much and that it is turning negative? I am a foodie, but not of the obnoxious foodie persuasion. I did not feel offended at all by your post, in fact I think that sort of foodie needs to gain a new appreciation for what food really is and not just the status. Do you feel like being a foodie is a fad? I think given your job is entertainment, it would be interesting to see your thoughts on what might happen to food entertainment if it is considered a fad.


“Alton Brown New Face Of Welch’s, Can’t Compete With Cute Kids”- My Comments:

I would like to thank you so much for this post as well as your blog. Your blog is one of my favorite daily sites to visit. It is interesting to see how Food Network personalities are becoming spokespeople for so many food companies. It is great to see how advertising is taking to the popularity of food television. Already we have seen Paula Deen as the face of Smithfield Foods. You stated, “With the cute kids gone and Alton in, will you buy more grape juice?” This is an interesting question especially when looking at advertising recently. Alton Brown is respected and expected to know all things scientific. When thinking about Welch’s, I always tend to think of the cute little kids.

Do you think by making this change, it might take away the nostalgia of the grape juice? Will this be a positive choice in advertising for this company? I feel like it is a huge possibly that by choosing Alton, such an exciting Food Network personality, the grape juice may be put on the back burner. The association to watch Alton’s shows may take precedent over buying the grape juice. I feel that this is a huge step forward for food entertainment and am very excited about it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter, of course in your very fun and light way. You seem to understand what the personalities are doing and the direction in which they are headed.

The Blogosphere: The New Food Entertainment?

After writing on many different subjects ranging from video games to smart choices when eating, I felt it necessary to discuss food entertainment in a different light. There are numerous television stations that air shows having to do with cooking as well as many reality shows deciding who the next best chef will be. It is true that food television is becoming more popular by the minute and ratings will continue to soar as long as the programming stays entertaining. Food entertainment programming is starting to become a topic of concern in many food blogs. People are expressing their feelings about dumbed down programming and just plain repetitive shows. However, due to the growing success of food television and use of the web, a new form of food entertainment has been born. Welcome to what could possibly be the next best food entertainment, the blogosphere.

Food Network started off with shows on cooking and has continued to air programming with a wider range of topics. Shows such as Unwrapped and Good Eats delve into the creating, packaging, history and science aspects of food. Although these shows are highly informative and entertaining, viewers wanted more. With shows such as Iron Chef and Top Chef becoming such a phenomenon in the food world, Food Network decided to create The Next Food Network Star. This show is great for two reasons; one it is a reality show about food, and two it is designed so that the winner gets a test season. What a great idea! A show that creates new shows, or is it?

Popular food blog, Serious Eats, posted a question about how The Next Food Network Star has not produced a “star” besides Guy Fieri. Food blog, From Scratch (see above left) has commented on the same thing, as well as how the shows are dumbed down. On the other hand, the show Ace of Cakes tends to have a bit of dark humor and is much more entertaining than watching Sandra Lee and her Semi-Homemade recipes. People absolutely love Ace of Cakes . How would this become a huge problem for food networks? Finding appropriate programming. The viewers are starting to lean more towards entertainment and traditional reality shows than just instructional food shows. Are these issues leaving an opportunity for something new in the food entertainment world that is not necessarily television? I believe so.

From the moment that this blog was started there has been extensive research on a range of topics. Even when searching for information on serious topics there will always be a blog that makes for a “wow, did they really just write that?” comment. This is probably the most entertaining part of researching on the web. Up to this point, the best blog I have come across is Cake Wrecks. This blog is a constant stream of humor about when professional and amateur cakes go wrong. The writer and creator of Cake Wrecks, Jen uses witty comments along with stories from readers to create one of the most entertaining sites in the food world. Already voted Best Humor Blog by the Blogger’s Choice Awards, this site keeps getting better by the minute. Another site that I have mentioned before is Food Network Addict. For Food Network Nerds like myself, this is the place to find out the new Food Network gossip as well as additions to the network. The site is filled with plenty of humor specifically aimed towards the Food Network chefs and hosts, occasionally with drawings and captions of inappropriate nature. One other element to mention is that this writer gets great interviews from the hosts as well as decent advertising spots. He is definitely doing a great job with this blog.

What this comes down to is the fact that many people are becoming either inspired or frustrated with the programming and are turning it into amazing blog sites. Already, Food Network has picked up food blog, The Amateur Gourmet, and turned it into a web series. The probability they will try and turn more blogs into shows is pretty high. If they are smart they will try to get these blogs to sign on as either web shows or actual shows. There is a catch, if the blog creators are smart, they will just try and generate traffic and make money off of ad sales. Bottom line is that as programming becomes more and more generic, the off the wall blogs are going to generate more traffic. They are easier to access as well as easier to produce and maintain. They really are becoming a new and exciting venue for food entertainment.

Food Television: A Recipe for Entertainment and Weight Gain?

What could be better than eating and watching television at the same time? Watching television that revolves around food and eating! Food Network along with other select television networks have figured out the recipe for success; give people entertainment while feeding their appetite for food. As mentioned in an earlier post, the Nielsen rating statistics have shown that The Next Food Network Star brought in very high ratings. People are really taking to food oriented programming with open arms. Although the ratings are positive, food television oriented networks have been facing a bit of scrutiny about their programming, specifically Food Network. For those not familiar it is a station that caters to food lovers. Shows are aimed towards specific audiences that really enjoy the cuisine, the host and sometimes both. Chefs and cooks include: Ina Garten, Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Tyler Florence, Guy Fieri, Giada De Laurentis, Ellie Kreiger, Alton Brown, Sandra Lee and many others. The types of cuisine include everything under the sun; American, Italian, South West, Asian and much more.

What could be giving Food Network a bad reputation with some people? Articles from the Richmond Times and well known food blog, Noshtopia have raised the question, “Does watching Food Network making people obese?” Bonnie Taub-Dix, spokesperson for the American Diatetic Association said, “watching the wrong cooking shows can lead to unintentional overeating”. At this time in America health is becoming a serious issue, specifically when it comes to what people are eating. According to U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, obesity kills more people in America per year than AIDS, cancer, and all accidents combined.

Since the launch of Food Network, people are getting many of their ideas about meals from their favorite shows. Food Network’s cook Paula Deen prepared a menu of French toast, a cheese sauce, hash brown casserole and a hot mocha float for dessert. Although that may sound like the best thing in the world, the calorie total was 2,881. That is more than what a normal intake for an entire day would be. The claim about this type of menu with these high fat and calorie recipes is that since these are the recipes they air, it is the show’s fault that its viewers are becoming obese. Food Networks test kitchen director, Kathy Alford, disagrees with the accusations that programs like this are making people obese stating, “People are looking at this as entertainment, and it is giving people a large group of things to choose from. It's a starting point for people to make their own decisions. We know people will be turned on by one recipe on a show, and not do all the recipes.”

If the decision is made to sit down to watch a show on Southern Style cooking, the obvious ingredient will be a lot of butter, which translates to a lot of fat. One would think it is common sense that eating this style of cuisine every day, even every other day, would not be healthy. Even Southern style cook, Paula Deen was quoted saying, “ I don’t eat my own cooking everyday! My lord, I’d be wider than a table if I ate biscuits and gravy every day.”

Does this put a responsibility on what should be programmed? One way to look at it would be to say, “no.” People have a responsibility to use portion control and pay attention to what they eat. It is a personal choice to focus on the shows that have high fat and calorie recipes while putting shows with hosts like Ellie Krieger (a dietician who aims for healthy living and eating) on the back burner. Another way to look at the programming is to focus on the recipes but understand that many substitutions can be made. For example, if one of the hosts makes fried chicken is it just as easy to look up a low calorie fried chicken using corn flakes and baking rather than using flour and deep-frying. Cooking, in the end, is about creativity anyway. On the other hand, nutrition is so important that many food companies are beginning to take an oath for healthier living. What does this have to do with food television programming? Everything. These networks run on paid advertising. If these advertisers are headed toward healthy living, will they force Food Network to healthier programming by threatening to pull their advertising slots? It is very possible. If this is the case it could stir up the argument that food television could be making people obese.

Although advertising tends to drive a lot of television programming due to product placement, sponsorship and basic commercials, it is highly unlikely Paula Deen and the rest of the Food Network family will be going anywhere. The bottom line is that people are responsible for their own actions. If a recipe makes a McDonald’s Big Mac meal look like a salad, it might not be the best thing to eat on a regular basis. The bottom line is that there is a lot to learn from chefs and the true responsibility is in the entertainment of the food loving community. As long as the right choices are made everyone will be able to enjoy Paula Deen adding another stick of butter.