From scratch
Subtitle: inside the Food Network
By: Allen Salkin
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 434
ISBN-13: 9780399159329
Subjects: PERFORMING ARTS; SOCIAL SCIENCE; Television cooking shows; Food; Food habits; Food Network (Firm); Television; American Cooking; General; Social aspects; Biography; Popular Culture; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS; History
Description: "The autobiography the Food Network would write if it could write one--a candid, behind-the-scenes look at how one network launched one of the biggest cultural waves of the last 20 years"--

"Big personalities, high drama--the extraordinary behind-the-scenes story of the Food Network, now about to celebrate its twentieth anniversary: the business, media, and cultural juggernaut that changed the way America thinks about food. In October 1993, a tiny start-up called the Food Network debuted to little notice. Twenty years later, it is in 100 million homes, approaches a billion dollars a year in revenue, and features a galaxy of stars whose faces and names are as familiar to us as our own family's. But what we don't know about them, and the people behind them, could fill a book. Based upon extensive inside access, documents, and interviews with hundreds of executives, stars, and employees all up and down the ladder, Allen Salkin's book is an exhilarating roller-coaster ride from chaos to conquest (and sometimes back). As Salkin takes us inside the conference rooms, studios, homes, restaurants, and after-hours meetings, we see a salty Julia Child lording it over the early network performers; a fragile Emeril Lagasse staggering from the sudden public shock of cancellation; a very green Rachael Ray nearly burning down the set on her first day; a torn Tyler Florence accepting the Applebee's job he knows he can't refuse, but with a chill running down his spine; a determined Bobby Flay reinventing himself once again to survive. Paula Deen, Tom Colicchio, Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, Jamie Oliver, Martha Stewart, Guy Fieri, Cat Cora: Salkin illuminates the people we thought we knew, and the ones we never knew about, in this irresistible story of the intersection between business, television, pop culture, food-and us"--
Notes: "Published simultaneously in Canada"--Title page verso.

Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Preface: Roll Over; title: Prologue: A Final Toast to Emeril Live; title: Starting from Scratch; title: CNN with Stoves; title: "Chefs Are the New Rock Stars"; title: Bobby, Sara, Mario, and the Too-Hot Tamales; title: BAM!; title: Changing the Recipe; title: New Owners Again!?!; title: "Allez Cuisine!"; title: You Reap What You Sow; title: Comfort Food; title: Noodle Roni with Blue Eyes : A New Kind of Star; title: Competitors Sharpen Their Knives; title: Channeling the Soul of a Chef; title: A Ten-Billion-Dollar Prize; title: Epilogue: June 2013.