Book Club Review From Scratch: Inside the Food Network

I took a break in March but am back in April, especially since the book was one I had recommended, From Scratch: Inside the Food Network  by Allen Salkin. I read this book and am writing this Book Review From Scratch: Inside the Food Network as part of the online book club the Kitchen Reader.

I first found out about this book during Feast, at the Feast Cookbook Social event where I met Allen Salkin and we chatted for a bit, and when I ordered the book he promised to autograph for me (which he did!).  The description of the book promises “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). “

The first thing you have to keep in mind is that this is not a book about food. It is a book about the Food Network. Based on that premise, it is going to focus a lot more on the business that is Food Network, and not about necessarily loving food or the Food Network stars.

Those elements are scattered in there as there certainly are Food Network stars that are the face of Food Network to the public, and there are drivers there at the network that do love food. But ultimately, both for better and for worse, the network rolls up into an entity that is more than its individuals and has it’s own identity and story.

This book is definitely focused on the story of the Food Network as a corporation. The book also is strongly about history – with a few interesting stories scattered in. This historical reporting does end up with areas that can be very dry or confusing in trying to track some of the behind the scenes players without stronger narratives to impress all the involved people into a reader’s memory. It is a bit like a documentary series that still needed a little more editing and organizing because it forgot that it was airing in episodes over a season and not all at one sitting.

I did learn a lot though. I never will look at Food Network or the Cooking Channel the same now. As much as they advertise themselves about being about food and loving food, the truth I took away from the book is that they are at its core middlemen peddlers. They are a business that showcases and sells to those who love food, but they are a business. It’s those in the trenches who are making the food on the shows that are the food lovers with passion, working their butt off to know food and educate and entertain. But, these same food lovers are also tasked to know and work the corporate game that is the modern Food Network.

In many ways the Food Network seemed like destiny. It did a lot of stumbling into itself and success often backwards and through luck and the perseverance of a few people at the right place at the right time who didn’t give up on Food Network despite its fumbling around.

Back at its founding (some of the stories of the immature programming seemed literally and amusingly skunkswork garage level), and the book argues even now (with most shows under a theme of undercover/fixing reality show or competition and many of its original and classic stars now “graduated” away) , the Food Network highest level management had/has a surprising lack of insightful vision. The book seems to imply that this is due to not understanding its audience and its own food experts or the current culinary scene because of a conservative parent company and somehow finding presidents that are business experts with no pulse line themselves to the food culture.

The book walks through in detail the shift over time from less and less education and more entertainment and marketing. Food Network had ridden the rising food culture wave from food and cooking being a chore hopefully outsourced to kitchen staff to dining and cooking being a leisure activity actively pursued. By being the window into the wave at the beginning, Food Network has even participated in influencing and forming the current culinary scene. However, as more players have now since been born from that wave,  it’s unclear where Food Network is going next and if is now in the falling action part of the story or about to rise, redefined, again.

This was a very interesting read,  but I would say the big personalities and high drama promised are not a strong thread to make this the engaging reading you may think it is. Set your expectations that this is more history book that has a few sidebar stories, and that you will learn more and be entertained less than the book description markets.

In honor of reading this book, I decided to try one of the top 30 most highly ranked recipes on the Food Network site. In my next cooking post tomorrow, I will be doing a Food Network chef guacamole bar with 3 guacamole, 1 recipe each from classic celebrity chefs Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, and Rick Bayless.

This recipe I thought was a perfect example of what this book was pointing out. This recipe is from Aarti Sequeira, who won the 2010/Season 6 series The Next Food Network Star. This recipe is one of the fan favorites, with more than 600 comments from fans, and is simple, approachable, but yet opens up a whole new world of flavor – kale is a relatively recent ingredient to home kitchens, as before it was most used as a decorative element at Pizza Hut salad bars! If her name isn’t familiar… well now you understand the dilemma of Food Network in nurturing and developing the next generation and planning programming.

Aarti Sequeira’s Massaged Kale Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch kale (black kale is especially good), stalks removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• Kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons honey
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 mango, diced small (about 1 cup)
• Small handful toasted pepitas ( pumpkin seeds), about 2 rounded tablespoons

Directions:

1. In large serving bowl, add the kale, half of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil and a little kosher salt. Massage until the kale starts to soften and wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside while you make the dressing.
2. In a small bowl, whisk remaining lemon juice with the honey and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stream in the 1/4 cup of oil while whisking until a dressing forms, and you like how it tastes.
3. Pour the dressing over the kale, and add the mango and pepitas. Toss and serve.

For May the Kitchen Reader book club selected reading is A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage. For our casual online club there is a new book selected for every month, each book is related to food, and members write a review on their blog during the last week of that month. If you are interested in joining, check out the website.