The Cooking Channel

The Food Network is launching a new spinoff network May 31, called the Cooking Channel, in what seems an attempt to revamp their image and snag some new viewers, the kind interested in grass roots food culture.  For a long time The Food Network (which debuted in 1993) has been top dog - they invented the concept of food entertainment, and were the only sheriff in town for some time. But lately they have been outshone by the success of shows such as Bravo's Top Chef (and upcoming spin offs), Fox's Hell's Kitchen, or more recently ABC's Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. 



I find some of their line-up of food related shows intriguing, as they seem intent on including more than just your typical cooking shows.  One such show is "Unique Eats": which looks at new, interesting, original restraunts and food trends. (As someone always on the outskirts of the foodie community I'm hoping the show will showcase places that I would actually want to go).

"Foodography" is another show in which the host, Mo Rocca, travels around the world giving us history about classic famous food and food trends. I think this is an excellent idea, we should have more understanding of where their food comes from, not just literally but also historically and culturally as well.

"Foodcrafters" celebrates the amateur chefs. In the show host Aida Mollenkamp goes around the country and finds out the cooking secrets of people who cook at home. As I am 100% amateur, I think it will be interesting to see other non-professionals show of their cooking pride.

There are many more promising programs lined up from the bizarro Canadian offshoot "Food Jammers" which has something to do with crazy inventions, to shows specifically about Indian food ( super yum) such as "Indian Food Made Easy."

The new channel is also considering including documentary programming on food topic offshoots like obesity and buliema (lets hope its not a lifetime style big weep fest).

The NY Times article delves a little more into the behind-the-scenes motivations and the potential challenges facing the Cooking Chanel, concluding that :

The new channel’s success, its executives and other observers say, will depend on the public’s desire for more narrowly focused food programming and the ability of the producers to mint the kind of on-camera talent that propelled Food Network.

I'm a person interested in more narrowly focused food programming - so fingers crossed they will create a show that interests me!