There's a new book out, From Scratch: Inside the Food
Network by Allen Salkin, that describes the 20 years that the
Food Network has been on. The Daily Meal has produced an
interesting slideshow - 20 Surprising
Facts about Food Network and Its Stars - that watchers may not
be aware of. Here are five that we found especially
interesting:
- Emeril Lagasse's famous "Bam" originated when he had to
wake up camera operators who were falling asleep from being
overworked.
- Mario Batali, during one of his earliest shows, grated
his knuckles badly and since there were no "do-overs" hid his
hand by dunking it in a bowl of tomatoes and crushing them
continuously.
- William Shatner (Captain Kirk from Star Trek) was the
original host on Iron Chef -
which was on another network.
- David Rosengarten, an early Food Network stalwart, was so
forgotten that a staffer called him to ask whether he'd like to
audition for The Next Food Network
Star.
- In the original design for Chopped, the food
would be served by a butler and fed at the end to a Chihuahua named
Pico.
Photo of Mario Batali for Iron Chef promo