From Scratch: Inside the Food Network
The Food Network has risen from obscurity and ridicule in the early '90s to become a powerhouse of cable television, transforming chefs like Emeril Lagasse and Paula Deen into celebrities and changing food culture forever. With a light wit and balanced perspective, Salkin, a former food and media reporter for the New York Times, presents the definitive history of the network from inception to the present day. Food Network devotees will delight at the inside knowledge of internal scandals, the intriguing biographies of their favorite star chefs, and an exclusive look at the ever-shifting lineup of executives and parent companies, unveiling a nuanced and rich tale of an empire that no one expected to survive.
Allen Salkin
Allen Salkin has been a New York Times staff reporter and written for lots of other outlets (New York Magazine, Details, Edible). He's also done a lot of different jobs and been a lot of places: cast industrial films in Hong Kong, wholesaled rubber duckies in Las Vegas, picked oranges in Crete, peddled oil paintings door-to-door in Western Australia, has a hobby of attending Summer Olympics (been to 7), and, most recently visited Ikaria, know as the island where people live forever. Allen attended U.C. Berkeley (Go Bears! — graduation dinner Chez Panisse downstairs), Calabasas High (pre-Kardashians), and N.Y.U. for a Journalism Masters, and has since taught there. From Scratch is his second book. He wrote Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us, a bit of a lighter affair, a few years ago and still pays the fee to keep festivusbook.com alive.