Food Networking: Where Culinary Skills and New Media Intersect

Now let me be the first one to say I love Paula Deen. She’s fat, fun and fabulous. And I love that she offers the occasional vegetarian southern recipe. But I was watching the Food Network the other day, and she made the most haram, trayfe, vile sea-insect concoction I’ve seen. It was crab-stuffed butterflied shrimp, rolled in bacon and broiled. It made my stomach turn, but at the same time it got my mind working.

First of all, there really should be at least one vegetarian cooking show on Food Network. Then, there really oughta be a Black cooking show on Food Network as well. Perhaps I ask for too much?

Growing up I wasn’t allowed to watch much TV, but I could watch PBS, and had it been around in those days I could’ve watched Food Network. I loved to watch Justin Wilson, that crazy Cajun man, cook up. Another favorite was the Galloping Gourmet, not to mention Julia Child and Martin Yan. Basically I gleaned a lot of my culinary skills from watching these shows, and I learned how to modify recipes from pork-full to pork-free. People love my veggie Jambalaya and my vegetarian Cornbread Dressing, especially when I include the Morningstar veggie sausage products. No one misses the meat.

There are some good cookbooks out there, but once a cookbook is printed, it’s dead (at least until another edition is printed). And while I’m certainly not one to follow food trends, there’s definitely something to be said for all the new products being introduced, not to mention all the great markets like Whole Foods and local co-ops who carry items you don’t see in Ralphs, Rainbow, Vons or Cub Foods.

Article Author: Miranda Jane

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