As many of you know, I’m a HUGE Food Network junkie. When I need background noise to clean or do homework, Food Network is turned on. If I’m sick or can’t fall asleep, Food Network’s on. If I’m bored and don’t have anything to do (which I admit is rare) and nothing good is on TV, what do I turn on? You guessed it, Food Network.
I find it a little sad that I see repeats of shows—a lot—but in case you’re unaware of the channel’s shows, because, unlike me, you don’t watch Food Network, the channel has shows that aren’t purely instructional cooking.
Most of these shows go across the country visiting “mom and pop” restaurants, which gives great publicity to every restaurant, increasing guests, sales and likelihood of that restaurant still standing and making money at the end of the day.
Image from FoodNetwork.com
Food Feuds
The first show on Food Network I want to talk about is Food Feuds. This show is hosted by Michael Symon, Iron Chef, Cleveland restaurateur and overall awesome.
Symon goes to various cities and decides which restaurant makes the better dish made famous by the perspective cities. In New York, it was cheesecake; in Philadelphia, it was the cheese steak, etc.
Symon visits each restaurant, sees how each dish is made, tastes them each, and makes his decision. While there is only one winner, both restaurants are highly featured.
Diners, Drive Ins and Dives
Image from FoodNework.com
Hosted by Guy Fieri, diners really get their spotlight in Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. Fieri travels all over the country in his super sweet Camaro and visits local hot spots that have great food, and sometimes do things a little differently.
Fieri learns how to make a few of the diner’s most popular dishes, gets a background on the restaurants and chefs, and gets feedback from customers.
Cleveland’s own Melt Bar and Grilled was featured on an episode, and while the wait was usually around a half hour to an hour to get seated, the wait time turned into hours after the Melt episode aired.
Meat and Potatoes
Image from FoodNework.com
Rahm Fama, host of Meat and Potatoes, is on a mission to find America’s best meat. Fama travels across the country (seeing a trend here?) going to various restaurants to find the meatiest dishes. His episodes cover meatballs, suckling pigs, Peking Duck and everything else you can think of.
Like Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, Fama is shown how some of the most popular dishes are made and gives a background of the chefs and restaurants.
Outrageous Food
Tom Pizzica travels across the country (OK, this is getting kind of old…) to find “the most Outrageous Food.” Pizzica goes out and finds a restaurant that serves a plate of nachos that weighs seven pounds, a pancake so huge it has to be flipped with a pizza paddle and a cheeseburger that is about three feet tall.
Image from TomPizzica.com
And of course, we’re shown how to make these incredible creations.
Man v Food
Now, Man v Food isn’t on Food Network, it’s actually on The Travel Channel, but both networks are owned by the same company—Scripps Networks.
Host Adam Richman travels, you guessed it, across the country to find the most obnoxious eating challenges. They vary from eating a pizza that weighs ten pounds to spring rolls that progressively get hotter and hotter with each new roll. And of course, the restaurant shows how each dish is made
One of the greatest things about Man v Food, is that with each episode, Richman doesn’t visit just the restaurant where he’s to take on the challenge.
Image from MeltBarandGrilled.com
Melt Bar and Grilled was also featured on this show with The Melt Challenge—a grilled cheese with 13 different types of cheeses, fries and coleslaw. However, the Melt episode wasn’t just about Melt. Richman visited the West Side Market and Hot Sauce Williams.
And even though Melt had a huge following after the Diners, Drive Ins and Dives episode, a crazy influx of people taking on the Melt Challenge ensued after the Man v Food episode aired.
Image from EatMeDaily.com
The Best Thing I Ever Ate
Now, The Best Thing I Ever Ate is a little different. Food Network show hosts talk about the best things they ever ate.
Each episode has a theme: chocolate, nutty, cheesy, pizza, cake, guilty pleasure, etc. Michael Symon is a familiar face on this show, and his one “guilty pleasure” best thing he ever ate were duck fries from The Greenhouse Tavern, just down the road on East 4th Street in Cleveland from Symon’s own restaurant, Lola.
And of course, the restaurants show how these dishes are made.
I absolutely love that Food Network and the Travel Channel does this. Chain restaurants like Applebee’s and Chili’s are taking over the world and throwing out good food and small businesspeople, chefs and restaurateurs. These shows showcase the mom and pop restaurants and diners, give them publicity and get people to change it up and eat local. I love that. Keep it up, Scripps Networks.
Sharp Knives and Open Flames 