Food
Fight! The Seven Biggest Rivalries Inside the Food Network
By FBWorld Team
Here
it is, the kind of food news gossip you really love to
read about. From Scratch, a new tell-all history of the
Food Network, details the many egos that have clashed
on the channel, from Anthony Bourdain trashing everyone
to Guy Fieri's alleged 'minority' problems. We speed read
the book for the biggest fights.
From
journalist Allen Salkin comes From
Scratch, a new tell-all history of the Food
Network that details the egos, and feuds of the people
that made a fledgling upstart a cable TV empire. The precipitous
fall of Paula Deen earlier this year wasn't the first
time celebrity chefs found themselves in the midst of
scandal. It wasn't even the first time for Deen. As messy
as making food is, making food on TV is messier.
Anthony
Bourdain vs. Paula Deen
After Deen's 2012
diabetes scandal, an audience member at a food
festival asked Anthony Bourdain if the constant smoking
on his own program was comparable to Deen's gratuitous
use of butter. "You're right. I did smoke cigarettes
for a lot of years on my show. But I wasn't selling you
motherfucking cigarettes!"
Bourdain
said to the crowd. "And when I found a spot on my
motherfucking lung, I didn't wait three years to sell
you the patch!" Deen fired back, saying, "I
don't think he has the ability to make or break my career.
Especially when he's going around eating unwashed anuses
of wildebeests." Paula Deen weathered the diabetes
scandal, coming out of it an even bigger name with a bigger
market share. She would not be so lucky in 2013, when
she admitted in court to using
racial epithets, and was subsequently dropped
by the Food Network.
Anthony
Bourdain vs. Tyler Florence
When chef Tyler Florence became the face of Applebee's,
he should have known Bourdain would have something to
say about it. At a satirical food awards show, The Golden
Clog Awards, Bourdain gave Florence the "worst career
move" award. Onstage he added, "At least you
can get really fucked up at Applebee's for cheap. You
can't do that shit at Dunkin Donuts." In From Scratch,
Florence fires back: "If you take a look at Anthony
Bourdain, have you ever seen that guy put anything on
a plate? What gives him the right to say anything about
anybody?"
'From
Scratch: Inside the Food Network' by Allen Salkin. 448
pp. Putnam. $28.
Drinking
With Rachael Ray
Emeril Lagasse once said Rachael Ray "doesn't know
anything about food...I would not put her on," but,
like any chef, she proved her bona fides after hours.
Ray apparently has a legendarily high tolerance for booze,
second only to Mario Batali's. Producer Marc Summers remembers
one night of drinking that ended in Batali and Ray ordering
25 shots at a strip club-with lap dances, naturally. In
the morning both appeared at a food festival, seemingly
unaffected.
Sandra
Lee's Kwanzaa Cake
Sandra Lee, of Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee,
made Emeril Lagasse look "like Escoffier," as
Bourdain put it. "She seems to suggest that you can
make good food easily, in a matter of minutes, using cheese
whiz and chopped up Pringles and packaged chili mix."
Her low point, however, was the Kwanzaa Cake. It was made
with traditional Kwanzaa ingredients like store-bought
angel food cake, apple pie filling, corn nuts, popcorn,
pumpkin seeds, and liberal amounts of vanilla frosting.
Lee's assistant, Denise Vivaldo, said, "I feel bad
as a professional cook that I was involved in that abortion."
Destroying
the Barefoot Contessa
Before finding success on the Food Network, Ina Garten,
the Barefoot Contessa, attempted to sell a cooking show
to Martha Stewart Living, and shot some pilot episodes
for the channel. Stewart, however, reportedly did not
like the idea of another woman finding success on her
channel. "I don't want to be representing Ina,"
Stewart declared to her team, according to Salkin. "I
don't want this shown. I want the tapes of this whole
series destroyed."
Martha
Stewart Millions
In the early days of the Food Network, when the channel
was still scrambling for content, president Eric Ober
negotiated with Martha Stewart Living to buy old episodes
of the lifestyle magnate's daytime cooking show. Stewart
was disdainful of the upstart network, and in the final
meeting to sign the contract, would not even look at Ober.
She signed the papers and strode out of the office without
a "handshake or a glance" despite making millions
on the deal. Ober told his lawyer, "The only other
thing I want in this agreement is I don't want to have
to see that woman again for the life of this contract."
FOR
THE REST OF THE ARTICLE, CLICK
HERE
by
Thomas
Flynn, COURTESY OF THE DAILY BEAST
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