Out with Soap, in with Soup: ABC’s New Food Talk Show Replaces Soap Operas
ABC is replacing two of its long-running soaps, All My Children and One Life to Live,with new shows—one of which, The Chew, will focus on food. The Chew will premiere in September and will be produced by Gordon Elliot, known for Paula Deen's Home Cooking and Down Home with the Neelys. The one-hour series features as its hosts Mario Batali, Clinton Kelly, Carla Hall, Michael Symon, and Daphne Oz. A release from the show says it will cover food trends—let’s hope that includes cookbooks.
Andrea Reusing Hits the Book Tour Circuit
Andrea Reusing recently kicked off her cookbook tour for Cooking in the Moment (Clarkson Potter) at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, N.C. Reusing, a James Beard best chef of the southeast semifinalist, is chef/owner of Lantern Restaurant in Chapel Hill, one of Gourmet magazine’s top 50 restaurants in the U.S.
Vegans Have Beef with VegNews
Print and online vegan magazine VegNews was in hot water last week after it admitted it had been purchasing iStockphotos of non-vegan meals and Photoshopping them to appear “vegan” (in one instance, the magazine removed the bones from a photo of spare ribs). VegNews issued a statement saying cost constraints were the reason for its actions: “It is simply not financially feasible for VegNews at this time [to use custom-shot photography for every spread].”
Self-Published Cookbooks Get Some Love
The food website ifood.tv has partnered with IndieReader, a site for self-published books to get reviewed, to publicize a collection of self-published cookbooks. Ifoodtv.com, which has more than four million unique visitors a month, will start featuring “a selection” of self-published cookbooks from IndieReader, each including a sampling of recipes.
White House Gardening Cookbook Missing Tested Recipes… and Facts?
Politico takes down First Garden: The White House Garden and How It Grew by Robbin Gourley, a children’s book from Clarion Books about Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden, with recipes. The magazine says the book was “fast-tracked,” which led to “little or no time for careful editing or, as it turns out, recipe testing.” The author’s response? She told Politico, “We were afraid to test the recipes because they were from the White House. We used them the way they came, even though they were not child friendly.”
