Wide, wide world of food TV

The Food Network diversifies

By Culinate staff

April 30, 2010

As the New York Times noted a few days ago, food television has done well. So well, in fact, that the Food Network is feeling the heat, as it were, and is trying to broaden its audience with a spinoff channel. Blandly titled “The Cooking Channel,” the new channel “is lining up low-key programs targeted at a hipper crowd interested in the grass roots of food culture . . . [and] is even considering producing documentary-style programming on topics like bulimia and obesity.” Also in the mix: the DIY-obsessed, “ethnic” food (a departure for the Food Network, with its traditional focus on American and European food), and maybe even chicken slaughtering. Go for the grit.