Food Network/E! IllustrationFrom its early days as a home for beloved, if traditional, "stand-and-stir" instructional cooking programs to the pop culture behemoth it's become, the Food Network has never not been interesting.
The cable network, which just celebrated its 25th birthday, has spent a quarter-century introducing the world to the foodie movement, making superstars out of chefs and home cooks alike, and inspiring home cooks to be a little more adventurous in their own kitchens. And along the way, it's also generated its fair share of headlines. But what you don't know about the network, the little secrets and fascinating facts that have piled up over the past 25 years, just might be enough to eclipse all the entertainment Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, and the rest of the gang have cooked up for us.
From accidental porn to the insane original concept for Chopped, the Food Network has proved that an old saying just might need an update. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. And if you can bring the heat, you better be on Food Network.
In honor of the network's big birthday, we're bringing you 25 of the most fascinating secrets that we've learned about Food Network over the last 25 years. Bon appétit!
Chopped's a pretty straightforward of a concept: Four chefs compete in three rounds, creating dishes making use of four required ingredients found in a basket, until only one is left standing. But the Ted Allen-hosted series didn't start out that way. As revealed in Allen Salkin's 2013 book From Scratch: Inside the Food Network, the initial concept, inspired by Deal or No Deal, involved a silhouetted tycoon would plan a dinner party, and his butler, "a snooty John Cleese type," would pit four chefs against each other for the privilege of cooking the dinner. After each round, a chef would be eliminated by a panel of judges (including Rocco DiSpirito), and their dish would be fed to a Chihuahua named Pico. Luckily, then-programming head Bob Tuschman rejected the idea and producers decided to scale things back into the wildly successful series we all know and love today.
Just under four years after the network launched, it found itself in some seriously hot water when viewers tuning in to Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger's Too Hot Tamales were treated to over a minute of hardcore pornography as narration from the two chefs (incidentally, it was instructions for a Latin risotto) continued to play. "We were stunned and dismayed," Mary Sue and Susan told the L.A. Times said in a statement. "We have a broad viewing audience that we really care about and we hate to think of the shock or embarrassment this may have caused any of our viewers."
The network claimed in a statement that only 10 seconds of "uncleared and inappropriate footage" actually aired and it was "absolutely unintentional on the part of the network. Although we are investigating the cause of the disturbance, including the possibility of tampering, our first and most important effort is taking all steps necessary to ensure this never happens again. We sincerely apologize to our viewers for this serious breach."
Disgraced chef Mario Batali was one of the Food Network's earliest stars, but he had a rocky start, as revealed in From Scratch. The first sentence he ever spoke on air was a major flub: "I'm Mario Batali, chef and co-owner of Pó restaurant, an Italian village." And then in one of the first episodes of his classic series Molto Mario, he accidentally tore up his knuckles while grating some cheese. Bleeding and in pain, but unable to do anything in the moment due to the network's "no do-over" policy, he thrust his hand into a bowl of tomatoes and crushed them until commercial break.
The Next Food Network Star has found the network several newcomers over the new years who've gone on to become staples of the channel. Joshua Adam Garcia of season three is not one of them. He made it all the way to the finals when, just before the final vote, he was forced to withdraw for lying about his background. Among his many claims that were proven untrue, Garcia (who went by the militarized nickname JAG) said he'd served time in Afghanistan (he had not) and had graduated from New York Restaurant School (again, despite attending, he had not). The Marine Corp Times further reported, which Garcia himself confirmed, that he had actually left the Marine Corps eight months ahead of schedule after being demoted from corporal to private. His exit allowed for eliminated finalist Amy Finley to return to the competition, which she wound up winning.
Ever watched an episode of The Kitchen and wondered how on earth all of those prepared versions of the dishes you just watched get made wound up waiting for hosts Katie Lee or Sunny Anderson in the oven? The answer would be the "shadow kitchen" in Food Network Headquarters above Chelsea Market in New York City, a gigantic space with five separate kitchen areas so chefs can prepare the food for several shows at the same time. "Typically, between 15 and 20 people are involved just for the culinary elements of a basic cooking show," Michelle Betrock, a publicist for the network, told the Pittsburgh Trib in 2009. Culinary producers plan all the "swap outs" that you see take place in the episodes of your favorite shows. "We don't want the TV crew to have to stand around and wait for three hours for the osso bucco to cook," Susan Stockton, senior vice president of culinary production, joked. As revealed in From Scratch, product made in the shadow kitchen is also on hand in case something is burned and needs to be swapped out for the cameras. After all, celeb chefs are only human.
Despite being a fan favorite and Food Network staple since her first cooking show, Barefoot Contessa, premiered in 2002, Ina Garten insists that she rarely, if ever, sits back and watches herself in action. "I never watch cooking shows, certainly not mine," she told People in 2017. "Not a chance. I would never do another show. I think I'm terrible! I'm glad other people like it, that's all I can say."
"I sometimes watch it for content but it's just painful! [Laughs] It's just painful. I couldn't even tell you what I'm most self-critical about — it's everything," she elaborated with Huffington Post earlier this year. "I just keep thinking, What were you thinking when you said that? or, You forgot to say this!"
Despite the fact that she showcases her beloved Italian cuisine, as rich and tasty as it can be, on her various shows on the network, Giada De Laurentiis manages to look absolutely fit. As she's told health.com, she attributes that to eating "a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything. Everything in moderation." However, in 2014, a source on her show told Page Six that, while filming, the chef never actually eats anything. "When she is making drinks and food that she has to drink or eat, they have a dump bucket that is brought out the second they cut," the source said, explaining that she spits the food out before filming resumes. While other sources have confirmed such a practice is commonplace for food shows, a rep for De Laurentiis shot the story down, telling the outlet, "That is absurd and completely false. She absolutely eats her own food while filming."
Rachael Ray is viewed as nothing less than a consummate TV professional these days, but when she was filming the pilot for 30 Minute Meals on the set of Emeril Live, she nearly set the whole place ablaze. Not realizing that he skillet had been reheated for her thanks to the handy producers looking to save time, she went to put oil into the pan and huge flames shot up. "I set Emeril's kitchen on fire," she remembered on a 2017 episode of her eponymous talk show as guest Emeril Lagasse laughed.
Few people seem as genial and inoffensive as The Pioneer Woman star Ree Drummond, but the food blogger-cum-media personality found herself in hot water when a second season episode rerun caught the attention of Lynn Chen and Lisa Lee, founders and editors of the Thick Dumpling Skin website and podcast, five years after it first aired. In the episode in question, after admitting that she wanted to prank her husband Ladd, she gathered the rancher, his friends, and her sons in the kitchen and served them some Asian hot wings fresh out of the oven. As the men look on warily, shaking their heads at the offending chicken, she pulls out a second dish of Buffalo wings and announces, "I'm just kidding, guys! I wouldn't do that to you."
Her son's response? "Now those are some wings."
"Why must we watch non-Asian cooks who can't pronounce 'Sriracha' and don't have a chopstick drawer show us how to make our own dishes?" Lynn and Lisa posted on Thick Dumpling Skin. "And how come, when they do, we have to watch as their entire family mocks it—like in this episode of The Pioneer Woman?"
Despite Iron Chef America presenting the idea that each episode's challenger selects the Iron Chef they will battle on the spot as all active Iron Chefs standby on stage, chef Peter Kelly, who battled Bobby Flay in an episode of the show, revealed after the fact that he actually chose his opponent weeks earlier. And those other Iron Chefs in Kitchen Stadium? They're merely "actually silhouetted stand-ins," he revealed.
If it sometimes seems like Ina Garten is always wearing the same outfit when you tune in to Barefoot Contessa, that's because she is. The Cook Like a Pro chef is never not without her denim button-down shirts and that's for a very good reason. "I don't like wearing an apron when I'm working, so I find a denim shirt or a corduroy shirt and I buy 25 of them," she told HuffPo. "It's like a uniform and I don't have to worry about it. They can all just go into the washing machine. At night I get dressed up — I don't wear a denim shirt at night — but when I'm working, I always wear like a brown corduroy shirt or a blue denim shirt.
Remember Restaurant Stakeout, the reality show that ran from 2012 to 2014 and featured restaurateur Willie Degel as he visited restaurants across the country at the request of the owner and installed hidden cameras so he and the owner could spy on the employees and determine where the business' troubles actually lay? Turns out the whole thing was pretty fake. The owner of one New York restaurant told The Journal News that "none of it's real," while another revealed producers hired a waiter to drop food and drink on the job so they could be fired, told rea employees how to behave, and had everyone "change clothes every couple of hours" to pretend it was a new day.
Remember how we told you that Iron Chef America usually has its match arranged prior to filming? That happens because the secret ingredient foisted upon both challenger and Iron Chef isn't so secret after all. As Peter Kelly revealed, weeks prior to filming, producers presented him "three possibilities: swordfish, pork or cowboy steak. So I come up with three separate ingredient lists — only one of which they'll actually purchase for the battle." And before filming began, he was able to figure out which ingredient had been chosen thanks to the other ingredients that had been purchased for him.
Despite accusations of scripted antics on some of their other shows, Cutthroat Kitchen is so above board that they have lawyers on set to make sure everything goes down exactly as it appears. Chef Joe Arvin, who competed on the show in 2014, confirmed in an interview with Chef's Roll that despite producers "highly" encouraging "the competitors to bash each other," there was no "planned drama" and the show had to follow "all California law regarding game shows."
"Therefore, we had a lawyer on-set to ensure that all rules were being followed and there was nothing too 'fake' about the contestants," he continued. "It was extremely strict in regards to providing a real world vs. Hollywood produced experience."
Before Guy Fieri won the second season of The Next Food Network Star and went go on to build his empire and essentially become the face of the network to this day, he made an early attempt at primetime fame that didn't fair so well. According to From Scratch, "he had auditioned to be on a pilot for a barbecue show in 2004 that went nowhere, so it took some coaxing to get him to try again." He eventually sent in an audition tape using his nickname "Guido," in which he demonstrated how to make a sushi roll, and the rest is history.
Chopped may only have a 42 minute run time, but the day it takes to get that episode in the can is much, much longer than that. As winner Kathy Fang revealed to Delish in 2016, if you make it all the way to the end, your day begins at 5:45 a.m. and ends around 8 or 9 p.m. And by the end of everything, the hunger is real. "Even though I was surrounded by food all day, I was running around so much I didn't even think of eating," she explained. Her first meal came during her final interviews, recapping the entire day, when the production crew offered her a plate of lentils, spinach, and samosas.
While the late, great Anthony Bourdain was best known for his Travel Channel series No Reservations and, later, his CNN series Parts Unknown, his first television show was on Food Network. In A Cook's Tour, he did much of the same, traveling the globe and sampling cuisine. In season three, he wanted to travel to Catalonia, Spain to film in eBulli chef Ferran Adria's kitchen, but the network balked, pushing for cheaper domestic travel instead. Bourdain quit over the disagreement, produced Decoding Ferran Adria on his own, and that became the pilot for No Reservations.
On the eve of Robert Irvine's big premiere with Dinner: Impossible, Marc Sommers, whose company produced the series for the network, warned the chef about his official bio, which to the former Double Dare host, appeared a little embellished. In it, Irvine claimed to have cooked with both Presidents Bush at heir inauguration dinners, as well as "royalty, presidents, and high-ranking dignitaries" aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, according to From Scratch. Marc said he might want to make sure it was accurate, but the muscular chef gave him the brush off. A year later, the truth began to come out, revealing that not much of what he'd claimed was entirely above board and the network replaced him with Michael Symon on D:I. He was reinstated in 2009 with an edited bio page and has maintained a presence on the network to this day.
In 2007, Emeril Lagasse was recovering from the cancellation from his longtime series Emeril Live when the network approached him about joining Iron Chef America as one of the Iron Chefs. According to From Scratch, the network saw it as an opportunity for the chef to rebrand himself as "gritty, electric, and inventive," but the congenial Emeril saw it as a demotion and passed on the offer. Three years later, however, he would find himself in Kitchen Stadium competing alongside Mario Batali against Bobby Flay and White House executive chef Christeta Comerford.
The infamous "bam" that Emeril Lagasse has been known for since his debut on the network? It originated as a way to keep drowsy crew members awake! The chef's restaurant schedule meant that they had to film eight episodes of Essence of Emeril a day. "Inspired first by the need to keep the cameramen awake, Emeril started yelling as he added ingredients to dishes — 'Bam!'" Allen Salkin wrote in From Scratch.
"And then from there, it just continued bamming," Emeril told Eater in 2015, confirming the story. And the rest is history.
Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay may seem like best buds these days, co-hosting The Next Food Network Star, but there was once an eight month spell where the former would not speak to the latter. As she revealed on the podcast Beyond the Plate earlier this year, the falling out occurred after she teamed up with Bobby to take on Rachael Ray and Mario Batali on Iron Chef America in 2006. "We lost and he thought it was funny," she explained. "He didn't think it was any big deal that we lost. I did not talk to him for eight months‚ eight months! I did not. Nothing. Silence."
The way Bobby handled the loss, or didn't, to be more accurate, really rubbed Giada the wrong way. "He didn't say, ‘Hey I'm sorry that we lost,' or ‘Hey, you know we'll do it again,'" she added. "Nothing. He's just like walked away and I thought, you're a jerk and I'm never—I never want to be around you again. Now of course we're best buddies and we hang out but…"
For years now, Guy Fieri has traveled the country to find, say it with us now, America's greatest diners, drive-ins and dives. But what happens once Triple D is done filming at your establishment and the bleach-blonde chef is ready to depart? Turns out he leaves a little piece of himself behind. A stencil that features the chef's recognizable visage, along with the message "Guy at here," the FN logo, and his signature, is pulled out and painted on the wall. "At first it was like, 'Oh man, I wish he hadn't done that.' But I can't be mad. The whole thing ended up being so amazing, we love it now," Adam Sappington, owner of The Country Cat in Portland, Ore. told Thrillist in 2016. "People take their picture in front of it, and it's like another notch in their Triple D belt. It's like, 'This is the 256th place we've been to!' It's pretty cool to be a part of that."
Giada De Laurentiis isn't the only one who's been rubbed the wrong way by Bobby Flay's behavior in Kitchen Stadium. In 2017, he shocked everyone on Iron Chef Showdown by stripping off his apron mid-competition to reveal a shirt that read "THIS IS MY LAST IRON CHEF BATTLE EVER." Producers were stunned and, according to Vanity Fair, when they told the chef as much, he replied, "I know. That's the point." He later told People it was a joke, but one that clearly didn't land. He didn't return to the show and, as of this year, was explaining it away as being fatigued with the demanding show.
Despite the delays in getting Chopped contestants' plates to the judges, thanks to production and the need to get all the shots just right, regular judge Amanda Freitag insists that she and her cohorts do actually get to at least preview the food as it was plated. In a 2010 interview with Reality Blurred, she revealed, "We definitely look at all the plates before we taste them." It's done so the judges know "how the sauce is supposed to have been" and things of that nature. "If it's a whipped cream that's in a beautiful [shape], we're going to remember it that way. When we're eating, we never stop to be as fair as we can," she added.
Despite spending their first brand-building decade with instructional shows designed to make home chefs out of us all, you'll notice that much of Food Network's primetime line-up these days is comprised of competition shows like Guy's Grocery Games, Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen, with the more educational programming relegated to weekend mornings. And that's how they want it. "Our job is not to teach people how to cook. Our job is to make people want to watch television," Kathleen Finch, who oversees FN, Cooking Channel and nine other networks as Discovery Communication's chief lifestyle brands officer, told Grub Street this year. "When we find talent that works, when we find a format that works, the viewers tell us through ratings, and then we just keep making more of it."