I had been waiting for this past weekend since 4:49 p.m. on May 27. At that precise moment, my mother received an e-mail update from the Food Network's New York City Wine & Food Festival telling her that tickets for the event would go on sale June 15. We immediately circled the date on our calendars — this was not going to be a repeat of last year, when the unthinkable happened: Tickets sold out before I even heard that Food Network was finally hosting a festival in NYC.
My mother and I spent the 28 days between May 27 and June 15 poring over the event schedule online. Every time we received an e-mail notifying us of a new event, we would change around our game plan. This was like our Food Network Olympics, and we were not going to miss one second of it.
Then we realized how completely ridiculous we were being.
The second annual Food Network festival took place at various locations across Manhattan from Oct. 8 to 11. We realized that, no, it would not be possible to go to events on every day of the festival, and, no, it is not an option to leave one event at TheTimesCenter on 41st and 7th and make it to The Tishman Auditorium at The New School on 12th and 5th within four minutes — no matter how quickly we run or how crazily our cabbie can drive. It's also pretty damn expensive to be a Food Network devotee: The cheapest events were lectures that went for $30 a ticket, and some of the dinners cost upwards of $300 a plate. For the sake of our bank accounts and our sanity, we calmed down and purchased tickets to two events on Saturday, Oct. 10.
The first event we attended was a TimesTalk lecture with Ina Garten and Alex Witchel, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. Witchel asked Ina the kinds of questions that I've always wanted to ask her. I hate when people interview Food Network personalities and ask them about their favorite dishes, their culinary background, etc. I want to know the nuts and bolts behind the operation, like how they film their shows or what their writing process is like for their cookbooks.
I can officially say that Ina Garten is a complete control freak, but it pays off.
Ina stressed numerous times that she's a businessperson, and her business just happens to be food — she approaches everything methodically. It used to take her three days to film one episode of "The Barefoot Contessa," but over the years they've condensed it down to one as she got more comfortable in front of the camera. It takes her two years to write a cookbook — one year to write the recipes and one year to test all of them. There isn't a single color, font or piece of flatware in the book that she does not approve.
Witchel started the event by proclaiming, "Loving Ina is like a religion," and it was definitely apparent in the question-and-answer session after the talk. Everybody from young kids to senior citizens gushed over Ina, complimenting her on everything from her approachable style to how she de-veins a shrimp. I have to say, however, that I was a little disappointed with the TimesTalk. Witchel spent too much time talking about how she met Ina for the first time and what she's learned from her, rather than actually letting Ina speak for herself. Overall, it was an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the "Barefoot Contessa" brand, but it was nothing compared with the antics that went on at Guy Fieri's culinary demonstration later in the day.
Guy is absolutely out of his mind. He has so much energy he can barely get out a sentence before being distracted or moving on to another story. Either he tones it down while he is filming his shows, or the Food Network must have an amazing editing team. His personality is completely reflected in his fans: The only time I have ever seen so many middle-aged people scream so loudly was at a Bruce Springsteen concert — my mother shouted louder than I did on both occasions.
For the demonstration, Guy made "Pork El Fuego," the same dish he prepared when he was on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno in March. It's stir-fried pork and vegetables that get lit on fire and served on ciabatta with cheese; I think he said, "You can't have a party without the havarti" about 10 times in the 40-minute demo. He talked so fast and spent so much time interacting with the audience that he barely got the sandwich finished — he described his energy level as being like "nitrous oxide put in a lawn mower." But the crowd ate it up, literally: He threw slices of cheese and hunks of bread into the audience while he was cooking.
Robert Irvine, the chef from "Dinner: Impossible," showed up completely out of the blue right before the demo started. "The Irv," as Guy called him, even made Guy more energetic. He tossed him a beer from the onstage fridge, and they swapped stories about their travels. It was completely surreal to sit in front of two Food Network stars and just listen to them chat like old friends.
The thing that impressed me the most about the entire Festival experience — aside from Guy's inability to stand still for more than 10 seconds — was the difference in the types of people at all of the events. Ina's audience was mainly groups of older women and a few families; Guy's audience looked like it should have been tailgating instead of watching a culinary demonstration; and there were mainly 30-something women coming out of Rachael Ray's demo, which ended right before Guy's began. The people at the Festival, and how quickly the tickets sell out, are really a testament to how far-reaching and well loved the Food Network is. I'm already marking my calendar for when tickets go on sale next year.
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Caryn Horowitz is a senior majoring in history. She can be reached at Caryn.Horowitz@tufts.edu.
