Long before The Food Network entered my consciousness, food and cooking on TV belonged to a few local programs, and to that home of Julia Child, PBS.
Today, PBS has maintained its varied and high-quality food and cooking programming with the likes of
Lidia's Family Table and
America's Test Kitchen, among others. My newest favourite is
Diary of a Foodie brought to us by the folks at Gourmet magazine.
Like its parent publication, the focus is food, but the range goes far beyond meals to cover equipment, the cultural anthropology of cooking and food, travel, and lifestyle. It's modern and stylish, and really interesting. Yes, I'm a fan!
They're running older episodes here, and last Saturday's was called
The Hungry Luddite - a quirky exploration of how technology has altered the world of food, but also how traditionalists are preserving the art and craft of Japanese knife making, heirloom fruits and vegetables, and ancient cooking techniques.
Of course there are supporting recipes too, to be found at their website:
http://www.diaryofafoodie.org
