Jump to content

mstillman

participating member
  • Posts

    62
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by mstillman

  1. I am having a party and need more wine glasses than I own for the attendees. any good places to rent from in new york city? thanks
  2. Yup. Airplanes. Planes have fed the hungry. brought ingredients that we never knew existed to our doorsteps. airplanes created the potential for super variety at our supermarkets.
  3. i hear what you are saying but this type of thing is bad for fund raising in the near future because corporations/wealthy individuals don't like to be perceived to be throwing their money into a hole with a bad reputation. when the stink started to rise off of enron everyone jumped and made it sink faster.
  4. i agree. just shocking in how blatant it was. sad for him and the organization. i look forward to reading the next two articles.
  5. unbelivable http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...DDGT9CGU161.DTL [Moderator's note: News article links on the web tend to be short lived. Links go cold quickly and posts with nothing but a link to a news story without summary or short citation within the boundaries of our copyright and fair use policy may be deleted in the future. It's also unfair to ask members to pursue a link without offering some details of what might be found at the end of the link. Please see the next post for a brief quote from "Recipe for Scandal," an article by Mike Weiss in the May 4, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle to be found at the link above. The article details Len Pickell's handling of the Beard foundation's business affairs as an unsalaried vice president for finance. "Cooking of the books" is a phrase used by Weiss in his account.]
  6. not many got on air for sara. there were always a few who called but the vast majority of calls were authentic. but we had to fabricate calls for dr. aroni and dr. callahan. nobody called that show.
  7. the name of that lady with dr. lou aroni was dr. lisa callahan. i used to be a call screener for that show. and cooking live.
  8. The Chairman is going to be Eric Drasascos. He was in "The Raven: Stairway to Heaven" They tape next week.
  9. sort of, chin has a chinese father and a japanese mother and was raised in both countries. if memory serves.
  10. More details... Iron Chef America (Triage Entertainment, makers of Home for the Holidays and Scariest Places on Earth) is set to launch with an original series of four special episodes on April 23-25, 9-11p each evening. The American Iron Chefs are Bobby Flay Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck (Wolfgang Puck being American and all) In these special eps, the American Iron Chefs do kitchen battle with the Japanese Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Hiroyuki Sakai. There is also a set of judges and for the American version will include Paige Davis (Trading Spaces), Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue), Barbara Fairchild (editor of Bon Appetit), Vincent Pastore (Sopranos), among others. And in the role of play-by-ingredient commentator, chef/scientist Alton Brown. sit tight.
  11. But they bought the format rights and so that means in large ways replicating the format and that includes: the chairman, the coming up on platforms (or the like), production style, commentators, etc. But usually something gets lost in the transition... i.e. "Coupling" from BBC which was a good solid sitcom but once the format was bought by NBC they quickly wasted their money by ruining a fine format and cancelling the show. The same will happen with "The Office" (one of the best shows on television, period) because the format is so unique. The only truly successful format purchase that really worked was "Three's Company" because it was screwball comedy and sex innuendoes. That translates pretty easily. It is hard to make Iron Chef straightforward because otherwise you don't need the format rights. Just make a competitive cooking show where chefs compete against food network chefs. i do think it is possible to make a quirky and american version of iron chef. i don't know why you would want to when there is such a great original that people still like and are interested in. It isn't tired material at all. but that said, it takes finesse to carry the essence of the show and have it work.
  12. horrible news that it is...i am just glad i don't work there any more to see them butcher my baby in front of my eyes. i am just remembering my experience consulting on Iron Chef USA and how defeating it was to speak with the executive producer who was intent on producing the show in the worst way possible against all my advice. oh well.
  13. Food Network has picked up the US format rights to Iron Chef and expects to have Iron Chef America ready for air this spring. Among the US Iron Chefs will be Wolfgang Puck and Bobby Flay (naturally, he's been down this road before). I shudder at the thought. The SVP of programming left the network about three weeks ago or so. I don't see this going well (even if she was there)
  14. Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily by Theresa Maggio. A love story and fantastic huge bluefin tuna hunts done as they have been for the last 2000 years. remarkable.
  15. Jeremiah Tower's New American Classics. That books kicks ass and takes names...kidnaps your mom and holds her at gunpoint and then asks for a chopper and 50 million dollars to make its getaway to some island where it rules supremely in a white linen suit while smoking cigars. Also Red Wine with Fish by Rosengarten and Wesson.
  16. i remeber a show that was pitched to me when i was at Food Network that was all about cooking things while camping. the pilot tape had this woman take hot rocks from a camp fire and dump them into the cavity of a chicken. baste chicken with barbeque sauce and ketchup and mustarad. wrap in multiple layers of foil. then wrap in newspaper. place the whole parcel in your backpack and hike for 45 minutes to an hour...voila! roast chicken. we rejected that show. stillman
  17. kagas voice is so great. it is emotional and emphatic. his cadence and rhythm really add something IMO. it works the other way, but i think it is purer in the all subbed way. m
  18. fired October 11, 2000. My opinions are my own as are my recollections. In expressing them I in no way intend to defame the Food Network, it business strategies at any point, its programming decisions, or any individual working for Food Network. The biggest challenge was just getting the show on the air. For more than two years I whinily pitched the show and was summarily rejected. "It was too weird" and things of the like were offered as reasons that the show couldn't work. When the network finally agreed that we should get the show, I knew the hardest part was over. after that was negotiating for the rights with Fuji over a period of months and then airing it. I really wanted the whole thing subtitled. I was overruled...and I understand why the others felt that way... I think the show is better that way myself. But I think it works pretty well as long as Kaga is subtitled. that is about it. As for dubbing...it wasn't hard really. Fuji sent us lots of voices and I evaluated them. Then I took my reccomendations to someone else in programming and we signed off on them. pretty straight forward.
  19. As you all know, I can only speak for the time that I was at Food Network. I have no idea what has been on the development slate there since my firing October 11, 2000. In my time there "The exceptional cuisine of the Pacific Northwest" was never considered a must have regional cuisine. The South is a definitive food style that evokes certain imagery to the viewing public, same with Spanish cuisine or Italian or Asian etc... Also Caprial Pence had her own show on PBS and while I was there never came up in discussion even though a number of us knew her show. The glories of the mighty Pacific Northwest ,to my knowledge, have been explored in other ways on the network rather than a cooking show. And truthfully I think that is probably the right call.
  20. thanks for the compliment on my intuition... as of this moment i have no food projects active in any way. oh actually that isn't true, i have fiddled around with the idea opening a wine bar in harlem. i have some complete written up television ideas sitting around for a rainy day. i have a fairly nifty idea for a cook/food book that hasn't been done. but the truth is that just because i love food doesn't mean that is all i want to do with my professional career in television. i simultaneously neither accept nor reject the possibility of working in food in any or some capacity. as for the school of practical philosophy...it rocks. anyone can PM me to chat about it. vague enough for you? oh, it has been fun being here. thank you to every one for such a nice reception and cool questions.
  21. the only thing i recall was one episode of "extreme cuisine" where placenta cooking was discussed but not shown. i recall some letters about that. to be honest i don't really recall much anger about ingredients at all.
  22. My name is Matthew Stillman. I was fired from Food Network on October 11, 2000. No, for real! My experiences and recollections refer only to the time I was at Food Network and cannot be construed as accurate or as factual or referring to anytime beyond the time of my gainful employment. In no way do I intend to defame or disparage Food Network or any individual connected to the organization. I have no knowledge of any programming or business strategies employed by the network since my departure with any certainty at all. In this post I do not mean to suggest that Food Network either has or does not have any of the types of programming I'll mention. My opinions are my own and cannot be taken as having any value beyond the ones and zeroes they are composed of. I also was fired from a job as doorman in the ElDorado, a swanky art deco building on the Upper West Side on CPW, huge building, five doormen at all times. It was a summer gig, it paid twenty two bucks an hour which was awesome for being nineteen. It was boring, I used to count the triangles on the terrazzo tile patterns in my area to pass the time. Anyway, to make it fun I used to run for the door and slide on the slippery floor making a very cool entrance. Tenants loved it but the super hated it. He said I made the other doormen look bad... I don't remember the date, but man, was I fired! my recollections and opinions of my time there only reflect the time I was gainfully employed there. I in no way mean to disparage or defame The ElDorado or any the staff there. The ElDorado business strategies were something I knew nothing about. Actually I won't even be talking about the ElDorado anymore except to say that that job gave me my worst sexual experience of my life, my first one night stand (wow, was she hot!), and a dear friend. cooking shows... The cooking show is tapped. We have seen it all for all intent and purpose. There may be variations in set and personalities and interactivity but the form we see is basically the form. That is not a bad thing, IMO. Cooking shows are not bad, they can be smart and elegant and good TV, you need cooking shows to show people stuff about cooking everything from toast, ice, and grilled cheese to torchons and quenelles and demi-glace. there will be good ones and bad ones and even great ones... But as for innovation?...It was an innovation to have cooking shows in the first place. Not just because I was involved with them, but I don't think there was a real revolution in cooking shows until Iron Chef and Good Eats....cooking shows were around, ditto food travelogues, restaurant reviews, documentaries etc...but IC and GE exploded conventions and stand alone in their style and purpose and scale of view. They are giants that others will stand on the shoulders of...really. new concepts? yes. there are lots of unexplored ways to look at food. to look at cooking. shows that have cooking in them may not be cooking shows. just to throw out one... a pure science of food and cooking show is completely unmade. Good Eats is amazing but there is so much more that could entertain viewers, hold their rapt attention, and be compelling for a large commercially viable audience. i don't think you have to look like nigella or cook like jacques. not in a defamatory way, but there are lots of cooking show hosts who are neither and have their own shows on other networks outside of FN and pbs. you need to have a real approach, have passion and personality and/or be a really good teacher who brings out the best in the viewer. there is always room for that in any genre. i think production values can cover small problems but they can't cover anything beyond that. ultimately, for me, if you have good writing and a great host and a good format you would be surprised how bad the production values can be.
  23. Off Topic Chat warning - Are you participating in the Del Improv Olympics next month? As I will be working around the new theater during my "vacation" I will be spending an unususal amount of time there, attending the Olympics, and generally trying to make myself feel famous. Sorry, I must have missed you at the old theater. What is your history performing the Herald? What of this eight-year streak? I have been involved with the UCB shortly after they arrived in New York eight years ago. I took classes with them when they used to be on 17th street on a 6th floor walk up. I recently took my first break from classes. i won't be involved with the del close marathon this year. but i have performed in it in previous years doing Harolds (sorry, not heralds) and other long form stuff. i have been lucky to be asked to do monologues at ASSSCAT a few times. I have also been involved in teams and a number of shows at the theater. It has always been one of the things that I have done since I graduated college. I am good at it (long form improvisation)and I love doing it. I have shared the stage with so many talanted performers over the years who i think are brilliant. I stay in the loop over there and know all the old timers but i never could be a 24/7 improv guy...i do too many things.
  24. i had a friendly professional relationship with almost all the on-air talent on the network by the time I was fired, October 11, 2000. I have run into Mario at the Union Square Farmers Market and elsewhere and we chat. I ran into David Rosengarten the other day on the train. We exchange emails every six months or so. There are others, but the contacts are intermitent. When you change jobs you only stay in touch with a small percentage of the folks you worked with. Some of my closer chef friends never were permanent talent on air but we became friends anyway. Alton Brown. He is a remarkable man. Brilliant, funny, philosophical, humble, intense, well read...I can go on about his fine qualities. He is someone I consider a close friend, someone I have learned a tremendous amount from (and not just about food). We have stayed in touch but not nearly as much as I would like...but he is really busy. I would say that the character Alton Brown is strongly related to the person Alton Brown, but obviously there is a difference, as there should be. The real Alton has broader interests than just food but is just as nerdy(positive nerdy) and passionate. I am glad you love "Good Eats" - I am lucky to have been involved in it and its success and I am lucky to have befriended Alton.
  25. wow, thanks. thanks also for your praise on my "mission statement." that means a lot to me.
×
×
  • Create New...