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Sara Moulton's moving to PBS

zilla369

By zilla369
in Food Media & Arts

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MarketStEl

MarketStEl

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Posted

We are fairly fortunate in Philadelphia: we get PBS cooking shows every day of the week, including Sunday.

Our main PBS station, WHYY, airs a four-hour block of cooking shows on Saturday, including "Christina Cooks," which they produce, and "America's Test Kitchen."

"ATK" also airs Fridays at 2 pm on the city's "alternative" public TV station, WYBE, which devotes the 1 to 3 p.m. block every weekday to cooking shows, including Charlie Trotter, Martin Yan, Jim Coleman, two Lidia Bastianich programs, and "Barbecue University." :biggrin: 'YBE shows programs aimed at Indian, African American, and Hispanic audiences while 'HYY teaches you how to cook, and 'HYY educates the kids while 'YBE's in the kitchen with the grownups.

And the conservatives wonder why there are so many public TV stations out there. :hmmm:

Aside to Jennifer: In addition to WNET, you might also want to check to see if your cable system carries Long Island's public TV station, WLIW (Channel 21), or WNJN (Channel 50, Montclair), the New Jersey Network station serving the New York region.

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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Katie Nell

Katie Nell

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Posted
I get to meet her and I'm so excited!!!  She is coming to KC and teaching a cooking class and you get a copy of her cookbook signed!  I can barely contain myself until November!  :smile:

As for the move, I thought I had read that she said Food Network was going in a different direction and that didn't include her?  Did I make that up?  I can never seem to find the good cooking shows on PBS that everyone always talks about... I think they must be on at weird times here.  I think fans will follow her, so hopefully there's enough of us!

Katie, if you can't find the shows on TV, try checking out PBS websites. If you like going totally nerdy, you can probably get some of them on DVD! :wink:

I may have to go nerdy! I just checked out PBS, and the only shows I get are on Sat. morning and it's Everyday Food at 10:30, Lidia's Family Table at 11:00, Chefs A' Fiedl at 12:30, and BBQ University at 12:00! That's it, unless I could catch some cooking on the Teletubbies, but I don't think I'm THAT desperate! What if I don't get Sara?!? I will be so sad! :sad:

"Many people believe the names of In 'n Out and Steak 'n Shake perfectly describe the contrast in bedroom techniques between the coast and the heartland." ~Roger Ebert

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mrbigjas

mrbigjas

Posted
Posted (edited)
We are fairly fortunate in Philadelphia:  we get PBS cooking shows every day of the week, including Sunday.

Our main PBS station, WHYY, airs a four-hour block of cooking shows on Saturday, including "Christina Cooks," which they produce,

can we please not talk about this show as if it's something to be proud of?

edited to say: i don't wanna derail this thread by busting on christina cooks, so let me just add that i'm happy for sara moulton, moving to a situation that appears much more in line with her style of show. i'll be sure to catch it whenever i can.

it's interesting to me, this shift. for years she (along with emeril) was kind of the face of food tv--cooking live was on for an hour every day, and she had another show before sara's secrets that was on as well, that i can't remember the name of. but as food tv moved away from the straight-up instructional cooking shows and into the celebrity chef, reality tv, 'lifestyle' kinds of things, her place on the channel got eliminated. and now when i think about her shows, it seems like PBS is a more natural fit for her, even though she didn't change all that much--her station did.

Edited by mrbigjas (log)
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MomOfLittleFoodies

MomOfLittleFoodies

Posted
Posted
We are fairly fortunate in Philadelphia:  we get PBS cooking shows every day of the week, including Sunday.

Our main PBS station, WHYY, airs a four-hour block of cooking shows on Saturday, including "Christina Cooks," which they produce,

can we please not talk about this show as if it's something to be proud of?

I saw a few episodes of a show done by Christina of "Christina Cooks" years ago. I couldn't get over that condescending attitude of hers towards non-whole foods and non-vegans, not to mention the butchery of the terms "kombu" and "oden".

Cheryl

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  • 2 months later...
foodgeek

foodgeek

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Posted

I've met Sara Moulton and she is a sweetie. I actually sat in on a taping of Cooking Live when I lived in nyc a few years back.

-Jason

I get to meet her and I'm so excited!!!  She is coming to KC and teaching a cooking class and you get a copy of her cookbook signed!  I can barely contain myself until November!  :smile:

As for the move, I thought I had read that she said Food Network was going in a different direction and that didn't include her?  Did I make that up?  I can never seem to find the good cooking shows on PBS that everyone always talks about... I think they must be on at weird times here.  I think fans will follow her, so hopefully there's enough of us!

-Jason

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R Washburn

R Washburn

Posted
Posted (edited)
I've met Sara Moulton and she is a sweetie.  I actually sat in on a taping of Cooking Live when I lived in nyc a few years back.

-Jason

I spent a good half-hour talking to her at the "Gourmet Magazine" superbowl party at Blue Smoke a couple of years ago, and she is incredibly nice. I am looking forward to the new show.

Edited by R Washburn (log)
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foodgeek

foodgeek

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Posted

chrisamirault, thanks for sending me a message about your comment, because I don't have notifications set for this thread.

-----------

Well, when I lived in NYC (a few years ago), I used to take the express bus daily with a woman who worked for the same company as Sarah. I forget what the larger company is for Gourmet. They knew each other because they had similar last names, so got each others mail a lot. She got me into the taping. They just sat me and two friends at a table in the back with a botle of wine. They dont have an actual audience. We had to pull our legs in whenever the cameraman ran by with the equipment.

Afterwards, Sarah came by and spoke to me for a while. She asked what my cooking infuences are, etc... We actually share a birthday (date, not year) but I forgot to mention it. That means hers is coming up in February. She is really nice. We also got to try the food that they had prepared.

I had met Jacques Torres the same week at the chocolate show. In French accent: "Men, eat my chocolate, the women will love you. Ladies, beware, I'm eating some now."

A taping? No kidding! What was it like? I'm really interested to hear behind the scenes stuff: how did they prep you? what role did you play? etc. etc.

-Jason

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Mottmott

Mottmott

Posted
Posted
Jennifer, each PBS market 'buys' the programs they want to show. As an example, when I lived in Los Angeles, cooking shows made up exactly two hours of broadcast time which equals four half-hour shows. I recall getting an announcement that Jaques Torres was doing a chocolate program however the Angelos, in their infinite wisdom, did not see it worthwhile.

Then I moved to Northern California and living halfway between San Francisco and San Francisco, I actually have access to three different PBS stations that all play different shows (albeit similar schedules). Here in NoCal, there is a whole Saturday afternoon of cooking shows, methinks at least four or five hours' worth. I was blown away at the additional shows that were available!

In Los Angeles, I never new Joanne Weir(d) had a show! Or Lidia Bastianich! And I finally got to see some of the amazing Jacques Torres chocolate work... and the Johnson & Wales school shows...  the list goes on!

Ah, ok. Thank you, Carolyn! Since my PBS station is in NYC, I expect a plethora of programming. I'll have to look at WNET's schedule.

Jennifer <---- Happy to be out from under the rock

:rolleyes:

Also check out the Long Island Station (wlif?) and NJN which should both be available to you, too.

Here in Phila I have access to PBS WHYY & NJN. WHYY is food all Sat afternoon, NJN is food on Sat AM and all Sun afternoon as well as running a couple hours in the middle of the night from 2-4! Adding to our culinary TV riches, the local public access station (WYBE', a really interesting station for several reasons) has 2 hours each weekday afternoon. Some of this is repeats of what's on the other stations, but not all.

"Half of cooking is thinking about cooking." ---Michael Roberts

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  • 1 month later...
Sara Moulton

Sara Moulton

Posted
Posted

Thank you all for your encouragement about PBS! It does sort of feel right considering that I started at WGBH in Boston doing prep and styling for Julia in 1978. What I meant by more people watch PBS is that overall it has a larger viewership than the food network. Of course in the food world the place most people want to be is on the food network since it was the first all food network. But it has changed and they would be the first to tell you they are not interested in education, just entertainment (call me silly but somehow I though you could do both). I have a producer friend who tried to pitch them some new shows and he was told, "no chefs please, nobody with any training"

The only trouble is that things move very slowly on public television so it will be several months before we begin taping. I will let you know when I know the timing (and then I will tell you the topic, I am very excited about it)

Meanwhile, oddly enough and maybe only for a few more weeks, I am still on the food network...

Sara Moulton

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Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

Posted
Posted
not interested in education, just entertainment (call me silly but somehow I though you could do both).

Not silly at all ... you will find many of our members feel exactly as you do ... what do they say of someone today? A PBS mind in an MTV world ... :hmmm:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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srhcb

srhcb

Posted
Posted
Thank you all for your encouragement about PBS! It does sort of feel right considering that I started at WGBH in Boston doing prep and styling for Julia in 1978. What I meant by more people watch PBS is that overall it has a larger viewership than the food network. Of course in the food world the place most people want to be is on the food network since it was the first all food network. But it has changed and they would be the first to tell you they are not interested in education, just entertainment (call me silly but somehow I though you could do both). I have a producer friend who tried to pitch them some new shows and he was told, "no chefs please, nobody with any training"

The only trouble is that things move very slowly on public television so it will be several months before we begin taping. I will let you know when I know the timing (and then I will tell you the topic, I am very excited about it)

Meanwhile, oddly enough and maybe only for a few more weeks, I am still on the food network...

WOW! :shock:

Sara! :smile:

Cool! :cool:

SB (big fan):wacko:

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Kape

Kape

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Posted

I agree with Ms. Moulton that the potential of PBS is there.

Even though I have the Food Network, I currently tape "America's Test Kitchen" (because of its how-to nature) and "Colameco's Food Show" (to learn more about NYC food) back to back most (over)nights on WNJN, and they are broadcast at 3 and 3:30 in the morning. Just think of all the people who don't have the Food Network at all.

~ Ken

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Chad

Chad

Posted
Posted (edited)
After nearly a decade, Moulton's Food Network show "Sara's Secrets" will end on Dec. 31, but fans shouldn't despair: She's going to PBS, which she noted, "actually can draw more people."

Here's a link to the item on accessatlanta.com (free registration required).

Discuss. Can PBS actually "draw more people"? Or does she mean it's accessible to more people? How does this bode for Sara - well or ill?

As surprising as it sounds, PBS has a significantly larger audience than Food Network.

Now public television stations across the country broadcast more than 71 cooking shows. That's a 69 percent increase from the 42 shows they offered three years ago – 11.5 hours of chopping, dicing and baking across major markets. “Food is the most popular genre of programming we make,” says Cynthia Fenneman, president and chief executive of American Public Television, a programming distributor to public television stations. APT shows such as America's Test Kitchen and Lidia Bastianich's Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen are viewed on average by about twice the audience of Food Network’s top programs, according to Nielsen NSI ratings.
“Food Shows are Making Chefs into Stars” Corie Brown, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2004

And better news for Sara, from what I found during some research recently, PBS celebrity chefs outdo Food Network chefs in cookbook sales. PBS barbecue guru Steve Raichlin, for example, has sold 2.5 million books to date, easily whipping Bobby Flay's similar offerings. I guess PBS folks read more.

Chad

edited to change Sarah to Sara -- sorry 'bout that. My daughter's name is Sarah, so I automatically add the "h" on the end.

Edited by Chad (log)

Chad Ward

An Edge in the Kitchen

William Morrow Cookbooks

www.chadwrites.com

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jdanton

jdanton

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Posted
I have a producer friend who tried to pitch them some new shows and he was told, "no chefs please, nobody with any training"

Sara--

Have always enjoyed your shows--you (via Cooking Live) were instrumental in the development of my cooking skills.

Anyway--what will the format of your PBS show be?

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MarketStEl

MarketStEl

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Posted
Of course in the food world the place most people want to be is on the food network since it was the first all food network. But it has changed and they would be the first to tell you they are not interested in education, just entertainment (call me silly but somehow I though you could do both).

Well, maybe that explains why my partner has started watching the Food Network and I've stopped watching it (Good Eats, Iron Chef/Iron Chef America and any show where the host visits Kansas City aside). He may still be a consummate professional, but a little bit of Emeril goes a loooooonnng, loooooooonnnnnng way. (That Crest toothpaste commercial is about enough.)

Good luck, Sara, and we'll be hanging on your every word.

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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I_call_the_duck

I_call_the_duck

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I'm with Sandy. Good Eats is probably one of the only shows worth watching on the Food Network these days. (I'm wavering on Iron Chef America.)

Congratulations Sara, on your new home at PBS, and welcome to egullet.

Karen C.

"Oh, suddenly life’s fun, suddenly there’s a reason to get up in the morning – it’s called bacon!" - Sookie St. James

Travelogue: Ten days in Tuscany

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