Food Network: Food2

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Many of the new shows on the Food Network are about cooking for families or cooking on a budget. You might get the impression that the Food Network's viewers are setting up their nests, feeding the kids, or learning how to be swinging grandmas. As the young and gorgeous hosts – Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Giada De Laurentiis, and Rachael Ray, start their families and settle down, there may be a fear that the twenty-something audience might look elsewhere for food entertainment. That seems to be the thinking behind the launch of Food2, Scripps' new multimedia website for the twenty-something set. This is a site for those who use Twitter or FaceBook on a daily or hourly basis (or minute?). The emphasis is on entertaining situations delivered up in multiple ways – videos, recipes, challenges, blogs – you name it – all of which can be looked at in a few minutes or less. Not only does Food2 assume that twenty-somethings will overlook its dorky graphics and slapdash look - it also assumes that twenty-somethings can't cook and want to learn just enough to make that special date something less than a disaster. This is what the press release says about the contents: * Video – Food2 has more than a thousand short food and drink videos including web originals with new, fresh faces as well as shorts from the trusted talent and kitchens of Food Network. * Challenges – Users compete head to head in virtual Food2 Challenges to find the prettiest, the tastiest, the cheapest, the weirdest, the sloppiest and the ugliest food around. * Recipes – From quick and easy to palate expanding, no matter what type of recipe needed, the authority of Scripps Networks and the Food2 community will steer you in the right direction. * Tips – Whether gourmand or food-newbie, community-provided Food2 tips make navigating the kitchen a snap. * Blog – Just like a party where everyone winds up in the kitchen talking food, the best food bloggers and most current food culture content all gather here at the Food2 Blog. Some of Food2 is fleshed out, and some of this is still in planning. This is a New York- centered site – hint, hint to the City about marketing itself in a recession. This is a New York filled with date-obsessed young people, who live in lofts, and can whip together breakfasts and pizzas with hardly a second thought. Some of the videos are fun. Super Chef watched Kelsey Nixon from The Next Food Network Star and Spike Mendelsohn from Top Chef 4 (hey, isn't that on a different network?) make pancakes and French toast on Kelsey & Spike Cook. Will you learn anything? Probably not, but you might get an idea or two. Then there is Former Pro NFL athlete Keith Neubert who hosts a video clip called Man Kitchen – as a joke, a sort-of un-PC take on cooking segments - a "Hungry Man" kind of silliness. It's a throw-away…but, that is the point, you can skim over all this material without sitting through a long show of repeated instructions and advertisement breaks. It is all about being flirtatious and young, and not about being a professional chef. What's next? KinderFood.com for elementary school students who want the real nuts and bolts about why cooking works the way it does? Since there seems to be little room on the Food Network for professional chefs showing real skills and knowledge, why not on the web for America's future cooks? Previous articles: [Food Television - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, cookbook reviews --> back to Super Chef