From Scratch - Inside the Food Network (Hardcover)

An "Entertainment Weekly" Best Tell-All of 2013
""Allen Salkin shows how the sausage really gets made at the Food Network in "From Scratch," a behind-the-scenes history liberally spiced with gossip and unsavory tidbits."--"Entertainment Weekly
""A detailed look at the network from start-up phase to the present, with a generous lump of juicy stories about the network's most polarizing figures--Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, Anthony Bourdain and, of course, Paula Deen y'all--heaped on top."--"The Atlantic Wire
Big personalities, high drama--the extraordinary behind-the-scenes story of the Food Network, now about to celebrate its twentieth anniversary: the business, media, and cultural juggernaut that changed the way America thinks about food.
In October 1993, a tiny start-up called the Food Network debuted to little notice. Twenty years later, it is in 100 million homes, approaches a billion dollars a year in revenue, and features a galaxy of stars whose faces and names are as familiar to us as our own family's.
But what we don't know about them, and the people behind them, could fill a book.
Based upon extensive inside access, documents, and interviews with hundreds of executives, stars, and employees all up and down the ladder, Allen Salkin's book is an exhilarating roller-coaster ride from chaos to conquest (and sometimes back). As Salkin takes us inside the conference rooms, studios, homes, restaurants, and after-hours meetings, we see a salty Julia Child lording it over the early network performers; a fragile Emeril Lagasse staggering from the sudden public shock of cancellation; a very green Rachael Ray nearly burning down the set on her first day; a torn Tyler Florence accepting the Applebee's job he knows he can't refuse, but with a chill running down his spine; a determined Bobby Flay reinventing himself once again to survive.
Paula Deen, Tom Colicchio, Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, Jamie Oliver, Martha Stewart, Guy Fieri, Cat Cora: Salkin illuminates the people we thought we knew, and the ones we never knew about, in this irresistible story of the intersection between business, television, pop culture, food--and us.