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The Food Network's spinoff channel launched last week, and people who favor cooking over competition and smart more than slick will find a lot to like.
The Cooking Channel, which took the place of Fine Living Network on cable and satellite systems on May 31, aims to be edgy and youthful with a side of retro. It is certainly more global in accent and location. The emphasis is on people who are passionate about food, especially in a grass roots sort of way. More cleavers than cleavage, if you will.
There is also more diversity among show hosts than you'll find on the Food Network, and for viewers who want bona fide cooking instruction at night, rather than cake bakeoffs and reality shows, Cooking Channel delivers. Laura Calder's French Cooking at Home recently won a James Beard award for best TV cooking show. She beat out Ina Garten and Alton Brown.
To be clear, though, there isn't much brand-spanking new on Cooking Channel, though there is talk of a deal to bring on Internet food star Lisa Lillien. Lillien's Hungry Girl e-mail newsletter has about a million subscribers and she has written three cookbooks on low-calorie eating.
Programs that seem new to Americans will be familiar to watchers of TV cooking shows in Canada and England. And the lineup is loaded with old (and current) Food Network favorites, including Sara Moulton in the early morning, Two Fat Ladies on Saturday nights and Emeril Lagasse back in prime-time. They've even got Julia Child shows and Graham Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet back-to-back in the afternoons. She holds up pretty well, but Kerr's boozey Benny Hill shtick seems quite dated. Be warned though, Child's PBS show is chopped here and there to fit in the commercials that didn't exist originally. You might miss a step or two.
The Food Network faces that didn't make the initial leap include Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Brown, the Neelys and Garten, among others.
The Food Network was a pioneer in TV cooking, launching the cable channel in 1993, but in recent years other channels have muscled their way into the kitchen. Most of those offerings, chiefly the Top...