Cookus Interruptus: Beyond Online Cooking Shows

Many people are trying their hand at online food shows, for entertainment or promotional reasons. Christopher Walken even has one for his chicken with pears. But the format keeps you from really getting into it and sours the fun, when the pears look like 8-bit blobs and the chicken breasts are all pixelated out. YouTube is fine to watch a kitten on a pony, but anything more important can get lost in the choppy, pixelated, slow loading format depending on your connection and your computer.

Enter Cookus Interruptus, a new online cooking show with a mission. Starring local author, nutritionist, and actress Cynthia Lair, the online site produces quick and fun videos teaching you how to produce wholesome meals with fresh, local ingredients. Mixed in with the how to are adorable non sequiturs that give the project its name.

The video plays at a quality far superior to YouTube, shot by Seattle commercial director Brad Huskinson. Huskinson and Lair are partners in Cookus, which they partly conceived more than ten years ago when the two produced a pilot of a similar show, a half hour cooking sitcom focusing on meals made with whole foods. Too ahead of it's time then, the Cookus Interruptus website is definitely still ahead of the curve now. Clean, easy to use, and informative, the videos get to the point, and on the plate, in 4 to 8 minutes.

The site posts a video each week, and each video has the complete recipe right below the screen, with a print option. Under the "menus" page, videos are organized into meals to giving further ideas as to use. Lair is at ease with her expertise; she's taught at Bastyr University for over ten years. Sweetly delivering facts and helpful hints to enrich your daily meals, she deals with interruptions from her husband and adult daughter, who both seem to be in a "transitional period" and spend a great deal of time at home.

Cookus Interruptus launched two weeks ago, and interesting side effect so far are all of the emails asking various cooking and recipe questions. Because of the quick turn around of this format, Huskinson says they can and will turn your questions into future videos. So watch, learn, and don't be afraid to ask!

Topics: Cook This and Food TV

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Anthony Bourdain in Seattle

Bourdain cracks one open after his Seattle appearance.

Anthony Bourdain of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations brought his snide commentary, swearing, and drinking to The Moore this weekend to talk about well… himself. And sure, the guy’s entertaining on television when he’s guzzling down warthog rectum and fermented shark, but my companion and I wondered: Is this guy gonna be fun to watch if he’s just standing on a stage behind a fucking podium?

Surprisingly, yes. The charismatic (according to some) and quite handsome (again, according to some) Mr. Bourdain spent about 45 minutes talking about his rise from cook to writer to media personality, before taking about an hour’s worth of questions from the audience.

He commended Armandino Batali’s Salumi as his no. 1 Seattle choice for a meal and was complimentary of the city's seafood. But Bourdain was less kind toward other subjects. Rachel Ray was referred to as a rhinoceros and Bourdain, who has taken some heat in the past for mocking vegetarians, gleefully called out at the end of his appearance “Are there any vegetarians in the house?” When nobody answered, he grinned. “Too weak to shout out?”

Like him or not, Bourdain actually can hold his own without the exotic landscape or camera crew to help him out. And the ladies sure as hell seemed to love him.

Topics: Food TV

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Pimp your life to the Food Network

From my inbox this morning:

FOOD NETWORK IS LOOKING FOR AMAZING STORIES FOR A GROUNDBREAKING NEW SERIES!!!

Do you or someone you know have an amazing food related story to tell? Do you know someone who has gone from being homeless to the owner of their own restaurant, makes pop art out of pineapples, or eats nothing but peanuts? Do you know someone who is battling food fears or phobias? Has food helped to cure an illness, changed the course of your life, or helped to inspire you in some dramatic way? We are looking for all types of stories even those that are odd or humorous to feature on and upcoming series for the Food Network.

Casting is underway, so Email a brief description of your story with your contact information and picture of yourself ASAP to michaelraptis@alroker.com or call 646.723.9848 to be considered for the show.

Topics: Food TV

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Top Chef Starts Tonight

Top Chef contestants: Good palates, better skin

Just to make sure you didn't change your routine, one week after Project Runway ended, Bravo is starting up the fourth season of Top Chef, which will air every Wednesday night at 10pm. This season starts off in Chicago, and Bravo has scoured the kitchens of New York and San Francisco for the prettiest chefs in the business. According to the Seattle Times, contestant Zoi Antonitsas is a native Seattleite who made her bones at the Dahlia Lounge.

Because nothing's more passe than cheering on the Sonics with your bros, Faire Gallery Cafe, on E. Olive at Bellevue, is hosting a Top Chef viewing party every Wednesday throughout the season so you can get into drunken fistfights with some stranger over Spike vs. Nikki's knife skills. Faire is offering $13.50 champagne bottles — though I'm not sure why cheap sparkling wine is appropriate for TV watching — and other specials. Post in the comments if you know of other bars hosting viewing parties.

Topics: Food TV

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