Baby, it’s cold outside – but the Independent Film Channel just announced a TV-related reason for local foodies to keep living, despite St. Louis’ usual dismal winter: a block of food-related programming on Tuesdays starting April 27.
The block includes the new indie-rock cooking/concert hybrid Dinner With the Band – sneak-peek episodes of which aired late last year – as well as the return of the zany puppet cooking show Food Party.
In the first full season of Dinner With the Band, celebrated NYC chef (Tailor, WD-50) and James Beard Award nominee Sam Mason combines his two loves, cooking and rock music. In each installment of the show, he welcomes a band to his Brooklyn loft, and the group cooks together while trading tips and stories. After inhaling the vittles, the musicians jam in Mason’s living room. Scheduled for Dinner With the Band are Rufus Wainwright, the Mountain Goats, My Brightest Diamond, Theophilus London and other acts.
Meanwhile, Food Party, entering its second season, is billed as “a psychedelic melding of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and Rachael Ray with a dash of the J-Horror vibe.” Pixyish host Thu Tran continues to gambol through colorful handmade cardboard sets, interacting with a psychic potato, derisive china, the Corn Stalker, Monsieur Baguette and Grape Jenny, among other puppets. The cooking segments are appropriately surreal. Check out clips here.
So stock up on Schlafly and T-ravs, fellow foodies – and (as they say) check your local listings later this year.
– Byron Kerman
This article appears in Jan 1-31, 2010.