The Year in Food 2006

Published on Monday, December 11, 2006, by The CHOW Editorial Team / Edit Post


Haute Goes PopWhen the boyfriend in The Devil Wears Prada was changed from being a teacher (the book) to working as a chef (the film), you know that the culinary arts have made some real pop culture headway. Meanwhile, food-themed books clogged the best-seller lists. And celebrity chefs were everywhere (except perhaps the kitchen). Whatever its cause, the food fad has become a many-headed hydra. A new publishing genre has arisen, the “food politics” tome exemplified by Fast Food Nation. Specialty stores hawking heirloom organic everything are eating the lunch of old-school supermarkets. Emeril sells three different kinds of golf towels! Gluttony: It’s the sin that’s in.—Joyce Slaton

The Alarming Rise of Racheal Ray

This was a big year for polarizing foodertainment superstar Rachael Ray. Ray is the maddeningly chatty symbol of the Food Network’s calculated pivot away from great chefs and toward increasingly accessible—and entertainment-driven—programming. The past 12 months have seen the launch of her daytime TV talk show (Rachael Ray), an Emmy for outstanding service show for 30 Minute Meals, and her appearance on the Time magazine list of 100 most influential people of 2006. Then again, Travel Channel personality Anthony Bourdain also called her a vomit-inducing “bobblehead,” so it hasn’t all been gravy.—James Norton

The (Re)launch of CHOW and CHOWHOUND

Named best new magazine of 2005 by Amazon.com, CHOW proved that high-concept food writing doesn’t have to be lifestyle porn. Thronged by culinary zealots of all skill levels since 1997, Chowhound proved that the collective food smarts of the grass roots can be awesome to behold. In 2006, both were incorporated into one smoothly integrated online bastion of culinary badassery.—James Norton

Martha Stewart: Battered but Still Cookin'

The close of last year saw how handily the prison-slimmed Martha turned her first (and hopefully only) competitive reality show, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, into a big lemon. While Martha strenuously insisted she had no plans to do more than one season, the show’s ratings fell faster than a cheese soufflé, and its subsequent cancellation led to a very public breakup between former BFFs Trump and Stewart. Martha had reason to bleach her smile, however, because while her talk show’s ratings were down 24 percent this year and Rachael Ray’s new talk show proved to be a thorn in her ponchoed side, Martha was renewed for a third season. —Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic

Food Dot Com

Online food media continued to grow, with the launch of several start-ups and offerings from established players. Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Food, featuring recipes, culinary travel guides, and other food-related articles, including content from Food & Wine and Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Two email newsletters, Belly DuJour and Tuttifoodie, debuted with twice-weekly tips on specialty foods. Beverages haven’t been forgotten; ExtraTasty! and Cork’d launched, allowing users to rate different cocktails and wine, and catalog their favorite bottles, respectively. And last, a MySpace for the foodie set called FoodCandy. Finally: an opportunity to trade recipes and poorly lit nude photo shoots, all at one convenient URL.—Michele Foley

The New York Times Hails the $40 Entree

According to the Gray Lady, the $40 entree arrived in 2006 at “restaurants that are merely upscale, where diners wear jeans and tote children.” While it’s easy to hail this as an apocalyptic cultural bellwether, the rising prices also indicate an increasingly serious dedication to fresh produce and high-quality meats, as well as an increasingly broad pool of eaters willing to shell out serious ducats for good eats.

But even that positive spin can’t cloud one of the more chilling and cogent points made by the Times: “A $43 entrée makes a $36 one look like a deal.”—James Norton

Food Television's Year of the Passionate Amateur

With nonchefs such as Amy Sedaris dipping into the cookbook world with hysterical results, it’s no surprise to hear that Joan Cusack decided in 2006 to take a role that (for once) doesn’t include her famous brother. On Travel Channel’s new food show Local Flavor, Cusack “explores how food, family, and culture influence each other to express the unique personality of a great country.” See, the Food Network may be this generation’s MTV, but there are plenty of non-celebrity-cheffed food shows you might not be chewing over on a regular basis, such as Taste of America, Dinner Date, and World at Your Table. Without a perky, sexy, or asshole celebrity chef as the headliner, the show has to hang together on its own merits of food, information, and fun, and they often do.—Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic

The Debut of Bravo's Top Chef

If you’d pitched a competitive- cooking show in 1995, you would’ve been met by slack-jawed stares. But now cooking is big, and Top Chef is the field’s flagship chunk of reality TV. Ratingswise, the show is strong. But if you believe the Interwebs, there are still some kinks to be worked out: “New host Padma Lakshmi dresses as though she should be wearing roller skates. I still can’t believe this is Salman Rushdie’s wife. She talks as if she’s stoned, and has half a Grab Bag of Fritos in her mouth.”—James Norton


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  • I have to agree with Anthony Bourdain's assessment of Rachel Ray.

  • Guess what Jason? North of the border in the capital city of Canadian oil territory there is a spa that offers a...

    "CHOCOLATE FONDUE WRAP
    A totally unique experience for those who wish to detoxify and balance excess body fluids while enjoying the sensory benefits of being coated in silky smooth chocolate. Totally non-fattening and extremely fun you can achieve excellent results in smoothing,...+READ

    Guess what Jason? North of the border in the capital city of Canadian oil territory there is a spa that offers a...

    "CHOCOLATE FONDUE WRAP
    A totally unique experience for those who wish to detoxify and balance excess body fluids while enjoying the sensory benefits of being coated in silky smooth chocolate. Totally non-fattening and extremely fun you can achieve excellent results in smoothing, firming and contouring problem areas of the body. This wrap combines a spa classic with the sensory appeal of rich chocolate."

    Apparently on your way out, you get a little something chocolate to nibble one too!-COLLAPSE

  • Good list. Also seems like Amuse Bouche should be on there too since it went mainstream almost everywhere this year.

  • Kudos to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Vermont. Their division of Corporate Social Responsibility (headed by Mike Dupree) is serious about doing well socially and environmentally in the coffee source ares.

    And, no, I don't work for them. I briefly worked with them: refreshing and an eye-opener.