In 2023, both the food industry and cooking shows are at a pivotal point. While staffing challenges and rising food and energy costs are top of mind for anyone who runs a restaurant or works with food in any way, those with an idea for a cooking show also need to jump through multiple hoops of both securing funding and convincing viewers to choose your product over the hundreds of other options out there.
Earlier this fall, a new cooking show featuring Seattle-based chef and virtual cooking school founder Joel Gamoran and co-produced by GBH, Homemade, and Arena Media Brands dropped on PBS — in each of the 10 episodes, a famous guest joins Gamoran in exchanging a recipe that the viewers can easily recreate at home.
In the first one, longtime television host Kathie Lee Gifford learns to make Gamoran's Ultimate Crispy Lasagna with only crispy edges while also sharing the recipe for her family's Sweet Potato Soufflé. Other guests featured on the show include former football running back and on-air commentator Reggie Bush and English reality TV show star Nigel Barker.
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Gamoran talked to TheStreet about all things going from show idea to finished product, food product sponsorships and the general business of launching a cooking show — a second season is already in the works. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TheStreet: How did Homemade Live come to be?
Gamoran: Basically, we have these cooking classes that we've been doing for the past three years and they've really blown up. We sat around and were thinking about how to do this bigger, how to bring in millions of people instead of hundreds of people. And I've always wanted to do a talk show but with food. I think that there's something about cooking and food that helps people let their guard down, be a little bit more casual and reveal a new side of that person. That was kind of the genesis of the show. I thought, 'what if we launched a cooking talk show and did it in front of a live studio audience and shot it in Seattle?"
Homemade Live takes celebrities, football stars into the kitchen
TheStreet: Given how many cooking shows are already there, you really need an original format or a strong personality to bring in viewers. Did you feel like you had that when you came up with the idea?
Gamoran: Totally. The differentiator is always going to be the host. That's me, right? But this format is really original because we're used to seeing all the same shops and all the same influencers and all the same food formats but when you start to bring in people that we know and love that you never see in the kitchen like Reggie Bush or Kathie Lee Gifford, we don't see them in the kitchen that often and we don't really get to know that side of them.
I thought that was really original and different but it also helped us bring in an audience. I think a lot of people who are watching don't care about cooking that much. They just love whoever the celebrity is and want to see them in a different format.
TheStreet: You have a podcast called "Homemade Happy Hour" in which you interview marketers about their food brands. How do you use brands and sponsorships on the show?
Gamoran: Throughout show, there are ways for the brands to kind of tell their story. That's what I've spent my career doing. I love inspiring people to cook but I also love bringing brands to life in the kitchen.
So whether you're a small brand or a big brand, the number one piece of advice and our biggest belief is that you need to do more than sell something. If a brand can become more than a brand, if it can become a friend, a confidant or a coach, that's the key for a brand to really stick out in the market. You don't have to be giant to do that. There are strategies for small brands and, of course, there are strategies for the big guys as well.
'Being scrappy and small, we don't have a huge budget...'
TheStreet: How do you toe the line of incorporating brands in without making the viewers feel like they're being sold something?
Gamoran: We really don't allow the brands to creatively take control the show. We celebrate the fact that they support the show and that they are the reason that we're all able to watch this really funny interview or whatever it is. There are really tasteful ways to do it and we have done a really good job in the show, I think, of threading that needle. A whole episode could be around cooking healthy but it is also supported by the American Diabetes Association.
TheStreet: You were previously on an A&E Networks show called Scraps. What was it like to take the business reigns of Homemade Live?
Gamoran: First of all, this is a live studio audience show so there are 70 people and 20 crew there. That doesn't really faze me because I'm so used to cooking in front of people and on screen but what fazes me is that I'm also the executive producer of the show. I'm also in charge of the flow, the outline, when the guests come in. When does the music start? What is the next recipe? What is the transition between segments? My mind is scattered and it is really a new muscle for me. It's nerve-wracking and scary.
Also being scrappy and small, we don't have a huge budget. So if I got sick or if I messed up, we can't just go reshoot the next day. That's really expensive. And so I had to deliver each and every time and that's a lot of pressure.
