Gourmet magazine editor-in-chief, Ruth Reichl, talks to APT about the magazine's involvement with Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie

GOURMET'S DIARY OF A FOODIE is a new, 20-episode, cooking/travel series that explores cutting-edge food trends, exotic ingredients, and in-the-know food players.

What can you tell us about GOURMET'S DIARY OF A FOODIE project? And what has it been like working on the show?

It's great because I'm working with producers I've worked with before — I did a series with Zero Point Zero a few years ago. I know that they are talented, easy to work with and creative. And that's been very exciting. It's also been very exciting because, for all of us at the magazine, I don't think there has ever been a show like this. I mean, it really is a food magazine on the air that combines food, travel and behind-the-scenes [information]. It's very much the kind of thing we do in the magazine, but brought to life three-dimensionally. And, there's been this great cross-pollination where we're using stories that we'll be working on in the future. I mean, there are a lot of things that you see [on the program] that you won't see in the magazine for another year or two. As we're working on the show, we are also discovering things for the magazine. So, it's really expanded our world in a wonderful way.

What kinds of things have you been discovering?

Well, we'll decide on a theme and as we go out to work on it. One thing we found that I loved is — we found a chef who is so devoted. He's growing everything that he serves, even raising the animals and making his own salt! I mean, we didn't even know about him and it was just in the course of working on this show that we discovered him. For all of these shows, we to go out in the field and across the world and we're in all different countries. But then at the end of each show, we try and bring it home for the viewers — i.e. "Why does this matter to you?" and "What can you do with it in your own kitchen?" For instance, [in one episode], we were dealing with somebody who foraged and we thought: "Well, we'll just go out and see what we can find in a park in New York." We went out and foraged and it was just unbelievable! We got all these things that we could cook just in a public park! We hadn't quite anticipated that.

So for each episode, what is the process behind developing ideas and topics for the show?

Well, we sit down with producers and have a lot of brainstorming sessions. We'll say: "OK, here is a destination that people don't know about. We've been thinking about doing [a story], down the road maybe, for the magazine. Let's think about whether we should do this or not." And then, we'll toss it back and forth and think about what the storyline would be and what stories to explore. So, it's a very collaborative process. We get 10 people in a room and just brainstorm.

What is it about this show that will generate buzz with public TV audiences and really get viewers excited to tune in to the series?

Well, I'm hoping that they will want to tune into everything. We have done a couple of episodes where we have studied a chef and the anatomy of a meal. We start with the meal this person cooks and go back — go around the world actually — to look at the roots of it. We want to explore where his or her ideas came from, so we'll go to that country and meet the people that are inspirational for them. You're really seeing all of the roots of one meal and we completely deconstruct it. We'll go to shops in another country that may be the source of one dish, or a garden somewhere in the world that's been inspirational, or some artisanal producer of something. So, we've taken chefs who have really big ideas that come from lots of places and trace back the roots of each dish.

It's been a great luxury to be able to talk to a chef and then say, "OK, you got this idea when you were in Japan. Well then, let's go to Japan and see the roots of that."

Was there one adventure that really stood out after the production crew returned from their trip?

I think every shoot had five or 10 surprises —some good, some bad. Some people you thought would be great on camera. Then you come back and, well you know, their ideas are really great when you see them in print, not so great on camera. Then, there was someone we didn't think was going to be a great story and you fall in love with them. I was just looking at something from Australia. There's a woman who raises this kind of pig we don't have here, these black pigs that are wonderful. I was not anticipating that she was going to be great on camera. And you just fall in love with her — completely. The way she talks about these pigs is so extraordinary; she's so straightforward about giving these animals a great life, loving her pigs. I thought the pigs would be great, they would make great visuals, but I wasn't anticipating that she would be such a great passionate exponent on camera. So, there's this kind of thing that happens literally for every shoot.

What can you tell us about Gourmet magazine's involvement with the series for this season and what's in store for the future?

The reason WGBH came to us is because we do have 50 people on staff here and this amazing knowledge of what's going on in the food world around the globe. We have correspondents in countries all around the world. So we have great tentacles out there. I think that they've come to us for this knowledge and background. And we very much helped shape the shows from what we know.

If you were to talk directly to a "foodie" what would be the most important things to highlight about this show — to get them to tune in this October when it premieres on public TV?

I think it's the smartest show about food that's been on. This is a show for people who are very curious and very passionate and want to know more than just how to make a 5-minute recipe. [It is for those who] really want to know where their food is coming from, what the big issues in food are and who the most interesting people are. I think that's very much where the public television audience is. We have assumed that we have this kind of passion out there.

So, this program is not about the 5-minute meal?

No, this is really a meal that's going to be satisfying. We are hoping that each one of these is going to be a meal that you are going to think about and will inform your eating going forward. [For instance], when you go buy the next piece of cheese, you'll remember this cheese maker in Italy that you met or you'll know why you want to buy a piece of Parmeggiano from the spring season instead of from summer.