Tuesday, November 18, 2014

EAT: The Story of Food Panel Discussion


And Now for Food...

EAT: The Story of Food debuts on the National Geographic Channel this Friday. The six-hour miniseries will broadcast over three consecutive days, and will cover six categories (revolutionaries, meat, sugar, seafood, junk food, and grains) highlighting interviews with a number of well-known authors, chefs, foodies and scientists. Sounds delicious, no? Last night, National Geographic Live! hosted a special sneak preview with special guests José Andrés, Anna Boiardi, founder of Cucina Academy (and granddaughter of Chef Boy-ar-Dee) food historian Andrew F. Smith, primatologist Richard Wrangham and moderator Pam Caragol Wells.

Over the course of the event, we were treated to lots of intersting information. Some of it was scary (or at least worthy of concern) such as a 35% worldwide population growth by the year 2050, which requires, "Crop production needs to double to feed 'em." Some of it was matter-of-fact, such as, "It's (food) the only way to get inside the human body without touching you;" and some of it, just plain funny... "A million years ago, man discovered fire. Five minutes later, he discovered grilling."

José Andrés delights the audience at the Grosvenor Auditorium

Celebrity chef Andrés led the charge, delighting the full house with a myriad of hilarious one-liners and his now-famous way of turning otherwise mundane conversation into mouth-watering morsels. To his credit Wrangham managed to walk away with the line of the night, "I don't recommend eating raw monkeys under any circumstances." Needless to say, I (and probably everyone else in attendance) couldn't agree more.

Food Historian Andrew F. Smith

If you want to learn, "Is meat going to become the next tobacco in 30 years," I suggest you tune in this Friday night at 9:00 PM EST for the first of six episodes. Definitely my kind of history.