Getting the inside scoop on the Food Network

There’s a new book out, From Scratch: Inside the Food Network by Allen Salkin, that describes the 20 years that the Food Network has been on. The Daily Meal has produced an interesting slideshow –  20 Surprising Facts about Food Network and Its Stars – that watchers may not be aware of. Here are five that we found  especially  interesting:

• Emeril Lagasse’s famous “Bam” originated when he had to wake up camera operators who were falling asleep from being overworked.
• Mario Batali, during one of his earliest shows, grated his knuckles  badly and since there were no “do-overs” hid his hand by dunking it in a bowl of tomatoes and crushing them continuously.
• William Shatner (Captain Kirk from Star Trek) was the original host on Iron Chef – which was on another network.
• David Rosengarten, an early Food Network stalwart, was so forgotten that a staffer called him to ask whether he’d like to audition for The Next Food Network Star.
• In the original design for Chopped, the food would be served by a butler and fed at the end to a Chihuahua named Pico.

Photo of Mario Batali for Iron Chef promo