PITTSTON, Pa. – Jim Ludlow, president and founder of Liquid Interactive, a digital marketing company, has joined forces with VIA Studios Global to produce a show for public television that aims to tell the story of American history through food.
The show has the working title, “We Are What We Eat” and is the American story told through food. Consider these food facts, spaghetti and meatballs are an American creation, like pizza. There are more Chinese restaurants than the top four fast food restaurants in America combined. A law in Massachusetts once prohibited feeding slaves and indentured servants lobster more than three times a week. Melted butter was not mentioned in the law.
“When you look into this, you realize that food really had a big hand in shaping how we became Americans,” said Ludlow, the show’s executive producer. “We also saw how a whole variety of events shaped what we eat and how we eat it. When you look at your next menu, what you are really looking at is an American food history story.” Ludlow points out that a typical American menu often includes Italian food, Mexican food, German food and regional American dishes, and Chinese food: Because, that all-American condiment, ketchup, is actually Chinese.
“To me this series is a unique way of looking at American history through the universal prism of food.” said Simon Majumdar, food critic, Iron Chef judge, author of “Fed, White and Blue” and host of “We Are What We Eat.” As a new American citizen, the show is also Simon’s path of discovery of his new home.
With his partners, they have secured a deal with American Public Television (the main distributor of shows to PBS) to produce a first season of 13, half hour shows. Ludlow is joined in this project by David Martin, a former PBS producer and news producer, David Snyder, a former executive in children’s television who now heads a marketing company and VIA Studios Global, a division of WVIA Public Media in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
“We’ve gotten great support from Pennsylvania public television station, WVIA, so this really feels like a Pennsylvania project,” Ludlow said. “We’re excited to produce this show locally and bring it to the rest of America.”
Now comes the hard part, Ludlow and his partners are in the middle of a fundraising campaign to get the show sponsored and on the air. The team hopes to begin shooting in the spring and the first shows to be shown in the fall. For now, Ludlow admits to trying different cuisines and reading his menu with a whole different eye.
“Instead of just seeing a dish on the menu, now I wonder, when did that first get on a menu and what got it there,” Ludlow said. “Its really fascinating history.”
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