Selling The Sizzle, Not The Steak

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The new shows, say execs, are about "context" and "stories." It's food as lifestyle accessory. The recipes are still there, but like the video fragments on MTV's live request show TRL, they're abridged or buried amid chat. Take the newest potential hit, the eponymous show of chef to the stars Wolfgang Puck of L.A.'s Spago (Fridays, 9 p.m. E.T.). In the cooking portion, Puck, the quintessential celebrity chef, shows the range that made him a one-man empire. But the clear selling points are the long, taped segments of him hobnobbing with Hollywood big shots. "I want to show not just what I do in my kitchen but what I do in my life," he says. That that life involves Michael Eisner and Kelsey Grammer, of course, doesn't hurt.

You can't blame the Food Network for going this route. In the past two years, its availability has almost doubled, to more than 52 million cable homes. Had it stayed narrowly authentic, it might have been doomed. We longtime viewers may grumble like purist fans of a cult band that has sold out. But apparently it's better to broil out with celebrity chefs than fade away.

--By James Poniewozik