So much for the design shows!

By ALLEN SALKIN

Published: April 20, 2010

THE Food Network is trying to take it up a notch by taking it down a notch.

The people who brought the brassy calorie-pusher Paula Deen, the energetic spice-sprinkler Emeril Lagasse and dozens of other stars to a mass audience are furiously preparing to start a spinoff network on May 31.

Called the Cooking Channel, it is lining up low-key programs targeted at a hipper crowd interested in the grass roots of food culture.

Ms. Deen, for one, will not have a time slot. But three young guys from Canada who build taco vending machines and other weird contraptions for a show called "Food Jammers" will.

In another show, "Unique Eats," taped earlier this month at Bark, a boutique hot-dog shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the cameras lavished attention on baked heirloom beans and franks topped with Columbia County sauerkraut.

The new channel, which announced its opening lineup at a presentation for advertisers in Manhattan on Tuesday morning and which will replace the Fine Living Network, is even considering producing documentary-style programming on topics like bulimia and obesity.

"The feel and style were going for is a little grittier, a little edgier, a little hipper," said Bruce Seidel, the senior vice president for programming and production for the Cooking Channel.

Is America ready for some grit with its grits? The Cooking Channel is the Food NetworkÂs effort to regain its pioneering status while overwhelming the competition with the sheer volume of its food programming, 48/7.

The Food Network, which made its debut in 1993, essentially invented the modern era of food television. Its knack for spotting hosts who could appeal to viewers while pan-searing a chicken breast made it a ratings powerhouse. For the first quarter of 2010, the network was the ninth-highest-rated cable network in prime time across all age groups, up from 20th in 2005, according to Nielsen.

But in recent years, other channels have elbowed into the kitchen, often with edgier fare. This month, TLC announced two new food series and two food specials. Bravo revealed it is developing a spinoff of its "Top Chef" franchise, "Top Chef Desserts," as well as a game show called "Commander in Chef." Meanwhile, "Jamie OliverÂs Food Revolution," on ABC, has consistently been the top-rated show in its Friday night time slot among adults ages 18 to 34.

The Food Network "once thought they had cornered the market on food television shows and they have been beaten creatively by PBS, who had much better content and much better thought-out shows," said Robert Sietsema, the restaurant critic of The Village Voice.

He appeared on the network in its very early days but since then has often lambasted it for lacking authenticity.

"When Bravo jumped in, you can imagine the people at the Food Network wringing their hands and thinking, ÂHow could they be capitalizing on something we created? " he said.

The new channelÂs success, its executives and other observers say, will depend on the publicÂs desire for more narrowly focused food programming and the ability of the producers to mint the kind of on-camera talent that propelled Food Network.

In fact, the channel is hedging its bets with new shows by established talent including Mr. Lagasse, Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay. And it has a spinoff of another hit, called "Cook Like an Iron Chef," in which Michael Symon, a Cleveland chef, makes dishes like those concocted in Kitchen Stadium. But less familiar faces await.

Many of the newcomers are imports from Canada and elsewhere. The Canadian shows include "Food Jammers"; "French Food at Home," starring Laura Calder; "David RoccoÂs Dolce Vita"; "Everyday Exotic," with the Toronto food personality Roger Mooking; and "ChuckÂs Day Off," featuring a young and enthusiastic Montreal chef, Chuck Hughes.

There is a risk in trying to make a good first impression with so much imported content, admitted Nobu Adilman, a host of "Food Jammers."

"The question is whether a show about three guys who are happy to be hosers in a very Canadian way will work in America," he said. "We feel there are a lot of hosers in the U.S. waiting to find themselves on television."

Mr. Adilman defined a hoser as "a plaid-jacket-wearing dude who is more happy with the simpler aspects of life." (He explained his own name by describing his bloodline as "Russian-Romanian-Japanese-Canadian.")

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Potential hosers are not the only group being targeted. The channel intends to lavish attention on a variety of ethnic cuisines, with shows like "Spice Goddess," with the cookbook author Bal Arneson. It is also making a foray into cocktail culture with "Drink Up," whose host is Darryl Robinson, a bartender at the Hudson Hotel in Manhattan.

Michael Smith, the general manager of the Cooking Channel, vowed to not shy away from moments more vivid than one might see on the well-scrubbed set of "Everyday Italian" with Giada De Laurentiis, a Food Network staple.

"Someone sent over a demo for a potential show where you could see they were breaking chickens necks in a restaurant," Mr. Smith said. "I do think we would do that on the Cooking Channel."

If poultry is killed on air, at least the programming executives have demographic research to back it up. For an internal audience study in 2007, a group of people who were identified as engaged with food and cooking media but who were not Food Network viewers were asked what they would like to see.

Common answers included: "Put real people on the air that people can relate to," "Bring more diversity in both personalities and menus," and "Always try and be on the cutting edge of whatÂs going on in the food world."

Even some inside the Food Network seem to agree that the channel is somewhat bland. "Like audiences," the study noted, Food Network executives "tend to see the current FN brand as friendly, approachable and middle of the road  though sometimes to a fault. Most would like to see the brand infused with more passion, excitement, drama and entertainment."

Promotional spots for the new channel feature regular-looking people expressing their personal food passions. One spotlights a man described as a "pickler," and has him saying, "There are always going to be people who call you crazy, but if you do what you love, youÂre doing the right thing." It concludes with the tag "Passionate."

Steve Ridge, the president of the media strategy group for the consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates in Marion, Iowa, said that Scripps Networks Interactive, which owns the new channel along with the Food Network, DIY Network, HGTV and other channels, has excelled at identifying niches of interest and exploiting them.

"While they have been very family friendly  and that is their corporate orientation  they are also very good business people," Mr. Ridge said. (His firm has done work for Scripps in the past.) "They will bring in the outside expertise and all that is necessary to hit the target market."

However, Mr. Sietsema, the Village Voice critic, said the abundance of foreign programming demonstrates that Scripps did not get it right from the start. "They should have packaged the thing as an international food channel and it would have made some sense," he said. "They are desperate."

Executives at rival networks say they arenÂt scared. Andy Cohen, the senior vice president for original programming and development for Bravo, said he is focused on mining the success of "Top Chef."

Eileen OÂNeill, the president and general manager of TLC, said her networkÂs strength is its breadth of character-driven shows. Food, she said, is just one component, although it is an expanding one. "Cake Boss" was a TLC hit last year and the network is producing a new show about a pair of sisters who run a cupcake shop in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington.

Mr. Seidel of the Cooking Channel said it will take the new network a little time to find its voice. "We are in the experimental phase," he said. "What do people want? What do they crave?"

Perhaps something retro? Cooking Channel will broadcast an hour each day of vintage episodes of "The Galloping Gourmet" and old Julia Child shows.

Or shtick? The hammy television personality Mo Rocca will be the host of a new show called "Foodography."

Mr. Smith said the Cooking Channel is also close to signing a deal with the Internet food star Lisa Lillien, whose "Hungry Girl" empire includes an e-mail newsletter with a million or so subscribers and three cookbooks on light eating.

Ms. Lillien has criticized as unrealistic those who suggest dieters stick to fresh foods sold in the perimeter aisles of the supermarket. Her recipes unapologetically suggest ingredients like no-fat Pringles and Cool Whip.

Whether viewers will watch this show, or any other on the network, remains to be seen.

At Bark during the "Unique Eats" shoot, the director was telling the chef Joshua Sharkey how to add a smoked ham hock to his beans in a camera-friendly fashion just as a customer ordered a grilled cheese sandwich  Grafton Cheddar on a pullman loaf  from the counterman.

The customer, David Madruga, a Park Slope resident, said he likes Bark because of its artisanal atmosphere. So will he tune into the Cooking Channel?

Pretty unlikely, he said. "I donÂt even have a TV."