6 Things Food Network Won't Tell You

In his new book, From Scratch: Inside the Food Network, writer Allen Salkin takes a deep dive into the world of Food Network, from before it was a kernel of an idea all the way up to the latest Paula Deen scandal. For anyone who has an interest in the network, or television in general, it's a fascinating read.

RELATED: 20 Tips for How to Be a Better Home Cook

The book is full of information that you probably didn't know about the network. The story begins with a man named Joe Langhan, who was head of programming for Colony Cablevision, and had the idea to broadcast food-related programming 24-7 on one of their channels. From the start-up business plan, which relied heavily on subscribers buying an electronic coupon machine called Couponix, to the early team, which included CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld, being told that they were out of their minds for wanting to broadcast cooking shows all day long, the early chapters are a textbookexample of a great idea coming along at exactly the right time and beating the odds. The founders of Food Network refined their vision as they went along, and managed to convince enough people to invest to make their vision come to life.

RELATED: 35 Best Pizzas in America

"My fondest memory from the early days was realizing that what we had been working on, we were actually going to do it," Langhan told us. "We were able to take it from idea to implementation."

"CNN was architecture, and Food Network was carpentry," Schonfeld added. "It's fun to be a carpenter, but it's never finished."

The early schedule was full of traditional "stand-and-stir" cooking shows hosted by folks like David Rosengarten (Taste), Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken (Too Hot Tamales), and a little-known chef named Emeril Lagasse (How to Boil Water and later Essence of Emeril), as well as a program hosted by Robin Leach (Talking Food), and a talk show hosted by Rosengarten and New York first lady Donna Hanover called In Food Today. But as Schonfeld put it, the work was never done. If Food Network has been consistent in one field it's been its ability to constantly take chances and reinvent itself, from airing a wacky Japanese cooking competition show called Iron Chef to giving a cook without high-end restaurant experience named Rachael Ray her very own show to deciding who will be its next star via a reality competition show.

RELATED: 22 Best Free Restaurant Apps

But for everything that's public knowledge, there's a wealth of fascinating information that you most likely didn't know about the network and its stars that's revealed in the book. Click here to learn 20 facts that you most likely didn't know about Food Network and its stars, starting with the early days and progressing to the present.

6) Emeril was offered a spot on 'Iron Chef America'

Emeril Lagasse was devastated after his live show, which was the network's highest-rated show for many years, was canceled due to lagging ratings and high production costs. But he wasn't just let go outright: he was offered the opportunity to compete as one of the original Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America, which was in development at the time. Emeril considered the offer to be a major demotion, but the network saw it as an opportunity to recast him as "gritty, electric, and inventive." He turned them down outright.

5) David Rosengarten was asked to audition for 'Food Network Star'

David Rosengarten was host of two of the network's earliest shows and was an integral part of its programming schedule until the end of the '90s. But as an example of just how much the network had changed in just a few years, he was all but forgotten by the mid-2000s. Publisher of the popular culinary newsletter The Rosengarten Report, he received a call from a Food Network staffer who thought he might be interested in auditioning for The Next Food Network Star. He informed her that he already had some history with the network, and two hours later the staffer called back to apologize.

RELATED: 101 Best Restaurants in America for 2013

4) Marc Summers warned Robert Irvine about his bio

Summers' company produced Dinner: Impossible for chef Robert Irvine, and Summers noticed that Irvine's official bio looked a little embellished: he claimed to have cooked for George Bush Sr. and Jr. at their inaugural dinners, as well as "royalty, presidents, and high-ranking dignitaries" aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. On the eve of the show's premiere, Summers told Irvine that he might want to make sure that his bio was accurate, but Irvine brushed him off. The truth came out much later (Irvine had in fact lied), and it nearly cost the muscle-bound British chef his career.

3) There's a 'shadow kitchen' where chefs cook along with what's on TV

Did you ever wonder what happens if Rachael Ray were to burn a batch of cookies on-air? Well, there's what's called a "shadow kitchen" a stone's throw from the studio, where sous chefs cook along with what's being cooked on-air, in case something gets burned and needs to be swapped out for the cameras without having to re-cook the entire dish.

2) 'Chopped' was originally a really bizarre, wacky show

The original idea for Chopped was a whole lot more nutty than the no-frills show that ended up making it to air. In the original pitch, inspired by Deal or No Deal, a silhouetted tycoon would plan a dinner party, and his butler, "a snooty John Cleese type," would pit four chefs against each other for the privilege of cooking the dinner. After each round a chef would be eliminated by a panel of judges (including Rocco DiSpirito), and their dish would be fed to a Chihuahua named Pico. The crew didn't realize just how passionate the chefs would be about winning the competition, so after the initial idea was rejected by programming head Bob Tuschman, they reformulated the show to focus on the chefs instead of the wacky setup. And Chopped was born.

1) Paula Deen didn't consult with the network before her diabetes fiasco

In May 2011, the National Enquirer reported that Paula Deen had been suffering from diabetes for years, and soon after Deen's rep was approached by Novo Nordisk about endorsing their diabetes treatment, Victoza. For $6 million, Deen would announce that she had diabetes and that she was taking Victoza, and that some of her healthy recipes could be found on the Novo website. And that's exactly what she did. As bad press piled up, Food Network, who wasn't consulted ahead of time and had a whole season of Deen's chicken-fried show ready to air, was forced to put as positive a spin as possible on it.

Click Here to see More Surprising Facts About the Food Network and Its Stars

-Dan Myers, The Daily Meal