Devour.tv, is a web-based food television network. It launched in June 2008 with the broadcast of the James Beard Awards - the Oscars of the food world. Devour.tv delivers clever food-focused videos for the sophisticated culinary viewer. The network has self-produced in excess of 50 internet based TV shows that are hip, informative and fun.
Devour.tv's mission is to regain the authenticity and passion that the TV Food Network once had. We believing in daring - such as having a Harley-riding hardcore biker with a sommelier degree teaching wine (Hardcore Wine) - or pitting big personality food experts against one another (Bickering Foodies). We try and invent new shows that teach through entertainment such as Spin The Bottle, a wine game show (a la Jeopardy) shot in front of an enthusiastic 40 person live audience at the KGB Bar on New York's Lower East Side.
Even for the internet, Devour is something new and original. It attempts to be a genuine television network on the web. However we are finding that the internet, as a medium, differs from TV. It is more inventive, adventurous, personal, and accepting of new forms. Television broadcasts to a mass market while the internet is one on one. Television on the internet looks like failed TV. What is shared by the two mediums, however, is professional quality editing, something that is absent from user generated content.
Devour.tv is also changing the way video is viewed on the web. Our video player, which will be deployed in mid October 2008, will allow the viewer to mouse-over and pluck additional information directly from the video, linking directly to recipes or knife-skill information. The player will also allow for polling opinions in shows like Bickering Foodies on whose argument the viewer favors or allow for embedded quizzes on wine tasting shows. In short, it will make full use of the interactive possibilities offered by the web and create a viewing experience that is revolutionary (or so our techs promise).
Devour.tv is also pioneering a shift in how viewers use the internet with it's "Channel". Located on the homepage and lasting for up to 30 minutes the "channel" showcases the best and newest content that Devour has to offer each week. The "channel" allows viewers to literally sit back and relax as they view the latest installments of their favorite shows, just as they would watching television.
Devour.tv's founder is entrepreneur/food authority, John Gottfried. Mr Gottfried, a former banker, was the food and wine editor of the Village Voice, wrote the wine textbook, A Wine Tasting Course, published The New York Restaurant Guide and wrote for the New York Times, among other publications. In 1992, he co-founded and launched the very successful Gourmet Garage chain of specialty food stores and was New York Entrepreneur of the Year in 1993.
Other members of Devour.tv include noted food authority David Rosengarten who hosted over 2500 episodes on TVFN and is the publisher of The Rosengarten Report ; Zachary Minot, who with both culinary & videography degrees left New York's Gramercy Tavern (Best Restaurant in America, 2007 - James Beard Awards) to join Devour; Philippe Newlin, former Associate Editor of Wine & Spirits who teaches wine at Columbia University; and Jason Ezratty, general partner of business consultancy, Demand Generation.
