Last week in Essentials we mentioned that Food Network was launching Food2, a hipper, younger version of foodnetwork.com with programming, blogs and recipes geared towards those with a shorter attention span and a smaller budget. Sounds great. But why didn't this happen sooner? 

Ever since sophomore year in college I've been something of a food television junkie. It all started with my roommates and I bonding over episodes of the original Japanese "Iron Chef" and Alton Brown's "Good Eats," grew steadily stronger over the years with "Top Chef" viewing parties and eventually culminated with, well, now, where  food television is practically the only type of programming I consistently watch in real time and not online. The latest and possibly greatest addition to my list of favorites is "Ace of Cakes" with welder turned baker Duff Goldman and his merry band of twenty and thirtysomething staffers. So good. 

And yes, I may be at the more devoted end of the spectrum but I'm definitely not alone in my foodie fandom: over the past few years more and more Gen Yers have been tuning in. And newsflash: it's not for the recipes. While the interest is definitely rooted in the universal quality inherent in cooking and eating, I'd say the real draw in the shows I love are the offbeat personalities and their unlimited creativity with something so familiar. 

Understanding this paid off well for Bravo, who blatantly promoted "Top Chef" as "Project-Runway-only-with-food" highlighting the attractive young contestants, snarkiness, drama, etc. Meanwhile, even though Food Network's programming was definitely shifting gears to keep up with the times (more competitive shows, younger hosts, cutting back on their older, original stars like Emeril and Mario Batali), there really wasn't any block of programming specifically directed  towards millennials. Or, if it was intentionally targeted, it wasn't being done quite right with the format leaning more towards stand-and-deliver recipes vs. quirky and/or competitive entertainment. "Ace of Cakes", of course, being the exception.

Until now. The video lineup for Food2  with shows like "Kitchen Conspirators," where a former Food Network competitor and a Top Chef star face off using similar ingredients to create different dishes and "$12 Challenge," where two young chefs try to woo a bystander with an inexpensive meal, sounds like they're definitely taking strides in the right direction. And pushing this content towards the front of the site while still offering a cache of affordable, creative recipes is the right way to go — giving us what we want (fun, social-viewing material) and what we need (meals that we'll actually want to make). As for the blogs, I'll have to agree with this TechCrunch post that their lack of organization makes them slightly less than appetizing to sift through.

All that said, right now I'm a little skeptical that Gen Yers will even be able to find the site. Maybe Food Network is waiting to store up a a few more episodes before making a big promotional push, but I haven't seen or heard anything about Food2 on TV and the link is buried on Food Network's main site way down on the bottom of the page.  All this makes me wonder how I would lead viewers to the site. My thoughts? Airing some of the web series as shorts on Food Network proper and not only streaming episodes, but offering extra content to supplement the Food Network shows that Gen Yers already want to watch. I'll let you guess what my first choice would be.

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