Laura McIntosh brings cooking show to growing fields
Laura McIntosh brings cooking show to growing fields
There is a play-on-words joke about being "outstanding/out standing in your field." Laura McIntosh has managed to meld the concept into her unique "Bringing It Home" television cooking show.
"Bringing It Home" is a traveling cooking show that goes straight to the farming fields with renowned chefs in tow. Each week, Ms. McIntosh, the show's host-producer-creator, visits a different farm, orchard or vineyard at the peak of harvest. Together with renowned guest chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, Paul Prudhomme and Sandra Lee -- host of "Semi-Homemade" on the Food Network -- Ms. McIntosh prepares easy recipes from seasonal offerings such as cherries, strawberries, corn, potatoes or mushrooms geared toward the home cook. She combines wine-pairing advice, tips on selecting fresh produce and more in her show.
Ms. McIntosh calls "Bringing It Home" the "show that goes where food grows." That visual is brought home for the viewer, such as the time she filmed with laborers harvesting cherries in the background. By the time the half-hour program concluded, the laborers had worked their way to the foreground of the set.
"It's important for people to know where food comes from," Ms. McIntosh said. "We take the kitchen out to where it grows."
The show is based out of Lodi, CA, and but Ms. McIntosh has "gone up and down the state" filming on location. But since its first episode in August 2003, the show's diverse locations have included Hawaii, New Orleans, New York, Las Vegas, Texas, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Locations have also included San Juan Bautista, CA-based Pride of San Juan's heirloom tomato fields with Mr. Lagasse, the Salinas, CA, celery fields of Duda and onion fields of Stockton, CA-based Onions Etc.
Ms. McIntosh was raised in Northern California, where her family has farmed for five generations. She is an avid cook and a trained actress, having studied with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, and she has done voiceover work for major corporations. She hosted and produced the Northern California-based "Full Bloom Show" for three-and-a-half years, a predecessor to launching "Bringing It Home" with her brother, Daniel Moznett. Ms. McIntosh's husband - retired baseball player Tim McIntosh - helps out on the shows. The McIntoshs have two daughters.
"Bringing It Home" airs in seven markets: Los Angeles; Las Vegas; Santa Barbara, CA; San Diego; Bakersfield, CA; Palm Springs, CA; and Sacramento, CA. But Ms. McIntosh's vision in 2006 is to go national.
She said that the joy of cooking is in experimentation, and that some of the better chefs she has had on the show "haven't been classically trained."
Ms. McIntosh said that she would "like to get a gazillion messages in a half-hour show." She has an active interest in diverse issues surrounding agriculture such as the rising rates of childhood obesity and the problems of labor shortages currently affecting the western desert growing areas. But the themes that weave through her show are family and the importance of cooking for the family and eating together as a family. Ms. McIntosh said that while her show's main audience is women ages 25 to 54, the shows "have a lot of men watching."
The "Bringing It Home" web site can be accessed at www.bringingithome.tv and/or www.bringingithome.com.
"Bringing It Home" is a traveling cooking show that goes straight to the farming fields with renowned chefs in tow. Each week, Ms. McIntosh, the show's host-producer-creator, visits a different farm, orchard or vineyard at the peak of harvest. Together with renowned guest chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, Paul Prudhomme and Sandra Lee -- host of "Semi-Homemade" on the Food Network -- Ms. McIntosh prepares easy recipes from seasonal offerings such as cherries, strawberries, corn, potatoes or mushrooms geared toward the home cook. She combines wine-pairing advice, tips on selecting fresh produce and more in her show.
Ms. McIntosh calls "Bringing It Home" the "show that goes where food grows." That visual is brought home for the viewer, such as the time she filmed with laborers harvesting cherries in the background. By the time the half-hour program concluded, the laborers had worked their way to the foreground of the set.
"It's important for people to know where food comes from," Ms. McIntosh said. "We take the kitchen out to where it grows."
The show is based out of Lodi, CA, and but Ms. McIntosh has "gone up and down the state" filming on location. But since its first episode in August 2003, the show's diverse locations have included Hawaii, New Orleans, New York, Las Vegas, Texas, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Locations have also included San Juan Bautista, CA-based Pride of San Juan's heirloom tomato fields with Mr. Lagasse, the Salinas, CA, celery fields of Duda and onion fields of Stockton, CA-based Onions Etc.
Ms. McIntosh was raised in Northern California, where her family has farmed for five generations. She is an avid cook and a trained actress, having studied with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, and she has done voiceover work for major corporations. She hosted and produced the Northern California-based "Full Bloom Show" for three-and-a-half years, a predecessor to launching "Bringing It Home" with her brother, Daniel Moznett. Ms. McIntosh's husband - retired baseball player Tim McIntosh - helps out on the shows. The McIntoshs have two daughters.
"Bringing It Home" airs in seven markets: Los Angeles; Las Vegas; Santa Barbara, CA; San Diego; Bakersfield, CA; Palm Springs, CA; and Sacramento, CA. But Ms. McIntosh's vision in 2006 is to go national.
She said that the joy of cooking is in experimentation, and that some of the better chefs she has had on the show "haven't been classically trained."
Ms. McIntosh said that she would "like to get a gazillion messages in a half-hour show." She has an active interest in diverse issues surrounding agriculture such as the rising rates of childhood obesity and the problems of labor shortages currently affecting the western desert growing areas. But the themes that weave through her show are family and the importance of cooking for the family and eating together as a family. Ms. McIntosh said that while her show's main audience is women ages 25 to 54, the shows "have a lot of men watching."
The "Bringing It Home" web site can be accessed at www.bringingithome.tv and/or www.bringingithome.com.
