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Food Network to air show hosted by a Latina star |
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Written by Madeline Baro Diaz, MCT
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Tuesday, 29 May 2007 |
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Ingrid Hoffmann has been tempting Spanish-language audiences by cooking traditional food with a modern twist and offering common-sense tips for entertaining. Now she wants to translate that recipe into English.
With her new show "Simply Delicioso," airing Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. beginning July 14, the Colombian-born Miami resident becomes the Food Network's first Latina host. Already known to Spanish TV watchers through her cable show Delicioso on Galavision and segments on Univision's Despierta America, Hoffman will join the ranks of other Spanish-language stars who have tried to cross over to English - not always successfully.
But media experts think Hoffmann, 42, has a shot. For starters, food is common ground for all cultures.
"I don't see it as a Hispanic vs. rest of the market issue," said Mercedes Vigon, associate director of Florida International University's International Media Center. "Both groups need food that can be done simply."
And simple is the theme of "Simply Delicioso," which is based on Hoffmann's life as a single woman (and mom to Salsita, a 6-year-old Yorkie) who likes to host dinners for family and friends. It stresses quick meals ("If it takes more than 29 minutes, I'm not interested," she said) and easy decorative touches (think napkin rings made out of pipe cleaners).
A former restaurateur and boutique owner, Hoffmann got her own half-hour show on DirecTV, Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffmann, in 2005. She moved on to cable's Galavision last year and plans to stay after she debuts on the Food Network. In February, Galavision announced the strongest sweep performance in its 28 years and gave some of the credit to Hoffmann's show. Both Galavision and the Food Network can be seen on cable or satellite TV in some areas.
According to Bob Tuschman, the Food Network's senior vice-president for programming and production, Hoffmann's success in Spanish underscores her appeal. He said the network was impressed by her take on Latin food. "Ingrid has a sparkling personality, a breezy way of making cooking approachable and a passion to take classics and give them a Latin twist," he wrote in an e-mail.
Hoffmann already has tested the waters in English, appearing as a guest on "The Martha Stewart Show," "Today" and "Live with Regis and Kelly."
Lilliam Martinez-Bustos, a professor in FIU's journalism and broadcasting department, said viewers tend to be pickier when it comes to serious news or talk shows. Issues such as language and culture could hold back Spanish speakers trying to cross over in those areas, she said, but lifestyle shows like Hoffmann's are different.
"Cooking is just something that everybody enjoys," Martinez-Bustos said. "Eating - everybody wants to eat."
Also, while some Spanish-speaking stars have trouble speaking English without an accent - a potential turn-off to English-speaking viewers, Martinez-Bustos and Vigon said - Hoffmann has lived in the United States for more than 20 years and switches between the two languages effortlessly.
Even her food is cross-cultural. Dishes Hoffmann showcases on the air and in a cookbook that will be published next year include tamarind baby-back ribs with mango slaw, salmon with guava barbecue sauce and chipotle tamale pie, which she describes as a cross between corn bread and a tamale.
"I don't eat like I used to eat as a kid in Latin America," Hoffmann said. "I mix the burgers and the beans. I always say my food is Spanglish."
Spanglish is also the language on her new set, a Miami Beach home rented for the taping. On a recent afternoon, she was cooking comfort food with her mother, Yolanda. The episode's premise was that Hoffmann was feeling nostalgic and called her mother, a cordon bleu chef who introduced Hoffman to cooking when she still needed a stool to reach the stove.
A crewmember gave Yolanda Hoffmann directions in Spanish. Ingrid Hoffmann bantered with a cameraman in Spanish between takes, switched back to English as the cameras rolled, and returned to Spanish to ask if there was sugar in the Cuban coffee on the set. There wasn't.
At the center of it all was the traditional meal the mother and daughter were making: sancocho, a stew from their native Colombia, accompanied by patacones, fried plantains, and arroz con leche, rice pudding.
"Food is a great equalizer," Hoffmann said. "I think it is a great way to be able to show all the different facets of our culture." | Only registered users can write comments.
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