Episode One: “Food and Life”

“Nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven.”
  — 1960s Pillsbury advertising slogan

As host Marcus Samuelsson says, “Food is powerfully symbolic and really complex. Through food we express love. We bring comfort and hope. We forge new relationships and strengthen old bonds. Food reaffirms not only our humanity but the joy of being alive.”

In “Food and Life,” we travel across America and meet people with a powerful connection to food. Included in the episode are Mike Piancone, the owner of an Italian gourmet shop in Southern California who expresses his love for his daughter by preparing an elaborate Italian banquet for her wedding; Mita Guha, a Bengali woman in Orange, California who cooks a “Jamai Shasthi” — a traditional Indian fertility feast — for her sons-in-law; and Richard Zhiri, whose Chicago lunchcart delivers a welcome taste of home to African immigrant cabdrivers.

We go behind the scenes with some customs agents from JFK Airport, who show us the unusual foods people try to bring back from their homelands, and meet Brian Price, a former Texas convict who prepared final meals for those about to be executed. Also included are Shatreen Masshour, a Muslim-American cheerleader who struggles to maintain her first Ramadan fast; Bianca Steiner Brown, a Holocaust survivor who recalls the awesome power that memories of food had for women in the Nazi concentration camp at Terezin; and Thomas Soukakis, a Seattle-based Greek immigrant who has suffered tragic loss but finds a reawakening of joy and hope by opening a restaurant named Vios, the Greek word for “life.”

As we learn from the stories in “Food and Life,” food means so much more than simple nourishment. As writer MFK Fisher said, “It seems to me there are three basic needs; for food, security and love are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the other. There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk.”

 

Credits:

 

Executive Producer/Series Creator
Sue McLaughlin

Series Producer/Director
Maria Gargiulo

Senior Producers/Series Directors
Vivian Kleiman
Karin Williams

Co-Producer/Production Manager
Steve Kodish

Producers
Kimberlee Bassford
Shannon Gee
John Mikulenka

Senior Story Consultant
Susan Kim

Associate Producers
Marina Jade Gordon
Mimi Wong
Laurie Bohm Rosalyn Brandon
Sarina Pearson
Katja Shaye
Jeff Teitelbaum

Graphic Designer
Lisa Moore

Original Music
Stephen Thomas Cavit

Additional Segment Directors
Rosemary Garner
John Mikulenka

Additional Segment Producer
David Edgar, Flashback Television

Director of Photography
Diana Wilmar

Camera
Theo Angell
Lulu Gargiulo

Additional Camera
Kimberlee Bassford
Ken Druckerman
Christopher Gallo
Rosemary Garner
Dana Kupper
Don Lenzer
Todd Liebler
Ruben Russ

Audio
Eric Soma
Bob Marts
Fenell Doremus
David Hocs
Stacy Hruby
Adam Martin
Sean O’Neil
Brenda Ray
Steven Robinson
Carlos Torres

Senior Editor
Robert J. DeMaio

Editors
Michael Cross
Drew Keller
Kris Kristensen

Post Production Supervisor
Shannon Gee

Additional Editing
Maria Gargiulo
Shannon Gee
Rick Lindberg

Assistant Editors
Lila Kitaeff
Jeffery Sloane

Development Director
Fidelma McGinn

Development Writer
Greg Palmer

Fiscal Sponsor
Northwest Film Forum

Production Assistants
Heather Ayres
Massimo Backus
Ron Eid
Lisa Gewerth
Carol Hermer
Erik M. Hill
Kamertap Hurmali
Bruce Moores
Alison Perkins
Lindsay Rogers
Lena Scott
Jacqueline Toma
Andrew Toms

Creative Consultant
David Wild

Post Production Facility
Flying Spot Seattle

Audio Post
Bad Animals/Seattle

Project Advisors
Gene Anderson
Ira Bashkow
Amy Bentley
Carole M. Counihan
Hsiao-Ching Chou
Cara De Silva
Randall Francisco
Jessica B. Harris
Nancy Jenkins
Miriam Kahn
Lilikala Kame’eleihiwa
Rachel Laudan
Sid Mintz
Ruth Reichl
Cristina Salas-Porras
Alice Waters

Archival Sources
Corbis
Common Courage Press
Cross Films Productions
Vision Video
FootageBank
Getty Images
Susanne Mason
NASA
Brian Price
Thomas Soukakos
David P. Stern
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Jason Aronson, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Special Thanks
The Alex Hotel, New York – Home of Riingo Restaurant
The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle
Palisade Restaurant, Seattle: Chef Mike Bryan
Sue Challis
Tom Furtwangler
Ofer Gneezy & Christine McLaughlin
Cheryl Head
Billie & John McLaughlin
Pam McCluskey & Kakuta Hamisi
Michelle Lyons
Annie Moriyasu
Sheila Mullen
Brian Quist
Sweet Lorraine’s Bakery
Ronna Telsey
Matt Wesson
Brandon Wheeler
Whole Foods Market
Tamara Wilson

 

FOR OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING

BUSINESS AFFAIRS
Susan Smith

LEGAL SERVICES
Kristin Ingram

NATIONAL PROMOTION
Selena Lauterer
Nimmi Singh

WEB/INTERACTIVE
John Kin
Marion Rice, Ed.D.

POST PRODUCTION
Howard Beckerman

PRODUCTION SERVICES
Milt Ritter

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
Cheri Arbini

SR. DIRECTOR NATIONAL PRODUCTION
John Booth

POST PRODUCTION
Howard Beckerman

PRODUCTION SERVICES
Milt Ritter

EXECUTIVES IN CHARGE OF PRODUCTION
David Davis
Jack Galmiche