Katsucon 2008 kicked all sorts of ass and I haven’t yet done a proper con report since I have some video to still edit. Had a great time hanging out with people that I rarely get to see. While waiting for Shawn Handyside to show up with his Wii (wow, that just sounds so dirty) so we could play Smash Brothers Brawl (which kicks all kinds of ass BTW), Mike Moore of Quest to Nowhere, Rob Balder of so many crazy things, and I watched some Food TV. We determined through very careful analysis that Guy Fieri must have giant stents where his arteries should be. Any man who eats that much fried grease and doesn’t die of multiple heart attacks must have some sort of bionic heart.

Fieri is hosting another show, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, sponsored by T.G.I. Friday’s. From Mike:

Hey, wanted to email you because I found out something interesting about that Ultimate Recipe show on Food Network we saw the commercials/talked about at Katsucon. It turns out that the recipes that win each week are going to be added to the menu at TGI Friday’s Resturants. You can see for yourself on their website http://www.fridays.com/menu/E208_ultimate_recipe_home.htm

Now I’m not sure if this is good or just wrong. Because the people are getting money for winning, and TGI Friday’s is getting good recipes and publicity. But I guess there is just something about the whole thing that rubs me the wrong way. Anyway figured it might be something interesting for your blog.

I agree, this sounds really shady. Let’s say your recipe wins. Sure, you get some money out of it, but it’s going to be pennies compared to the money TGIF will be making off of your work. Seems like a gimmicky way to spice up an otherwise boring menu selection. And I bet there’s some sort of exclusivity clause that prevents you from selling the recipe to competing chains. Win/win for Friday’s but a total Win/BIG LOOSE for the winner. On the plus side, it does give amateur chef’s a lot of exposure which could lead to bigger things if they’re very clever.

Still, sounds a bit shady to me.

Thanks for the heads up, Mike.

[Via T.G.I. Friday’s]

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 am and is filed under Food Pr0n. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.