FoodBackwards: The DooF Glob (blog)

Check out our 30 second radio ads for DooF-a-Palooza. They’ll be running in English on 98.1 KISS-FM Sundays between 9-10 AM on the Childhood Matters Radio show (also K-Ocean 105.1 FM) and in Spanish on KLOK (1170 AM), Tricolor 99.5 FM, KBBF (89.1 FM), KSES (107.1 FM) and KMBX (700 AM) Sundays from 8-9 AM on Nuestros Ninos.

Check them out!

• DooF-a-Palooza Radio Spot
• DooF-a-Palooza Radio Spot (Spanish version)

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DooF-a-Palooza ad in Bay Area Parents

We’re pleased to announce that our own media blitz for DooF-a-Palooza began today with ads in the the June Edition of Bay Area Parents. Please check out the latest issue and help spread the word.

Teaser in the DooFLetter

For those of you who are subscribed to our “DooFLetter”, you should have received a nifty-looking email teaser that looked like this:

The DooF-a-Palooza Landing Page (updated)

And, of course, for the rest of you who have subscribed to the Glob (this blog) itself in an RSS reader, well, I just want to say that registration has officially begun.

Check out the DooF-a-Palooza landing page at:

www.foodbackwards.com/doof-a-palooza/2008

where you can

• read more about some of the key events we have lined up so far
• purchase tickets
• volunteer
• see some of our sponsors

We hope you’re as excited about DooF-a-Palooza as we are.

Stay tuned for more updates!

With less than five days before DooF-a-Palooza, many of us are as baked as a pizza Napolitano, crusty as a load of Acme bread, and smelly as a Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Point. A lot goes into the making of a large event, but come Saturday, October 20th, we’ll be as fresh as the flowers itemized in the silent auction, courtesy of Chef Alan Tangren from his own Narrow Gauge farm.

As a production assistant from Napa, my part has been to coordinate the two-pronged silent auction. On one prong is standard fare like bouquets and getaways to Napa Valley, Sonoma, and Mendocino County. Skewered on the second prong is a slightly off-beet feature called 24 carrots. 24 carrots won’t include any veggies, diamonds, or gold nuggets. Instead, buried in a planter box of corn pellets will be 24 premium bottles of wine, cleverly disguised with orange cellophane and frondy stems as our favorite crunchy taproots. With hidden demi-carafes, regular bottles, and magnums, the shapes and varieties of the wines unearthed will come as great surprises. And since a guest can only purchase one carrot, 24 revelers will get to experience a tug that is truly unique—conceived solely and originally for DooF-a-Palooza.

Traveling up and down Northern California to create the packages, you bet I’ve used that line before. But lines have been hardly a necessity, easy as it is to pitch a concept such as DooF. The truth is that DooF’s genesis is Northern California as a whole, as worthy of partnership in Eureka or Monterey as it is in Berkeley, its birthplace. The show’s tenets flit through the same fields, streams, and harbors of many conscientious growers, purveyors, chefs, and restaurateurs.

With my attention spread between two parts of an auction, I’m still filling the final slots for the 24 carrots feature, and it was just Monday that I visited Goosecross Cellars. Colleen Topper, Hospitality and Public Relations Director, doubles as a chef and offers more than 100 recipes to be paired with Goosecross varietals. From the tasting room, the attendant phoned Colleen, who was sorry to say that they had reached their donation capacity for the year; there simply was no more wine to be given. I left graciously, but, sure that she would love the concept of our show and our exciting benefit, I insisted that Colleen at least receive my packet. 5 minutes later, Goosecross phoned and granted my request. Just like we find room in our stomachs for sweet and unique desserts, many-a-winery I’ve visited has had an unprecedented tooth for generosity. Experiences like this make it pleasurable for me to rove the coast and valleys, knight errant of DooF’s noble cause.

And it’s not just me. Organizing the legions on the Google side of this effort is Chef Mirit Cohen, who’s worked tirelessly to make sure that the o’s in Google and the o’s in DooF are like two pairs of eyes with a shared vision. At one of our large meetings at Google, after a business lunch at her own café, Mirit led us to an interdepartmental meeting still wearing her chef’s coat, a coat with the look of one who does her best work in the trenches. Alongside DooF’s executive producer, Mike Axinn, Mirit facilitated a fine meeting, the foodstuffs smeared and splattered across her chest like a DooF coat of arms.
With the excitement of a pep rally’s aftermath, it was on the car ride home that we joked about a hokey fight song for our DooF-a-Palooza, and then decided seriously that a party without pennants was not a party for a crowd like us, and a TV show like DooF.

On October 20th, somewhere near the 11th hour—so to speak—DooF-a-Palooza will completely come together and appear as natural to Google’s courtyards and cafeterias as an entrée on a shiny plate. Consider how DooF (F-o-o-D backwards) purports to change the way kids think about food by engaging them in fun alternatives to unhealthy eating, immersing them in a world of color and taste, growers, purveyors, and silly characters.

The experiences our team has had with other businesses, and, of course, Google, have held a mirror to the business world, allowing me to see it backwards. And I’ve seen the generosity, ardor, and collaboration that make many of these businesses successful on a holistic level, and that will make DooF-a-Palooza and a great success of its own.

Until Saturday, give me a D; give me an O; give me another O, F!

One thing we love to do with DooF is collaborate with schools and organizations that share our mission to get kids excited about good food. As media content creators, we play a special role in bringing attention to the work they do. Recently, we collaborated with the Farm and Garden Program at Le Conte Elementary School in Berkeley. One of pioneering programs of its type in Northern California, Le Conte involves kids deeply in the story of food from garden to table. ‘Farmer’ Ben Goff and his colleagues Brenna Turman and Katherine Russell teach a curriculum that includes gardening and cooking, and also manages to incorporate vocabulary, math and social studies skills. Even with all the Three Rs stuff, the kids seem to relish the classes the way some kids relish Phys. Ed, as a break from their normal classroom activities. As we’ve learned from DooF, the magic of food offers a way to teach without seeming like you’re teaching. Our experience with Le Conte also showed how this type a partnership can offer unexpected bonuses to its participants as well as wonderful content for DooF.

The idea of a classroom full of brash kids taken over by an engaging if slightly incompetent teacher struck us as perfect for DooF. After considering several possible programs, we met with Ben and his colleagues to talk about collaborating. Our plan was to place our ‘English Food Expert’, played by DooF animator Josh Kurz, in the classroom with a group of handpicked kids from the program. Handpicked, for although we weren’t interested in anything scripted, we would be relying quite heavily on the kids to be knowledgeable and amusing. And Josh, neither food expert nor–beyond some very entertaining spoof material–Borat, was still something of an unknown quantity. For his character, we asked him to draw from the English tradition of names that are also foods, e.g. Mr. Bean, Mr. Mustard, Mr. Chips.

After getting the blessing of Le Conte Principal Cheryl Wilson, Ben selected twenty-five third and fourth graders to meet with us for filmed interviews. We ruled out fifth graders, as we planned to continue the program in 2007-08. Our hope was to find eight kids with the right combination of charisma, food knowledge, self-confidence and consideration to handle our ‘English Food Expert’. Discovering ’star quality’ among a random sampling of elementary school children may be a stretch, but from the first interview, where young Efijon shared his philosophy about Jolly Rancher candies, we knew we were onto something special.
jolly-rancher-warning1.mov

Next we met with Ben, Brenna, and Katherine to talk about how School of Broc should unfold. All good television, whether sit-com, docu, or reality-based, relies upon some sort of narrative. Our plan, going in, was to work within the structure of the Le Conte School program to ensure a degree of culinary pedagogy. But would it be entertaining? And suppose the kids clammed up under the lights and refused to share what they knew. Also, how much should we divulge to them about our fictional ‘food expert’. Borat and his Ali G brethren famously duped a number of politicians and celebrities by passing themselves off as real interviewers, but we were not interested in doing anything at the kids’ expense. We would rely upon the familiarity of the scenario—hapless substitute armed with a lesson plan they all know, a traditional dish called ‘Hoppin John’—and hope things didn’t get out of hand.

Before jumping into the classroom sequence, we filmed the kids talking about cooking techniques, Hoppin John, and what they would do if suddenly confronted with a substitute. Since we’d only have one ‘take’ to capture the cooking class, we decided upon a three-camera set-up, with multiple microphones. As the kids entered the classroom, a Mr. Worchestershire (pronounced ‘Wister’) in mismatched sweater, golf pants and a tweed vest, squeaked his long name across the white board.

The first reaction most children have to a substitute, especially one who doesn’t know what he’s doing, is to go nuts. But here’s where that combination of self-confidence and consideration proved especially crucial. One kid, Sri Raj, announces to the camera, “We have to teach him.” And teach him they do, about knife skills and hygiene and ‘Hoppin John.’ Someone reminds Mr. W that he’s supposed to be in charge of the cooking. To which he reacts like any sensible person confronted with a situation for which he’s completely unqualified. He panics. But the kids gather round the stove and a gentle choreography unfolds. Our three-camera set-up, which nearly fell apart in the early classroom chaos, suddenly starts to pay off. In the foreground, a cooking wok transforms like a canvas as onions go in, then bell peppers, then collard greens. In the background, kids chop, slice and gather ingredients while Mr. Worchestershire, so confused only moments ago, finds his inner adult and directs operations.

As clever as we thought we were when we conceived of DooF, there was one thing we never wanted to lose sight of. Yes, story and narrative matter, as do performance and production values. But the main consideration is really quite simple. You point the camera at the food as it cooks and people watch. It wouldn’t appear to be anything so extraordinary. Yet as ingredients are placed in pots and skillets and grills and ovens we witness a transformation which, to many devotees, is something akin to alchemy. This happens for viewers and, most importantly, for kids as they participate. Even in the presence of all the equipment, with a film crew hovering just out of frame, our made-up character, Mr. Worchestershire, and eight handpicked food experts from the Le Conte Elementary School Farm and Garden Program, experienced something magical, and a genuine lesson took place.

And unlike the oft-repeated cliche of clowns, magicians and stunt people, you CAN try this at home!

doof_le-conte-lesson-plan-for-hoppin-john.pdf

It was only a matter of time before DooF joined the other 57 million bloggers in cyberspace. But actually, no. We’re not a blog, we’re a glob! If you want to find out where things come from–like food–you gotta go backwards, or sideways. DooF, the food show for kids, has attracted a great deal of attention as a fun and innovative new way to get kids excited about good food. For those of you unfamiliar with DooF, here’s the ketchup.

Three years ago, an incredible group of filmmakers, foodies, and health educators joined together to create media that changes the ways kids think about food. We began with children in local schools, bringing food-based video content featuring farmers, market-sellers, restauranteurs, and kids like themselves exploring the wonders of food at its source. Next we created a website, and the prototypes for an exciting new television series.

None of this could have happened without the time, effort, and creativity of an amazing group of DooF professionals. We’ve also been fortunate in having the support of some of the true revolutionaries in the food and public health communities.

Alice Waters was an early supporter of DooF and recently her Chez Panisse Restaurant helped us put on a luncheon for some of the folks who are helping DooF achieve its mission to do for eating what Sesame Street did for reading.

Dr. Anthony Iton and the Alameda County Department of Public Health did something highly unusual for a government agency. They funded our television pilot in the belief that positive media like DooF is one of the most effective ways to target childhood obesity. DooF does this by making good food fun!

As we take the next steps towards broadcasting DooF nationwide, we’ll give you details of film shoots, events, recipes, and some amazing food experts. And one last thing which is actually the first thing, only we’re backwards…the kids!