Asian food channel focuses on food for and by Asians

Abdul Aziz · #1 29-11-2008, 01:23 AM

Asian food channel focuses on food for and by Asians

With over 180 ethnic groups speaking around 300 languages calling it home, Asia has often been referred to as a "melting pot" and naturally the food that comes out of the mix is at worst "interesting" and at best "food for the gods."

Going into an interview with the founders and managing directors of Asian Food Channel (AFC), former BBC journalist Maria Brown and investment-banker-turned-entrepreneur Hian Goh, one couldn’t help but be amused at the former’s being introduced as "the goddess" by the latter as a self-deprecating "minor deity" in their little pocket of pay TV.

"I do all the work, he does all the posing," deadpanned Ms. Brown, whose official title is Managing Director for Acquisitions and Programming, which in practical terms means that she’s usually the recipient of irate e-mails and phone calls admonishing them both for not having acted on someone’s pitched program, to which she would respond that said program had been rejected for being poorly produced or for simply being unsuitable to the target audience — reportedly highly affluent (44%), 35- to 49-year-old (37%), female (53%) and male (47%) viewers in Malaysia at least, as of September 2008, according to AGB Nielsen Malaysia. ‘There is some wonderful food here [in the Philippines] it’s almost like an undiscovered part of the world for food.’

"We are very choosy. We don’t just put shows that have no relationship to people’s lives because it doesn’t make sense. Someone was asking today about vegetarian shows and we were saying that a lot of the vegetarian shows are Western-made. So the problem is if you put a vegetarian show that is Western-made on the channel, 95% of the products you can’t get here in Asia, so what’s the point

It’s always a balancing act," explained Ms. Brown, in an interview with BusinessWorld on Nov. 19 at The Peninsula’s Mi Piace.

"We want to be the channel that has the authority for food and food-related lifestyle programming. So what we’ve done is that we’ve actually selected the best of Western food programming, the best of Asian food programming, a wide array... so that people would just have to come to AFC and that’s it," added Mr. Goh, explaining that programs are categorized to fit genres and certain "tribes of people" for whom they’re meant, namely the young urban professional, the single mother (or "yummy mummy" as they call her), the gourmet jetsetter fond of travel shows, and fans of the complement of "big stars," including Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain, Vivien Tan, Martin Yan, Anna Olsen, Mark McEwan, and Daniel Boulud.

Run with the locals

Last June, AFC concluded an investment deal with Symphony International Holdings Limited (SIHL), a strategic investment company that focuses on long-term direct investment opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently, AFC broadcasts in Singapore (Starhub Channel 69), Malaysia (Astro Channel 703), Indonesia (via First Media Digital 1 Channel 76 and Prime Indovision Channel 22), Hong Kong (TV Channel 527), the Philippines (Skycable Channel 58), Thailand (Live TV) and Brunei (Kristal Astro Channel 703). By 2009, it will be aired in the Indian subcontinent.

The branding of AFC is centered around championing Asian heritage and culture, and communicating with the target audience in the language that they understand, with the level of sophistication that they are accustomed to (or would like themselves to become accustomed to). But whether the show is Western-made or an original production in collaboration with AFC done locally, the key element is always authenticity, that the person speaking knows exactly what he’s talking about.

"You can’t fake it — even though some people try — and our viewers can tell, as you would expect... So don’t talk about cooking if you don’t get what’s going on in the kitchen. Whilst we bring a broad range of shows from around the world, that’s in line with the fact that Asians eat a lot of food, they’re very well-traveled, they’re very diverse, and they’re very well-versed in what’s going on around the world. It’s not like, say, America, where 97% of Americans don’t have a passport, and never travel," said Ms. Brown.

Providing opportunities for local talent is also a focus of the show, as the founders believe the best person to talk about Asian food would be the locals.

"One of the particular pet peeves that Maria and I have is that someone not from the Philippines is in the Philippines exploring the country and telling the Filipinos what the Philippines is and maybe getting it not 100% accurate... Some people they come in and make fun of things and so on and so forth, what we like to do is have a Filipino show on what Philippines is and say come to my country, and promote the country," admitted Mr. Goh.

"We’ve made the deliberate decision to premiere Tablescapes, a Filipino travel show, and we will put Tablescapes right next to Jamie Oliver. One of the things that we feel the channel can do [is encourage] people who have gone up and made a show about food... so the first time they have a platform that is regional that can show their show and be seen around the world," he noted.

"We believe that the Philippines is really one of the most talented countries in the region.... People are naturally well-versed and communicative and interested and warm. So why do always need somebody else to tell your story

Is it not time that Filipinos tell their own story, and do you always need validation from foreigners to come in and tell you about your country before you feel like it’s a great country

" said Ms. Brown.

The next big one

Granted that the Philippines is a highly developed television market in terms of advertising and consumption, there is an opportunity to create new shows for the Philippines by the Filipinos, to be shown to the rest of the region. Interest in the Philippines as a foodie destination is being developed by local tourism agencies, and AFC (Philippines), with a new team in place, intends to be one of the first to "discover" it.

"There is some wonderful food here... it’s almost like an undiscovered part of the world for food. Nobody automatically says that the Philippines is a great place for food. Yet you would say that about Singapore because the Singaporeans are great about branding their food, and the Japanese are great at branding their food, so either the Philippines is not a good place for food, or it’s not a good marketer for its food... I didn’t know that in the Philippines you had great tapas restaurants. Who’s telling those stories around the region

" said Ms. Brown.

"You have a lot of Singaporeans and they’re all very excited about Spanish food — they’ve had Italian food and French food — and they’re flying to Spain to experience that... But nobody knows that in the Philippines you can get not only the same level of quality food, it’s probably more cost-effective, and you have the Filipino variant. It’s just four hours away," rejoined Mr. Goh.

Naturally, the next step is to have more shows filmed in the country and more local talents brought into the limelight, perhaps within the next 12 to 24 months, even finding, in the words of Ms. Brown, "a celebrity chef who is a Filipino born and raised, who will be able to make it on the world scene." In this sense, AFC is open to "good quality shows that are going to represent the Philippines in the best possible light."

The same goes for the rest of Asia.

"It’s a celebration of culture. Asia is the breadbasket for a lot of the world and Asians ought to be proud of that. There’s a lot of innovation that can follow. Coconut oil [has] been vilified by the West for a number of years because they say that these things are unhealthy, while there is scientific evidence to say that’s not the case. So we would like to look into these things and get the communities to talk about these issues.," said Ms. Brown.

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