Focus on Eden Grinshpan of ‘Eden Eats’

This will be a very special birthday for Eden Grinshpan and she’s getting the “best gift ever”—her own weekly TV show called Eden Eats. The premier airs the day before her birthday on The Cooking Channel. Eden was recently in Atlanta as part of the Summer Eats tour, a celebration of The Cooking Channel’s second birthday.

Eden is an explorer with adventures of the mouthwatering kind, seeking out cultures and cuisines. The show will focus on American cities that “have a flair and a kind of character,” particularly when it comes to food. The lineup includes visits to Nashville, Tampa, Baltimore, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Charlotte and Honolulu. And though the location is the United States, the cuisines are all over the map.

Eden explains that while they always go into a city with a strategy, they rarely end up following it. “So many things happen that you just can’t plan for.” So the show’s method is to prepare, but remain completely open to what comes up, throwing the plan out the window most of the time. It’s about exploring and learning. “I go in asking what’s important, what’s new, what’s the food character of the city. I don’t know it all.” Her goal is to discover authentic international food, recipes and stories from the locals. “The stars are the local people we meet” who come together to create some of the most delicious food in the world. And there’s a lot to share. Expect six or seven cultural cuisines per episode, each with its own music, recipes and stories. The hard part is the time limit. There’s only 24 hours to investigate the global cuisine of each city.

It’s every foodie’s dream to get their own show—tasting, traveling and learning about foods and world cultures. Eden Grinshpan seems to be enjoying her luck without too much ego. She’s classically trained, but has traveled enough in India and Southeast Asia to have “reverse culture shock” upon returning home. And it doesn’t hurt that she is also extremely attractive, vivacious and comfortable in her skin. I found her completely approachable and easy to talk to. Almost too easy. I felt like she was interviewing me most of the time, which bodes well for the show.

Eden Eats airs Friday, August 17 at 10pm on The Cooking Channel.