{"id":131914,"date":"2017-11-22T08:31:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T13:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=131914"},"modified":"2017-11-22T13:29:55","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T18:29:55","slug":"checking-joel-gamoran-host-fyis-scraps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/11\/checking-joel-gamoran-host-fyis-scraps\/","title":{"rendered":"Checking in with Joel Gamoran, Host of FYI’s ‘Scraps’"},"content":{"rendered":"

For chef Joel Gamoran \u201907 (CLAS), scrappiness is a state of mind. \u201cWhy does cooking always need to be so perfect?\u201d he asks. \u201cThe best meals at home aren\u2019t when you buy the expensive cut of meat. It\u2019s the pasta with the leftover anchovy oil and some chili flakes. Not having the fancy ingredients \u2013 it forces you to get inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charming, affable scrap-proselytizer has just parlayed his lifelong passion for imperfection into a cooking show, \u201cScraps,\u201d which debuted on the FYI network in May.<\/p>\n

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I see flavor where the world sees waste. — Joel Gamoran<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Each half-hour episode of \u201cScraps\u201d follows Gamoran in his 1963 VW bus to prepare a meal with a local chef, using their favorite typically tossed kitchen scraps. As he says over the show\u2019s opening credits, \u201cI see flavor where the world sees waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take pickle juice, shrimp shells, and broccoli stems for example. Chicken thighs soak in that briny pickle juice before being fried, drizzled with honey, and showered with cilantro (just the stems, natch). Shrimp shells become a rich sauce for oysters that Gamoran has inexpertly and comedically chiseled from the South Carolina shoreline. Broccoli stems are shredded into a sweet and crunchy slaw.<\/p>\n

But given that it\u2019s such a zeitgeisty moment for sustainability and reducing food waste, the show was a surprisingly tough sell \u2013 even with co-executive producer (and huge Joel Gamoran fan) Katie Couric on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetworks just didn\u2019t think there was a place for food waste to be interesting to people,\u201d Gamoran says, with nearly comical disbelief. \u201cI was like, \u2018But it\u2019s super-hacky and understandable and completely digestible for people \u2013 and it will save them money.\u2019\u201d Eventually FYI bit.<\/p>\n

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