FYI & Sur La Table Team Up for Katie Couric-Produced Culinary Show

FYI is partnering with Sur La Table to produce the new culinary series Scraps featuring chef Joel Gamoran, with Katie Couric serving as executive producer.

The series will see the national Sur La Table chef travel across the U.S. creating feasts in unexpected places using food waste and scraps. KitchenAid appliances will be integrated throughout the series. The 10×30-minute show is slated to premiere on FYI on Sunday, May 21, at 10:30 p.m. Each episode of Scraps will follow Gamoran to a new city, where he will partner with food waste champions to celebrate the local cuisine and create a meal with items many consider to be waste, including banana peels, shrimp shells, chicken bones and carrot stems. He will have less than a day to source ingredients, build a full menu and create a meal for an outdoor dinner party.

FYI and Sur La Table will also partner to offer ten online cooking classes, giving viewers the opportunity to learn more in-depth techniques and incorporate scraps in their cooking. The cooking classes will be available for purchase on Sur La Table’s website after each episode of Scraps airs. In addition, a sweepstakes will offer viewers the chance to win KitchenAid products and Sur La Table cooking classes. Scraps is produced by Katie Couric Media and RAIN for FYI.

“Food waste is such a huge problem in this country and more and more people want to do something about it,” said Couric. “I’m so excited for chef Joel Gamoran to introduce viewers to wonderful places and delicious recipes using ingredients we never imagined could taste so good. Joel’s energy and enthusiasm are infectious.”

“FYI is thrilled to partner with Sur La Table on this aspirational culinary series, paired with an interactive digital cooking class,” said Peter Olsen, the executive VP of ad sales at A+E Networks. “We strive to be a step ahead in the lifestyle space, while offering potential partners innovative opportunities to integrate with our brand, and Scraps is no exception.”

“As a chef, I have dedicated my life to making the kitchen more approachable for everyone and Scraps is a cooking movement that will genuinely open doors for home cooks to view ingredients differently,” added Gamoran. “Ugly produce and what once was thought of as cooking waste will now be seen as edible and useful—saving money and resources. Imperfect is the new perfect!”

“The movement to reduce food waste inspired Scraps‘ unique format and style, and allowed us to bring these partners together,” commented Timothy Whitney, the head of development at RAIN. “We celebrate something that is hiding in plain sight—that broccoli stem tastes even better than the florets, that you can make ice cream from bruised bananas, that your stale bread has a second life—in a way that engages an active, digitally oriented audience.”