WTTW/11’s executive producer Ann Gleason and producer Dan Protess did the impossible when they selected 13 eclectic, interesting and diverse restaurants and bars out of 6,200 full service Chicago establishments for a tasty new digital series.
The webseries “Foodphiles” behind-the-scenes of these unique eateries, such as Birrieria Zaragoza in Archer Heights whose specialty is Mexican goat meat stew, or those in unexpected places, like Diversity on Devon’s South Asian cuisine in an Indian enclave.
The “Foodphiles” site has two main sections. “Watch” consists of 5-minute videos that Protess, director/editor and also cameraman, shot of the chefs or restaurateurs responsible for creating and preparing food or libations, explaining what makes their offerings unique and why they’re so passionate about what they do.
“Recipes“ contains directions on how foodies can create the restaurant’s specialty dishes at home.
The recipes are accompanied by mouth-watering pictures of the specialty dishes that look like they were photographed by David Deahl in a perfectly lit studio.
In actuality, Protess shot them with his iPhone 6 camera.
“It was a matter a placing the food in the right light and the placement of the camera,” he says.
Protess and Gleason, the station’s SVP/marketing and interactive media, had been mulling ideas for a webseries following the success of “Central Standard: On Education” their first webseries last year and decided on a food series.
Protess started with a list of about 100 restaurants that had been recommended by producers of WTTW’s other food shows, friends and known foodies. After he whittled the list down to 50 last November, he set off to find a good story.
“Good stories are a window into larger issues and into culture, and food is so wrapped up in culture,” Protess relates. For example, “The South Side family-owned restaurant, 5 Loaves Eatery on 75th Street located in a neighborhood in trouble, succeeded against the odds.”
The series was web designed and edited from January through March and debuted last week.
Paul Thornton the online editor; original music, Steve Mullen. Graphic design by Jenny Macchione and Reed Marvine; web developers, Kevin Crowley, Justin Henderson, Brent Seehafer. Amy Cavanaugh was the writer and Linda Fox, art director.
The series plays on http://www.wttw.com/.
