G. Garvin, Atlanta Native Turns Up the Heat for TV One | DryerBuzz.com ArcHives

Rebuzzed from the BuzzArcHives – December 2004 (approximately)
As TV One’s first anniversary of broadcasting approaches, you can tell the station has been working hard to find its niche in satisfying a diverse audience of African Americans. Launched January 2004, the station began airing on Atlanta’s Comcast channel 71 on January 19.   Its first program to air was the Tom Joyner Sky Show, which featured recording artist Al Green and comedian/actor Tommy Davidson. The network is a collaboration between Radio One, Comcast, Constellation Ventures, Syndicated Communications, Pacesetter Capital Group, and Opportunity Capital Partners.

Taking into consideration an audience of African Americans over 25 disappointed in finding quality programming, TV One’s targeted demographic remained skeptical that a station of its kind would survive.  However, in its first year of programming, TV One has stayed true to its goal. To win over a skeptical audience, TV One opened it’s first broadcast season with such programs as B. Smith with Style, Cowboys of Color, Donna Richardson: Mind, Body, & Spirit and popular syndicated African American shows.

But, its TV One’s latest addition that has a buzz going in the salons and office break rooms across Atlanta.  Just the mention of the host’s name will cause his female viewers to blush, followed by a comparison of their recipes to his.  The conversation becomes excited, hard to tell if they are talking about the dish or the host.  The host is non other than Atlanta native Gerry Garvin and the dish is prepared from “super simple” cooking at its finest, packed with his personal flavor all rolled up into a new cooking series called Turn Up the Heat with G. Garvin.

With an extraordinary bio to his credit, Gerry Garvin, former Ritz Carlton and Morton’s executive chef stars in the new series, which premiered on TV One in October 2004.  Along with preparing succulent recipes for his popular eatery G. Garvin’s restaurant in Los Angeles, he’s tackling America’s dilemma at the dinner table with down-to-earth style, impressive culinary skills, and entertaining magnetism.

Plans for a series of cooking DVDs brought Garvin to the attention of TV One.  The executive chef got his earliest kitchen experience in the kitchen of Atlanta’s Jewish Home for the Aging, where his mother worked. Raised by his mother and surrounded by four sisters, by age 13 he traded after-school football practice for a job at Atlanta’s Vinings Inn. There he soaped dishes and soaked up the inner workings of a high-end kitchen operation. Two years later, he moved to the Ritz Carlton, where as the youngest cook in the downtown Atlanta hotel, he held summer and extracurricular positions there and at the Buckhead headquarters until he turned 18.

In 1988, his career with the Ritz Carlton brought him to the West Coast to open the Ritz Carlton’s Rancho Mirage resort in Palm Springs. Soon after, at the age of 19, the opportunity would offer up a chance to serve as an apprentice to Jean Paul Harehabache in Europe at Laguna Niguel, sister property to Rancho Mirage.  After nearly two years, he returned to Atlanta and became executive chef of the award-winning Italian restaurant, Veni, Vidi, Vici, but the lure of the West Coast drew him back, this time to Los Angeles.

During the 1990s in LA, he was blessed with such positions as executive chef at Morton’s, where he orchestrated dinner for the first-ever Vanity Fair Oscar fete as well as a lavish banquet for the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. From there and on to Kass Bah, and a year later he became executive chef at the new restaurant Reign, which earned him his then-best reviews and biggest salary.

Yearning for success on the business as well as creative side of food, he left Reign and began catering high-profile events, including two exclusive dinners for President Clinton, a private brunch for Senator Hillary Clinton and other notable clients. Two years later, he teamed with a catering client to open a restaurant, and in fall 2001, G. Garvin’s opened to critical acclaim with an expansion to follow, doubling its size. G. Garvin’s restaurant, in less than a year earned top honors from both the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles magazine

Now we all get to share a dash of G. Garvin. With the first seven episodes already in rotation, including a holiday special with Patti Labelle, G. Garvin is impressing his hometown audience in Atlanta while at the same time improving their diets. His delightful and easy to follow recipes, both traditional and non-traditional in African American households, has his viewers changing not only their eating habits, but also their shopping habits.  During the holiday season, you might find viewers asking their favorite grocers for such items as Smoked Turkey Bacon instead of traditional southern meat products, Shallots instead of your garden-variety onion, and stocking up on chicken stock.  From “One Pot Meals” to “Healthy Soul”, Garvin goes back to his roots in each episode turning meals we all grew up eating into culinary experiences.

The recipes from each episode are available online at www.TVOneOnline.com and are much the conversation in the salons and break rooms.  One of the more debated topics along with his Seafood Stew and Black Eyed Pea Soup, is whether the host looks most delectable with or without his trademark baseball cap.

When Radio One announced its venture to bring quality programming, you had to know Atlanta would be up in the mix.  Now throw in some fresh vegetables and Turn Up the Heat with G. Garvin, airing on TV One.                             ~*DB*~