Wisconsin Foodie turns 10 years old this year, but it first began as a vague idea sketched out on a cocktail napkin. The Emmy® Award-winning television series and companion website was the brainchild of Milwaukee-based documentary filmmaker Arthur Ircink, who back in 2007 was watching the popularity of cooking shows explode nationally. He thought, "We grow and make some fabulous food in Wisconsin - let's try to celebrate it." Ircink showed Wisconsin Foodie host and Lake Effect contributor Kyle Cherek the napkin, and the rest is history.
The newest episode of Wisconsin Foodie airs Thursday night on Milwaukee PBS and Wisconsin Public Television. Both Ircink and Cherek stopped by the studio to reflect on the past 10 years of discovering the stories behind what we eat in Wisconsin:
Both men also appeared on Lake Effect 10 years ago at the start of their Wisconsin Foodie adventure. In the audio below retrieved from our archives, Ircink starts off by explaining how he wanted to answer the question, "where does our food come from?":