Jessica Walden-Griner

What better person to interview for the “Food Issue” than the man who has been taking us into his kitchen and teaching us how to cook for almost three decades? A nationally syndicated television personality, now broadcasted into the homes of six million viewers, Mr. Food’s 90-second food vignette appears daily on 13 WMAZ’s “Mornin’” and “Midday” programs. So who is the man behind the chef hat, anybody-can-do-it meals and signature catchphrase, “Ooh, it’s so good”? He’s Art Ginsberg, a Troy, New York native now living in Southeast Florida who is the face of a family food empire (he son is CEO and his daughter heads publicity/promotions) which includes television and radio-syndicated shows, best-selling cookbooks, kitchen tools, cookware and now a franchise of “No-Fuss Meals” locations that allow patrons to assemble and take-home ingredients to create their own home-style family dinners. Hearing his distinct voice on the other end of the line –he answered the phone singing “Good Morning to You, Good Morning to You” – was like hearing a familiar friend. And you would think that after a busy day in the food/showbusiness, the last thing Mr. Food would want to do is cook dinner, but it was clear after this interview that Art Ginsberg honestly loves the kitchen.

1. What is your background in the kitchen?

I grew up in the food industry. My father was a butcher, and I later on became a butcher, then a caterer many years after that. But I grew up around food and in the days when my mother didn’t say to my father, “Hey, what do you feel like having for supper tonight?” Whatever he couldn’t sell, that’s what we had for supper. Or if there wasn’t a slaughtering of cattle that week, or whatever else, then we might not have any meat at all that week. But we made do and, hey, we became very, very talented at making do with what we had . . . It certainly was not a disciplined craft. What I did was I just watched, and I had a God-given interest in it, God-given curiosity and a God-given talent, I guess. And I’m very, very glad of that, by the way, Jessica, because if I had professional training and I did what all the other chefs in the country did, I’d be cooking their kind of food and I wouldn’t be cooking our kind of food. You know, chefs cook for other chefs. I cook for Americans . . . By the way, I used to asked my mother when I came home from school when I was seven and eight years old if I could make my own sandwiches . . . and she let me. So many of us don’t let our children in the kitchen anymore – you don’t need it, you don’t want it, you’ll mess up the kitchen – well, that’s a lot of hooey. Our children grew up in the kitchen, but our children also grew up in show businesses because we love the stage and we love the theatre.

2. I read you were a butcher with a flair for theatre. What were your show biz beginnings?

Yeah, the flair for theatre, did indeed. I did that . . . oh my gosh, I was a show-off when I was in elementary school, and I was able to sing and entertain. But in high school, I also did a lot of plays. And after that, I did a lot of musicals . . . I never fooled myself from realizing that I could make a huge living in show businesses because it’s a very, very trepidatious business. There aren’t very many people making a good living in theatre. There are some, but it’s not an easy lifestyle and you’re off work as much as you are on work many times. So, I knew that this was much more stable, and by that time we were in the catering business when I probably had a chance to go into the profession. And I chose the food business versus that because I knew it, I loved it, I was feeding my family and I was happy.

3. So, what was your first big break?

My first big break was probably after being seen as the lead in “Fiddler on the Roof.” A company asked me to do some commercials – a food company. I did those locally, and then I was asked to be a “guest chef” on a morning talk show, in the days of the morning talk show on old television stations, and I said certainly – I knew the hostess, and she had been one of my director in one of the musicals . . . it worked out so well, and we got so much response that it was “Gee, would you come back next month?” Then, “Gee, would you come back in two weeks?” “Gee, would come back next week?” And, “Gee, would you be a regular?” And that’s how it all started.

4. How did your signature catch phrase emerge?

The “Ooh”? Oh, I knew I had to have a catchphrase about six or seven years later – about ‘76, ‘77, ’78 – I was on [television] and a real regular . . . but I kept putting it off. And then I went to see the movie Gypsy with Natalie Wood . . . and one of the numbers was “Ya Gotta Get a Gimmick” and I said, “You know, I’m going to try a few things. I don’t know what, but I’ve got to have some sort of a gimmick.” And I don’t know where it came from, Jessica, honestly. All I know is at the end of the show that next morning, I said, “Ooh, it’s so good.” And it figured . . . and I fit it in the second time, and after the third day of doing it, as I was walking out of the studio, somebody said, “Hey, there goes ‘Ooh, It’s So Good.’” And the following day it was copyrighted.

5. Can you go anywhere without being recognized? Do you ever sit back and think how far your range is now [through syndication]?

Hardly. Hardly, and I love it. I mean, it’s not that I try to be approachable, I am approachable. I just love people. I’m glad that many people – not everybody, I’m sure – but many people love me, and if there is a recognizability, yes. As a matter of fact, there is a tremendous recognizability in my voice also, and that’s why we’re now into radio syndication . . . Well, I’m very, very surprised how it is because I never thought it was going to be this big, and I’m absolutely thrilled. And I get up every morning and look upstairs and say thank you.

6. What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever received from a fan?

I continue to get them now. I get dolls. You know, little chef dolls – handmade many of them. I get a tremendous amount of pictures of people who say they look like me. And these are the fun things that go on throughout . . . I just love it. I am having the best time a person could have. I am probably the luckiest guy in the world because I love what I do and I love the people I am doing it for.

7. What’s your idea of a perfect meal?

Well, that would be such a disappointment to everybody listening. It really would, Jessica, because I am such a simple soul. Growing up in the days when we had to deal with the farmers and the growing methods and all the handling right from the farmer to the retailer – as a wholesale butcher, that’s what my father was, and later on we became retailers. So we would deal with the farmers, and we knew about the seasons. And we knew about how long we were going to have broccoli or cauliflower, and then after that, we didn’t have it because we couldn’t afford to have what was in some of the stores occasionally, which might be stuff brought in from California . . . so, we had things and we ate them only in season. I learned all of that, and I used to go out into the fields and I wasn’t afraid to take a watermelon and bust it open in the field and pick out pieces – we didn’t wash it . . . but my favorite of all of them was fresh tomatoes. Our native homegrown tomatoes – there is nothing like them in the world is there? Well, my favorite meal . . . if I had to had to have a last meal, I would want a thick slice of homegrown tomato on any kind of bread, slathered with mayonnaise and sprinkled with salt and pepper. That’s the only thing I think I could eat 365 days a year. Now, does that seem over-simplified? Well, we can make it more exotic in my terms by one time adding some lettuce on it, or a slice of onion on it the next time, or slice a cheese the next time, but for the most part, I have to come back to the basic – tomato, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, on any kind of bread. I’m just a hometown boy, I guess.

8. When you’re not working, do you still enjoy cooking and being in the kitchen? Do you have a go-to dish that you like to make at home?

Yep. Yep. I like to go home at night and start salad or whatever. My wife and I both cook, but it’s whoever gets home first that will start the salad. I make a different dressing every night. I happen to like homemade dressings. It’s just recently, after about a year and a half or two years, I realized that my wife always manages to always get home after I do. I can’t figure that, Jess (laughs) . . . Believe it or not, I am a firm believer in eating at home simply. We usually eat better. I usually either make a tuna salad and an egg salad and make a big salad plate with fresh vegetables and dressing. And I can be very satisfied with that. But chicken is always in our freezer. Beef is always in our freezer. And we’ve got the barbeque outside or broiler inside, and that’s easy enough. I do like fish once or twice a week. And as long as we’ve got some frozen fish in the freezer, and we can plan on it that morning, we take it out of the freezer, and we’ll just coat it, sauté it, I’ll make a tartar sauce and we can have that. In other words, these are things that everybody should have on their shelves. They should have not only canned tuna, but canned chicken. They should have chicken in the freezer, ready to go. They should have fish in the freezer, ready to go. With what we can do today with our freezers, there is no reason we shouldn’t have that. I love brussel sprouts as well as I do salad vegetables. I like fruits. I like everything. I am not a snob. I like to eat down and dirty and enjoy myself. I want it to taste like home. That’s what I want it to taste like . . . I am extremely adept with seasonings. I like to add the exotics through the seasonings . . . it’s got to smell good and look good before it tastes good. People asked me before what my number one necessity tool in the kitchen is and I say it’s my spice rack.

9. Who are some of your favorite television food personalities?

I like the people who do real cooking. I love Rachel Ray. I love her, and by the way, she comes from the same area that I did in Upstate New York. I think Rachel is super. Paula Deen is beautiful. Years ago there used to be the Galloping Gourmet . . . but when they start getting to be too chef-y and too crazy, I say, hey, I’m right, chefs cook for other chefs. You know what I want to do? I want to do everything that’s easy enough so people will be able to get their family around the table. You know, we take the course of least resistance. If we don’t know what to make, we stop and pick something up. Well heck, you want to save a whole big bunch of money? You want to make $10,000 more this year? Eat home twice as much as you do – or three times as much as you do – and you will save a barrel of money. And those people that say it’s just as cheap to eat out as it is to eat in – not in my house it isn’t, pal, and not in their house either. But they just don’t want to go through it. And it doesn’t have to be exotic; it doesn’t have to be difficult. Use what you got on hand. Use what’s in season. That’s the biggest tip I could give anybody for saving money: use what’s in season. I just want you to get around the table and sit down and enjoy . . . if you don’t have the time, I’ve got another way to do it. One of my newest endeavors is the Mr. Food No-Fuss Meals. It’s the make-and-take meal assembly concept. It’s the most wonderful thing going for people who don’t have time and still want to get their family around the table and still want to eat deliciously. The biggest question asked by everybody this country since the beginning of time is “What should I make for dinner?” . . . Today, this No-Fuss Meals is saving so many people down here in Florida – as a matter of fact, it is so successful down here, we’re now franchising . . . and we’re going to be doing in other states also.

10. So, what does Mr. Food like to do when you’re not in the kitchen?

There is a punishment I go to. It’s like beating my own breast. It’s called golf. It’s like looking forward to suicide. You know, you go out and play, and you don’t mind slashing your wrists. It’s horrible, but you want to know something? It’s wonderful because all I can think about is the little white ball. And you have to do that, so you enjoy it.

11. Is there any food you cannot stomach?

Oh, first of all, yeah, there is only one thing that I didn’t like when I ate, but I am not going to mention that. Come on, I don’t like to beat up on anything, but it’s something you’re not going to see in any of the markets normally anyway, so don’t worry about it (laughs). I love everything. I try everything. There isn’t anything . . . and whenever I taste something I say gee, you can do this with it and you can do that with it. I happened to be very, very creative with food, and it excites me. Food really excites me. As a result, I have to be very careful. I had to learn to taste and enjoy rather than just simply, you know, gorge myself. You have to realize something, you happen to be in Georgia. You happen to be a tremendous breadbasket. You’ve got so many local products from the seasons that we can enjoy them all the time. The pecans are absolutely fantastic. I think that’s one of the reasons I come up there, I think. Oh, and the Vidalias – magnificent . . . When WMAZ asks me to come up I’m there in a heartbeat. I love the people. I love the area. I love everything about it.