Phillyist Interviews... Marisa McClellan (Or: Fork Me? Fork YOU!)

The latest addition to our growing cadre of writers is Mallory Politz, a very prolific writer who spends entirely too much time on the internet. A former fan of Steve Urkel and Hootie and the Blowfish, Mallory managed to come up with the title "The Rebirth of Innocence in Film Adaptations of Frankenstein as Seen Through Edward Scissorhands and The Spirit of the Beehive" for her senior thesis. Welcome aboard, Mallory!

This Saturday, Foster’s Urban Homeware will present a live episode of Fork You! as part of their free cooking demonstration series. Fork You! is an online cooking show, hosted by local food enthusiasts Marisa McClellan and Scott McNulty. They duo has been filming their show since November, 2006.

Marisa was kind enough to let us pick her brain.

How did all this food business unfold? Everyone loves food, but what was it that made you decide to make food your focus?
I didn't really start out with an intention to get into the food media business, it just sort of happened. I started blogging about the things I cooked on my own blog and it became more and more of my focus.

How did you and Scott wind up working together?
Scott and I met at a Philadelphia bloggers' meetup in August 2005 and slowly became friends. Several months later, Scott filmed himself cooking dinner and made a podcast out of it. It became the talk of the blogger meetup that month and he mentioned that he was interested in making a more regular cooking show. I said that I wanted to do it with him and so we spent the next four months trying to come up with a name for it. We nearly named the show Peaing Soup, but finally settled on Fork You.

How has the Philadelphia audience responded to Fork You? (Both on-line and live?)
So far, we've gotten really favorable responses from viewers. For some reason, people tend to be really entertained by what we do. The first live show was particularly fun, too.

Does Fork You have a national (or international) following?
Sure. People across the country watch Fork You. We even got mentioned in an article in the Spokane, WA newspaper once.

What is the ultimate goal of each episode?
To have fun, entertain people and possibly share a little useful information.

What's next for Fork You?
Right now we're focusing on getting an episode a week up. We're scheduled to do Fork You Live at Foster's through June and we'll just have to see where we'll go from there.

Fork You Live
Foster’s Urban Homeware (399 Market Street)
Saturday, 2/23, 2PM
FREE!

Photo Courtesy of Fork You! via their Flickr Pool.