April 14-20, 2005

food

Deal's On

try it, you'll like it: Dave Lieberman, who grew up in Center City, wants viewers of his new show, Good Deal, to embrace the joys of low-budget cooking. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Dave Lieberman brings Philly hoagies and dorm-room savvy to the Food Network.

by Lori Hill

Dave Lieberman walks down a sun-dappled Soho street, arms full of paper bags. See, he's got some people coming over for dinner. More than he expected. But it's nothing he can't handle.

After all, Lieberman cooked for the entire Yale campus just a few years ago. Now, he's cooking for the country on his own Food Network show.

And to think it all started with his dad's driveway barbecues at 19th and Pine.

Lieberman, a Philly native, is the latest in the Food Network's line of "hot young chefs" (can you say Jamie Oliver? Tyler Florence?) who are commodities in and of themselves. Before he knew it, he had a cookbook, Young & Hungry (Hyperion) and a show where he gets to stroll to and from grocers in New York. It's called Good Deal with Dave Lieberman, and it premieres this Saturday.

It's caught the 25-year-old a little by surprise. "I always kind of thought it'd be a hobby and one of my real passions, but that I'd have to do something outside of cooking to make a real living," he says.

Having worked in the kitchens of Audrey Claire, Lombardi's Pizza and Marathon Grill as a teenager, he became acquainted with the restaurant business early on. The idea of being a professional chef didn't really boil his water, but by 2003, in his senior year as a political science major at Yale, he had found his vocation. It was a public access show called Campus Cuisine, and in six half-hour episodes that aired in New Haven and the surrounding area, he and his cohorts showed stressed-out Ivy Leaguers that college cooking wasn't limited to pouring nearly expired milk over Lucky Charms.

"[It covered] all the situations people in college could relate to, like barbecuing outside, dating, making the best of dining hall food, tailgating, that kind of thing," says Lieberman.

Lieberman was soon running his own campus catering company, and New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser included him in a feature about young adults in the kitchen. And though he says his show was a little rough around the edges, Campus Cuisine was essentially his audition tape for the Food Network.

"It was really good training," he says of his amateur television adventures, adding with a laugh, "Certainly the first show was a bit of a bomb."

Bomb or no, the show got national attention. His laid-back attitude and user-friendly ideas probably didn't hurt. His book and show reflect a simple philosophy: Making good food can be cheap, quick and easy. It's not a new idea — Rachael Ray and others profess similar credos. But Lieberman's book goes one better: His thrifty advice begins before you even go to the grocery store. To his young and hungry audience, he suggests raiding parents' kitchens for basic utensils and dishware, as well as trolling thrift shops, flea markets and yard sales for deals on tools and gadgets. (He claims to have gotten his electric mixer for eight bucks.) One of the suggestions in Young & Hungry is even a bit unsavory: For a sealable container, he says, "I just raid the supermarket salad bar for the plastic ones, but if you want to be a little more legit about it, then a Tupperware set can't hurt." Now that's low budget.

At home, Lieberman says, "I don't like fuss at all. I let the ingredients speak for themselves, minimal preparation. I kind of go with what I feel like and try to keep a well-stocked pantry."

That philosophy drives the show's content as well. Like Campus Cuisine, Good Deal shoots in an apartment, Lieberman says, to lend authenticity to the living-on-a-budget, low-key concept. At various points during the premiere, Lieberman is seen crouching on the floor of a Whole Foods discussing the difference between plain and seasoned bread crumbs, slamming a kitchen drawer shut with his knee, and showing viewers a handy presentation trick: elevate your centerpiece buffet dish using a Pyrex covered with a cloth napkin. It's Entertaining for the Newly Independent.

Each show proceeds from a premise that allows Lieberman to unveil a particular set of dishes. He'll have his mom and grandmom over for dinner, or, in the case of the premiere, suddenly expand his guest list for a buffet dinner. Anything, says Lieberman, that "gives people a good reason to get into the kitchen."

His Young & Hungry cookbook also categorizes recipes by event, like "Lazy Mornings" and "Living Room Tailgate Party." And among recipes for Moroccan-style lamb kebobs and salads with "Kryptonite dressing," he gives his hometown some shout-outs, including a baguette hoagie with salami, ham, turkey and dressed-up salad.

With a full season of Good Deal in the can, Lieberman's at work on a follow-up cookbook. He's headed back to 19th and Pine this weekend to cook with his dad again. "He's going to show me something I've been wanting him to show me for a while — these ribs that are really good."

Good Deal with Dave Lieberman premieres Sat., April 16, 1:30 p.m., Food Network. It will air Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. and repeat Thursdays at 5 p.m. Lieberman will sign books Tue., April 26, 7 p.m., Borders, 1 S. Broad St., 215-568-7400.