Kansas Citian Jim Kane’s PBS series The Food Principle may be centered around food, but he’d sooner compare it to BBC’s Earth than Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. As The Food Principle’s host and producer, Kane travels around the world, using food as the medium to explore each region.
No, he won’t be inviting you into an Italian nonna’s house to learn her meatball recipe. Instead, he’ll be walking arm in arm with an Appalachian Cherokee elder as she explains how farming on her ancestral land reconnected her to her culture. Through the lens of food, Kane takes a deep dive into each region’s social, political and cultural landscape.
“If you look at some of these daunting issues that we’re all faced with today—climate change, biodiversity loss, social justice, refugees, immigration—you can understand all these issues through food in a way that maybe seems more manageable, more personable,” Kane says.
Kane, a Philadelphia native, settled down with his wife in KC in 2006, around the same time he began designing international trips through his travel company Culture Xplorers. Through Culture Xplorers, Kane noticed that the more travelers immersed themselves in a culture’s cuisine, whether by attending a festival or participating in a cooking lesson, the more they learned about the region’s landscape, biodiversity and history of immigration.
“It became this whole way of understanding other cultures,” says Kane, who soon realized he could use food as a tool for activism.
When Covid hit and international travel came to a halt, Kane turned his idle hands to visual storytelling through his YouTube series Off The Table, a twelve-episode mini version of what was to become The Food Principle. Eventually, Kane pitched his YouTube series to PBS. When Denmark was the first country to open its borders, Kane, and his new show, headed to the Scandinavian country.
The Food Principle’s first season, broadcast last year, also explores Appalachia, a part of the country particularly victim to “extraction, misinformation and stereotyping,” according to Kane. He shares the stories of Appalachia’s Valerie Horn, a community leader whose food kitchen provided fresh food to citizens during Whitesburg, Kentucky’s disastrous flood in 2022, and a pair of food truck owners blending Pakistani and Appalachian cuisine in Abingdon, Virginia.
The host realizes his grassroots perspective doesn’t have quite the sexy edge of, say, Chef’s Table or Chopped, both of which rely on intensity for viewer engagement. But Kane is in it for the long run. He wants to inspire viewers beyond the screen.
“Maybe one starts to understand and think, ‘maybe I can make a small change in my diet and make a difference in that way,’” Kane says. “‘Maybe I can start composting my food instead of putting it in the trash to avoid the methane emissions through landfills.’ There are so many small ways that we can go about things if we do it through the lens of food.”
The second season of The Food Principle is expected to air in October. Eventually, Kane hopes to tell stories closer to home. Watch out, Kansas City. You might soon see Kane exploring the underbelly of KC’s food activism.
Jim Kane’s Perfect Day in KC
Coffee: Jon Cates’ Broadway Roasting Co. still sets the standard for exquisitely roasted coffee. He’s such a mad scientist. It’s a cappuccino for my wife, a macchiato for me and a hot chocolate for our son. The other coffee shop I like a lot is Café Corazón for their art-filled, colorful vibe and Latin-inspired drinks.
Lunch: A place I discovered recently is Baba’s Pantry. The way I describe it is like stepping into a Palestinian friend’s kitchen. The food tastes of love. I’ll have anything that has their beautiful hummus in it and finish with a strong Turkish coffee.
Pizza: Bella Napoli’s Monday night pizza specials have fueled many a family dinner.
Live Music: The Ship is so wonderfully laid back. The last time my family and I went, we saw Beau Bledsoe with Ensemble Iberica. They bring in incredible international guests. Keep an eye out for them.
