A 'GMA' Recipe for George

Now that it’s official, George Stephanopoulos started the job as co-anchor of Good Morning America Dec. 14, Mel’s Diner would like to serve up an idea for how Stephanopoulos can wear the sunshiny morning-show-chef’s hat and serious-political-journalist-guy hat simultaneously: Take a look at what we do here. We understand Stephanopoulos’ concern about preserving his hard-news brand while strapping on an apron and doing cooking or other typically lighter morning show segments. Really, we do. But here at Mel’s Diner, if you haven’t noticed already, we firmly believe there is a recipe for mixing important dialogue — and food stuff.

Conversations over a meal tend to have a candid and authentic quality to them that’s tough to get from two people across an empty table or couch or satellite or phone. As we like to say, it’s amazing what people will say when talking with their mouth full.

Why not try conducting some morning newsmaker interviews over the subject’s favorite meal on GMA? Or interview someone while teaching each other a cooking trick? As B&C’s Marisa Guthrie pointed out earlier this week, Stephanopoulos knows at least one good recipe.

Mel’s Diner has revealed a lot about TV’s tastemakers in our setting. We’ve revealed just-brewing business plans and personal details that are actionable because people can use them to relate to each other (like finding out an exec you pitch drove a cab through college just like you did) or plan ahead of time (one exec does not eat breakfast, so don’t try to make breakfast meetings). We consistently hear this info helps people do their jobs.

Indeed, through this process we also learned not only that “you are what you eat” but that what and where you eat says a lot about you too. In fact, Stephanopoulos himself revealed he is game, while globe-trotting, for eating like the locals. In April, as Mel’s Diner was writing a bit about “Who in TV Ate What Today – According to Twitter,” we discovered Stephanopoulos tweeting (via @GStephanopoulos) that he had just finished a breakfast of “flatbread w sour cherries” in Tehran.

We really don’t mind if Stephanopoulos borrows from our recipe. So go ahead, George. Try it, you might like it.

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