Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring (episodic) programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent.

The network is seen in more than ninety million households. In addition to New York City, it has offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Jersey City, Cincinnati and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Food Network was founded on April 19, 1993 as TV Food Network, and launched on November 23 of that year; its legal name is still Television Food Network, G.P. Within a few years, the network had shortened its on-air brand name. It was created by Reese Schonfeld (one of the founders of CNN), under the direction of Trygve Myrhen, President of The Providence Journal. Its original partners included the Journal itself, Adelphia, Scripps-Howard, Continental Cablevision, Cablevision, and most importantly, Chicago's Tribune Company, which provided the network's technical output.

Marc Summers (born November 11, 1951) is an American television personality, comedian, game show host, producer, and a two-time talk show host. He is best known for hosting the Nickelodeon game show Double Dare and currently hosts Unwrapped on The Food Network.

Summers was born Marc Berkowitz in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended Westlane Middle School and North Central High School in Indianapolis. His early careers were as a radio disc jockey and a stand-up comedian, though he held various television production jobs before, Summers' career boosted in 1986, when Nickelodeon hired him as the host of Double Dare. Double Dare was syndicated within two years and had a brief broadcast network run in prime time as Fox's Family Double Dare in 1988. The show's popularity led to other hosting jobs including the syndicated Couch Potatoes in 1989, and Nickelodeon's What Would You Do? in 1991. GSN chose him to host their original program WinTuition in 2002. He also had a rare dramatic performance in the Nickelodeon-produced Halloween program Mystery Magical Special, which also highlighted his skills as a stage magician. Summers also made celebrity guest rounds on other game shows including Scrabble, Super Password, Talk About, Lingo, To Tell the Truth, Win, Lose or Draw, and Hollywood Squares.

Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968) is an American television personality, businesswoman, celebrity chef and author. She hosts the syndicated talk and lifestyle program Rachael Ray and three Food Network series, 30 Minute Meals, Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels and $40 a Day. Ray wrote cookbooks based on the 30 Minute Meals concept, and launched a magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, in 2006. Ray's television shows have won two Daytime Emmy Awards.

Ray was born in Glens Falls, New York. Her parents are Elsa Scuderi, an Italian (Sicilian) American, and James Ray, who is of French, Scottish and Welsh descent. She moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts where her family owned four restaurants. When Ray was 8, her family moved to Lake George, New York. Her mother managed restaurants in upstate New York.

In 1995 Ray moved to New York City. One of her first jobs there was at the candy counter at Macy's, where she eventually managed the fresh foods department. She later helped open a New York City market. Moving back to upstate New York, Ray managed Mister Brown's Pub at The Sagamore, a hotel on Lake George. From there, she became a buyer at Cowan & Lobel, a gourmet market in Albany. Ray credits the concept of 30 Minute Meals to her experience working at the store, where she met people who were reluctant to cook. She taught a course in which she showed how to make meals in less than thirty minutes. With the success of her "30 Minute Meals" classes, WRGB (the local CBS TV affiliate) asked her to appear in a weekly segment on their newscasts. This, along with a public radio appearance and the publication of her first book, led to a Today show spot and her first Food Network contract in 2001.

Paula Hiers Deen (born January 19, 1947) is an American cook, cooking show host, restaurateur, author, actress and Emmy Award-winning television personality. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has published five cookbooks. Though married in 2004 to Michael Groover, she uses the surname Deen from her first marriage.

Deen was born in Albany, Georgia. Her parents died before she was 23, and an early marriage ended in divorce. In her 20s, Deen suffered from panic attacks and agoraphobia. She then focused on cooking for her family as something she could do without leaving her house. In 1986, she took a job as a bank teller, and later moved to Savannah, Georgia, with her sons. In 1989, she divorced her husband, Jimmy Deen, to whom she had been married since 1965. She was left with only $200. She then started a catering service, making sandwiches and meals, which her sons Jamie and Bobby delivered. She was recently revealed as a sufferer of type-2 diabetes.

Guy Fieri ( /ˈɡaɪ fiːˈɛri/; born January 22, 1968 as Guy Ferry) is a United States restaurateur, author, television personality, and game show host. He co-owns five restaurants in California and is widely known for his television series on the Food Network.

By mid-2010, the Food Network had made Fieri the "face of the network." In 2010, the New York Times reported that Fieri brought an "element of rowdy, mass-market culture to American food television," and that his "prime-time shows attract more male viewers than any others on the network."

Although Fieri has no training as a chef, he worked at various restaurants during high school, and then went on to manage and own restaurants. After graduation in 1987, he went to work for Stouffer's, developing restaurant concepts in Southern California and managing their flagship restaurant in Long Beach, California. After three years, he became District Manager of Louise's Trattoria, managing six locations along with recruiting and training for the restaurants. Fieri attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management in 1990.