St. Louis, MO—October 17, 2022—Adding to the national accolades bestowed on St. Louis chefs and restaurants, the Nine PBS Create channel, the premier lifestyle channel featuring public television’s most popular how-to series on food, travel, home and garden, arts and crafts, and more, is set to premiere a new digital series hosted by Executive Chef Adam Lambay of St. Louis. Nine PBS Create airs 24/7 on channel 9.4 and on Spectrum 184.
Create’s Cooking Challenge Grand Prize Winner Adam Lambay will host Adam Lambay’s Indian Inspired with new episodes premiering every Monday and Thursday. The first episode of the 10-part series, “Seekh Kebabs with Indian Summer Salad and Kebab Sauce,” premieres on Monday, October 17 and will live alongside those created by past Create Cooking Challenge winners as video on demand on CreateTV.com.
Lambay’s 10-part digital series on CreateTV.com is part of the prize winnings. Recipes featured demonstrate a clear familiarity with his family’s Indian heritage, and are designed to engage those curious, but not familiar with Indian dishes. He explains the recipes represent a sort of “fusion with dishes that are more familiar to the standard diner.” He says they will not be overly “hot,” instead using spices and aromatics to make each dish more accessible to the average home cook.
In addition to the video which walks viewers through the recipe preparation, Adam Lambay’s Indian Inspired offers a personal note about every dish, as well as a detailed list of ingredients and recipes for each.
Lambay’s series will premiere the following dishes (in order of presentation):
1) Seekh Kebabs with Indian Summer Salad and Kebab Sauce, 2) Bengali Fish Curry with Southern-Style Basmati Rice, 3) Veggie Pizza with Tomato-Chutney Pizza Sauce, 4) Chicken Curry with Southern-Style Basmati Rice, 5) Rani Chicken Fingers with Red Pepper Ketchup, 6) Indian Caprese Salad with Tamarind-Chutney Dressing, 7) Carrot-Cardamom Chicken Burgers with Aioli Sauce, 8) Crab Cake Pakora with Achari Tartar Sauce, 9) BBQ Chicken, and 10) Indian Pot Roast.
Executive chef at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, Adam is highly regarded with a solid resume of positions at high-end restaurants throughout Greater St. Louis. His vibrant role as a chef and cooking instructor is balanced with his home life as a busy husband and father of two children. Adam’s family has lived in the St. Louis community for more than 50 years. His father’s brothers first emigrated from a fishing village near Mumbai, India. Adam’s dad soon followed, eager to do something new and to be near his brothers. He quickly met and married Adam’s mother, the granddaughter of first-generation German immigrants. Upon arriving in St. Louis between World Wars I and II, Adam’s great-grandparents opened a successful bakery in downtown St. Louis. At home, Adam’s father cooked recipes based on his Indian upbringing, while his maternal grandmother prepared family recipes based on her German heritage.
A fan of Nine PBS, Adam says public television played a major role in his desire to become a chef. He grew up watching cooking shows, saying he could never get enough. He credits Julia Child and other culinary hosts as great influences but says the series Yan Can Cook! (40+ years on public television) was a favorite. Martin Yan, a member of this year’s Create Cooking Challenge judges’ panel, commented that he not only thought Adam presented a “good video all around,” but that he also “demonstrated solid technical skills and did an outstanding job in presenting the recipe for his dish.” In fact, several of the judges commented on the great job that Adam did in engaging the viewer in his video entry. The Grand Prize included $4,000 and production equipment valued at $1,000 to finance and produce his digital series of ten, two-minute videos for CreateTV.com.
Judging the Create Cooking Challenge, which ran March 8–April 5, the panel of some of public television’s most recognized hosts included: Kevin Belton (Kevin Belton’s Cookin’ Louisiana), Pati Jinich (Pati’s Mexican Table), Diane Kochilas (My Greek Table), Nick Stellino (Storytellers in the Kitchen), and Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook!). Entrants’ online submissions included a short (two minutes or less), original video featuring their recipe’s preparation, a brief narrative about the origins of their recipe, the full recipe and a photo of the finished dish. Judging criteria included demonstrated culinary knowledge, presentation skills, telegenic appeal, unique ideas and production values. This year’s more than 100 entrants presented multigenerational recipes originating from more than 25 countries and cultural traditions, as well as American-grown recipes representing nearly 35 regions of the country. The winners’ recipes, as well as many select entries and some shared by the judges may be found in Create’s new Heritage Recipe Collection at CreateTV.com.
APT President and CEO, Cynthia Fenneman also participated in the judging competition. She was impressed with Lambay and Perez, stating that “the competition was filled with talent and fascinating family dishes.”
Distributed and produced by APT, The WNET Group, and GBH Boston, Create® is a national lifestyle channel carried by 241 local public television stations, featuring food, travel, home and garden, arts & crafts, fitness, and living content.
In addition to the two top prizes, 16 prizes were awarded to entrants from local Create stations and public television markets in New York, New Jersey, California, Wisconsin, Florida, Washington, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Arizona. A full list of the top 18 contest winners, their video entries, hometowns, and local station information may be found at https://CreateTV.com/challenge/winners.
Sponsored by American Public Television. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the fifty United States, the District of Columbia and U. S. Territories. Age 18 years or over. Began 3/8/22 at 12:01 a.m. ET; ended 4/5/22 at 11:59 p.m. ET. For the complete Official Rules, visit www.CreateTV.com/challenge.Void where prohibited by law.
About Nine PBS
As an essential community institution, Nine PBS magnifies and deepens understanding of our community to help our region flourish. We tell stories that move us. We meet people where they are the most comfortable consuming content. Nine PBS’s platforms include four distinct broadcast channels (Nine PBS, Nine PBS KIDS®, Nine PBS World, and Nine PBS Create), ninepbs.org, social media, the free PBS Video App, streaming services, live and virtual events, and the Public Media Commons. Since 1954, Nine PBS has accepted the community’s invitation into their homes, schools, and businesses. Follow Nine PBS on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
About Create
Now in its 17th year, Create® is the premier lifestyle channel featuring public television’s most popular how-to series, focused on food, travel, home and garden, arts and crafts, fitness, and lifestyle. Create is produced and distributed by American Public Television (APT); The WNET Group (New York); and GBH Boston, in association with National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) and PBS. Create TV is carried by 241 local public television stations nationwide and is seen in 21 of the top 25 U.S. television markets. Create’s companion website CreateTV.com features extensive video, the Create TV schedule, program, and host information.
For more information, contact:
Matt Huelskamp
Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
mhuelskamp@ninepbs.org