Southern Foodways Alliance director and friend of Serious Eats John T. Edge was on Nightline's Platelist program over the weekend talking about the importance of food in the South. "Our food matters, our food comes with a really distinctive, sometimes troubling, but ultimately triumphant backstory. That's what makes it matter to me," he says in between visits to Bertha's Kitchen and Scott's BBQ, both in South Carolina. "By learning the backstory, we can bridge race and class gaps...there is hope in barbecue." Watch the segment, after the jump. More

One of our favorite sources of food TV is the "Platelist" series on ABC's late-night news show Nightline. Over the last two and half years it has aired insightful interviews with chefs and food-world luminaries. The producers have done an excellent job highlighting newsworthy chefs over the 57 different segments they've shot, but now they're opening up the selection process to the public. More

If you watched the recent episode of Nightline where chefs talked about weight loss, you may have wondered what svelte chef Nate Appleman of A16 in San Francisco was putting into his oatmeal. "I haven't had a doughnut in two and a half years," he said while stirring up the bowl. That was a mix of banana, plain yogurt and almond butter, he tells us in an e-mail. What kind of oats? Steel-cut at the restaurant, instant at home.... More

Chef Nate Appleman, before and after weight loss. Last night's Nightline, ran a segment on chefs who have lost weight recently, namely Art Smith and Nate Appleman. Video, after the jump.... More

Nightline will talk to chef Jacques Pepin about his career—the decades of running restaurants, writing books, and hosting TV shows with Julia Child. The elevation of chefs to rock stars has worked out pretty nicely for Pepin. 11:35 p.m. ET, ABC... More

One major plus about Frank Bruni stepping down from his New York Times Dining critic position is he has more time to mull over pressing issues like the merits of a Choco Taco. (And we can even see his face while he does so!) When Bruni appeared on Nightline this week, he moseyed over to an ice cream truck to review everyone's favorite rhyming dessert taco. How many stars did the Brunmeister give it? The video, after the jump.... More

Barring breaking news or or a random programming change, Nightline will highlight the whole "rockstar butcher" phenomenon. Says The-Feedbag blog's Josh Ozersky, "Let's face it, there's something very erotic about about seeing whole animal carcasses cut up." 11:35 p.m. ET, ABC... More

Barring any breaking news or a random change in programming, chef Art Smith will appear on Nightline's "Platelist" series tonight. Smith once served as Oprah's personal chef and has recently appeared on Top Chef Masters. ABC, 11:35 p.m. ET.... More

Nightline's "Platelist" series continues tonight (unless pre-empted by breaking news) with chef Paul Bartolotta. ABC, 11:35 p.m. ET.... More