Welcome to Table Talk, The Daily Memphian’s weekly food and dining newsletter for subscribers only. 

Am I the only person who grew up with dreams of being on a big screen?

Some of you were fortunate to witness the golden era of television — in real time, not replayed — when everything was romanticized and perfectly presented on screen. Others came up watching the excessively dramatic films, TV and game shows of the 1970s and ’80s. And some of us have been influenced by the reality TV era, for better or worse.

Here in Memphis you can’t throw a proverbial stick without hitting a restaurant that’s been featured on someone’s broadcast or streamed network. We’re talking everything from local friends at networks such as News Channel 3 (WREG-TV) and Action News 5 (WMC-TV) to platforms with international audiences such as “The Today Show” and YouTube.

Contestant Arturo Leighton purchases his ingredients from Wendy the Cashier as seen on Guy's Grocery Games Season 37. (Courtesy Food Network)

Recently it leaked that a Downtown restaurant will be competing on season 18 of Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race.

Nine teams serving all kinds of cuisine compete against each other in performance challenges in different cities to win $50,000. There’s even already a Facebook group dedicated to the season where people are talking about their experiences trying the food at tapings or expressing their excitement to watch the show even though it doesn’t premiere until Sunday, Aug. 3. 

The timing couldn’t be more perfect for the local restaurateurs featured. In her weekly Food Files article, Sophia Surrett checked in with Good Fortune Co. owners Arturo Leighton and Sarah Cai to talk about their new pizza concept.

Leighton is no stranger to television appearances. He’s already appeared on Food Network three times. He and Cai were featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” and he’s competed on two other shows, “Guy’s Grocery Games” and “24 in 24: Last Chef Standing,” the most ridiculous (and probably dangerous) cooking competition I’ve ever seen.

Sarah Cai of Good Fortune competed on "Guy's Grocery Games" Season 37. (Warner Brothers Discovery)

Cai has also competed on “Guy’s Grocery Games.”

But Memphis alone certainly has enough personalities in the food world to have its own slate of culinary programming. From cooking shows to reality dramadies set in restaurant kitchens across the city, talk shows (does anyone else remember “The Chew?”) to scripted series dramatizing the lives of impactful Memphians such as Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen or how Phillip Ashley Rix’s chocolates made their way to Oprah.

In fact, our fair city has already been represented several times on an entire streaming app dedicated to Tennessee’s agriculture industry.

What other Bluff City food personalities do you think could make their mark on digital screens of varying sizes? Feel free to leave me a note below in the comments. 

Meanwhile on the Memphis food scene

In addition to the details regarding Good Fortune Co.’s future and that pizza concept, Surrett has news on the culinary industry circle of life in Food Files. 

Erica Horton is after my own heart and stomach with her latest $15 deal for breakfast: the mackerel breakfast plate with a hefty side of buttery, steaming rice and soft scrambled eggs with cheese.

Good Fortune Co.’s owners are planning to open a pizza restaurant. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)

Speaking of the best meal of the day, if you’re wondering what to order at Eggxactly Breakfast & Deli, I’ve got you covered with a barbecue-y omelet. 

Otis and Janie Jackson are building a restaurant empire through their franchise locations of The Peach Cobbler Factory. Learn more about their journey through my story on the Collierville couple.

And Holly Whitfield and I wrap up our conversation in hilarious fashion in the latest edition of her podcast “Sound Bites.”

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