Dana McMahan

Special to The Courier-Journal

The Cooking Channel is filming this week in Louisville, featuring Eiderdown, Harvest and MilkWood on “Bite This with Nadia G.” The new series, dubbed a “fusion of food, travel and comedy,” will spotlight destinations including Detroit, Harlem and Reno.

Nadia G., the show’s host, was drawn to Louisville as a “real foodie town without any pretension,” she says. “It’s good people, great grub … and you can get smashed at 4 a.m., which is always fantastic.”

The host especially appreciated the local devotion to all things local.

“A lot of farm-to-table is very trendy these days,” she says, “but what surprised me about Louisville is that the ... trend is not just a stunt ... but the chefs truly, truly care about where their ingredients come from. They know their farmers. That’s a beautiful thing.”

The crew shot at Eiderdown July 1, where they showcased chef Brian Morgan’s spaetzle. “I was very excited about the European meat and Southern cooking angle,” Nadia G. says. “Brian is awesome. He’s such a talented chef … making the spaetzle from scratch, sourcing ingredients locally; his friend the dairy farmer provides the cheese he uses in spaetzle; the sausage is from another local farm. It’s delicious on so many levels. And what’s fun about spaetzle is you can do it up in any way. This time we took advantage of Kentucky’s summer ingredients.”

Keeping with the local spirit, the show also features Harvest. “Coby (Ming, the chef) is incredible,” says the host. “I ate a Kentucky burgoo, which is honestly the best stew I’ve ever had in my life. She confits three kinds of meat, all in delicious pork fat ... the flavor in that stew is just out of control.”

And “MilkWood is a lot of fun because of the fusion element,” Nadia G. says. “I had a smoked pork shoulder that had a black barbecue sauce, which used about 30 ingredients and some of them quite exotic, but man I’ll tell you — it was such a punchy take on barbecue. There’s a lot of genius behind that dish.”

The Dish will fill you in on the air date as soon as it’s set. More information: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com.

Tell Dana! Send your restaurant “dish” to Dana McMahan at thecjdish@gmail.com and follow @danamac on Twitter.