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EAT IT LIKE IT Jesse Blanco
talks about the “one big neighborhood” of our area’s food scene, and how an idea for a cooking show reinvented his career. BY BARRY KAUFMAN
Jesse Blanco did not start out to be the greater Savannah area’s answer to Anthony Bourdain. The affable host of WSAV’s “Eat It and Like It” program began his career behind the news desk, serving as anchor at stations in El Paso, Texas and Savannah. Seven years ago, his left turn from news anchor to roving culinary expert got its start as all great things do, over cocktails. “It was the 2010 Beach Bum Parade, and a friend of mine suggested that I do a cooking show,” he said. It was not as outlandish a suggestion as you’d think, despite being posed in the middle of the Beach Bum Parade’s famed water gun fight. Those who knew Blanco were well aware that he has long been a whiz in the kitchen, fearless about dabbling in different ingredients and culinary traditions. That, coupled with his obvious comfort in front of a camera, made a cooking show a natural fit. “That suggestion led to a late-night discussion over cocktails about what a cooking 40
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