The Food Network's Down Home with the Neely's Premieres Feb. 2, 2008

My first trip to Neely's BBQ restaurant in downtown Memphis took place in 199,2 with Tennessee State Representative GA Hardaway. Understated outside with fabulous barbecue on the inside, Neely's restaurant is one of the best-kept secrets in the nation. But that is changing in a hurry with Neely's owner, Patrick (Pat) Neely, and his wife, Gina, now hosting Down Home with the Neely's on the Food Network beginning the first week of February.

Beginning on February 2 with an episode aptly named Sunday Supper, Pat and Gina allow us to peek inside what takes place many a day as they prepare a meal together. In Memphis as in other places the most important meal of the week takes place on Sunday afternoons as adult children make the trek to their mother's dining room table to eat, share and laugh together with their siblings and parents. It is more than a tradition. It is life personified. So many of us grew up around a kitchen table as a child it is almost the story of our lives. It is where we were scolded but forgiven, laughed at but encouraged. Food, family and fellowship are the heartbeat of our American community. Those that experience it in a healthy dose live significantly richer lives than those that do not.

What the Neely's accomplish unintentionally is remind us of what is important about food. While so many of us have learned how to cook we have lost the significance of the meal. The flavors were important in Big Mama's kitchen. But it was being around Big Mama that was the most important thing. And in each episode of Down Home with the Neely's, Pat and Gina remind us of that. You will not see them always agree. But you will see them together, working in the kitchen to complete a terrific dish. And that should inspire all of us to return to the kitchens of our families to work together to prepare the imperfect meal for the imperfect family, a perfect combination.

A fixture on the Food Network with Paula Deen and Bobby Flay the Neely's show will focus on meals they prepare at home for family more so than what is the typical fair at either of their Memphis restaurant locations. A committed member of the Memphis business community, Pat Neely has long sponsored twenty-five game tickets for Memphis Grizzlies games for underprivileged inner-city youth at FedEx Forum. If that were not enough, Neely has taken the Neely brand of sauces and flavors international, exporting the brand through Internet sales and adding a restaurant location in Nashville with more to come.

But what is interesting is the way that Neely has responded to his impending fame. Remember I first met Pat Neely over ten years ago. And since then, I have seen Pat on an almost weekly basis as both he and I are members of the Fogelman YMCA which is almost a stone's throw away from his restaurant location. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday Pat Neely has played basketball with the same group of men. You would never know he would be on television because Pat has never allowed that to go to his head. He is the same guy he has always been. Which makes Down Home with the Neely's the perfect name for show that prepares a meal all of us should enjoy.

Source:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ny