BY MEERAH POWELL
I HART EUGENE
HANNAH HART
OF MY DRUNK
KITCHEN SAMPLES
PIZZA RESEARCH
I N S T I T U T E ’ S WA R E S
FOR HER FOOD
NETWORK SHOW
Hannah Hart of My Drunk Kitchen features
Eugene on her upcoming Food Network show
PHOTO COURTESY FOOD NETWORK
H
annah Hart’s “career on the internet” started in
March 2011 when she made a silly video and
posted it on YouTube to cheer up a friend. Over
the past six years, that video has racked up more
than 4 million views and was the start to her online
series, My Drunk Kitchen.
If you haven’t seen My Drunk Kitchen, stop reading
right now and go watch an episode. Full of puns, humor
and general drunken goofiness, the series revolves around
Hart’s drinking copious amounts of wine while attempting
to cook various types of food.
Her lovable and genuinely funny personality has gained
her an immense social media following — more than 2.5
million subscribers on YouTube and more than a million
followers on Twitter — and now it’s also resulted in her
own show on Food Network.
Since this story is in the Pride issue, it’s also worth not-
ing that Hart is openly lesbian, and her presence in media
helps add to positive LGBTQ+ representation on TV and
the internet.
I Hart Food premieres Aug. 14, and in the series she
takes a trip to Eugene. For Hart, the Emerald City was not
just a random location choice.
Long-time My Drunk Kitchen fans may remember an
episode where Hart visits her family in Eugene and makes
a Café Yumm-style Yumm Bowl. Although originally from
the Bay Area, Hart has lived and worked in Oregon and
has family here.
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“I’m a West Coaster,” says Hart, who attended the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley. “Eugene and I just have a
natural understanding of each other.”
In the upcoming season of I Hart Food, she travels to a
variety of cities around the U.S. to highlight a food theme
for each region. For example, in the series premiere Hart
travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and explores the way
the area uses spice in its food, specifically red and green
chilies.
So, what’s the theme for Eugene’s episode? “When I
think of Eugene, I always think of kind of hippie-dippie,
all-natural organic,” Hart says, “but the University of
Oregon is smack dab in the heart of Eugene, so it’s very
strongly a college town.”
And between those two worlds? “Healthy party food,”
Hart laughs. “That’s sort of what Eugene is.”
Hart describes the “healthy party food” that Eugene
does as a “very elevated concept done in a very approach-
able way.” During her filming in Eugene, she indulged
in both food and drink while visiting Eugene fine-dining
staples Izakaya Meiji and Party Downtown, both of which
she describes as “very quality,” as well as a tasty ice cream
spot, Red Wagon Creamery, which she calls “so Eugene.”
“Everything was so good,” Hart says. “I enjoyed every-
thing in different ways.”
Hart says she also made stops by Pizza Research Insti-
tute, Sammitch food truck, Off The Waffle and other spots
around town like Agrarian Ales.
In last week’s news story on the auditor debate at an Our Revolution
meeting, we wrote that the Eugene City Council “unanimously approved
the idea of a performance auditor” back in 2002, but that unanimous
nod actually came from the council’s Citizen Charter Review Committee.
A ugust 10, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
“We went to Agrarian Ales and actually got to pick the
hops and hang out,” Hart says. “That’s a totally different
thing I had never experienced before.”
Hart also travels to Ashville, North Carolina; Portland,
Maine; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Missoula, Montana.
When asked if she ever thought her YouTube fame
would turn into having her own network television show,
she replies, “Sometimes it works out and sometimes it
doesn’t. I have incredibly good fortune.”
She adds: “It’s not about having my own TV show, it’s
about creating a great show with the right partner.”
Hart says I Hart Food is an “entirely collaborative cre-
ation” and that she’s happy to be partnered with Food Net-
work. “To be honest, we work with a really great crew.
Everyone who’s working on this show has just as much
passion as I do,” says Hart.
Although Hart is now playing in the big leagues with
Food Network, she says she has no plans to leave YouTube
or My Drunk Kitchen behind anytime soon.
“My YouTube channel is still going to be my creative
play space. My community started on YouTube,” Hart
says. “I am someone who really loves social media. That’s
not going anywhere.” ■
I Hart Food premieres 10 pm Monday, Aug. 14, on Food Network with
Hart’s trip to Santa Fe. The Eugene episode premieres three weeks later at
10 pm Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4, on Food Network.
Not all of the committee’s recommended charter amendments were
referred to voters by the council. Also in the story, we should have men-
tioned the two abstentions in the Our Revolution vote, which was 36-5
to endorse the performance auditor petition currently being circulated.