New Season Of IFC's FOOD PARTY Debuts 4/27

FOOD PARTY, the fantastical, food-centric IFC Original Comedy series created and hosted by Brooklyn fringe artist Thu Tran and her motley mix of unruly puppets, returns to IFC April 27, 2010 at 10:00 pm ET/PT. The comedy's hallucinatory hijinks will be served in 20 all-new 15-minute episodes, two episodes airing back-to-back during IFC's Tuesday night AUTOMAT programming block, followed by new episodes of DINNER WITH THE BAND.

The show the Los Angeles Times' Robert Lloyd recently named one of the top 10 things on TV and "easily the most exciting thing I saw this year," is best described as a psychedelic melding of Pee Wee's Playhouse and Rachael Ray with a dash of J-Horror vibe. FOOD PARTY is shot on location in Brooklyn, NY in a handmade, technicolor cardboard kitchen, with each episode a new gastronomical misadventure.

In a surreal, live-action cartoon-like universe, Thu creates out-of-this-world delicacies with a cavalcade of puppets, humans, baked goods and vegetables. This season, Thu mixes it up with returning friends, The Devil, Perv Corn and Ice Cream Cone, and new friends, Randy Ranch, Egg Wizard and King of the Universe, among others.

And what's special on the menu this season? Peanut Butter Jerry gets himself into another jam as Grape Jenny wants him all to her obsessive and sticky self; we are introduced to Ninja Dog, a kick-ass kitchen helper whose rapid-fire Ginsu skills would put the Iron Chef to shame; and when the amorous Monsieur Baguette breaks bread with Hamburger Bun, the soap opera affair leads to a fresh baked surprise.

FOOD PARTY's humble origins began in Cleveland, where Thu and a group of fellow grads from the Cleveland Institute of Art rented an inexpensive studio and began working on a public-access-inspired cooking show with puppets. After posting two episodes online, Thu relocated to Brooklyn and expanded her artistic vision for the show. The series soon attracted an online audience and features in New York Magazine's Grub Street section and the popular blog Gothamist led to more wide-spread attention. FOOD PARTY also won the "Outside of the Box" prize at the 2008 NY Television Festival, a new award given to the most innovative and genre-expanding pilot in competition.

ABOUT IFC

IFC (The Independent Film Channel) recommends and creates genre-bending content that indulges the alternative culture obsessions of its influential audience and makes it available across multiple platforms: on-air, online and On Demand. In pursuit of what's new, next and relevant, IFC creates original unconventional and irreverent series like The Whitest Kids U' Know, Food Party and Dinner with the Band, and bold non-fiction such as The IFC Media Project and Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut). IFC's original programming airs alongside a comprehensive independent film library of award-winning titles and cult classics, as well as content inspired by music, web, gaming, animation, news, culture and more. IFC broadens the audience for independent culture through its exclusive live coverage of notable film and music events like the Independent Spirit Awards and South by Southwest. IFC.com features exclusive video, interviews, film reviews and blog posts. The network's On Demand offering, IFC Free, gives audiences the opportunity to watch IFC's original series. IFC Media Lab Studios offers financing, professional development and distribution opportunities for aspiring filmmakers. IFC is a subsidiary of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.

FOOD PARTY MENU:

201: THU HAS A NORMAL DAY - April 27 @ 10:00 PM ET/PT

Thu takes us through a "typical" day in the Food Party universe, featuring the first glimpse of her routine outside the kitchen. Highlights include Thu's trip to the market, a wild underwater whale tale and a steamy soap opera drama featuring Monsieur Baguette and Hamburger Bun. $Ooh La La.

202: PBJ LOVE - April 27 @ 10:15 PM ET/PT

Peanut Butter Jerry's head swells after being stung by a bee, so Thu takes him to a doctor to get his head shrunk. Things go awry when a raving mad Grape Jenny interrupts the medical examination and falls madly in love with PBJ. Their relationship quickly goes from bad to worse, so Thu hires Ranch Randy to kill Grape Jenny.

203: THU STRIKES IT RICH - May 4 @ 10:00 PM ET/PT

A night of cooking goes haywire when a rich playboy crashes his car into Thu's kitchen. He gives Thu ample money to fix the hole, but she's too infatuated with him to care about the damage. To impress the playboy, Thu buys lobsters and caviar with her new fortune. But, when this doesn't work, Thu decides to spend the money on a giant gold statue instead.

204: THE EMPEROR'S NEW DINNER - May 4 @ 10:15 PM ET/PT

Thu opens the most high-end restaurant imaginable and learns that the King of the Universe has a reservation. An exquisite five-course meal served entirely in balloons is destroyed by a rogue panda, forcing Thu to serve the "essence" of food. When the King arrives and is served an imaginary meal, he becomes irate, turns everyone into food, and eats them.

205: DEJA THU - May 11 @ 10:00 PM ET/PT

Thu's father comes over for lunch, revealing she is adopted and her biological family lives nearby. After going to find them, she finds that their house leads back to her kitchen, and there's no family to be seen. Soon afterwards, Thu's father shows up again to have lunch, repeating a vicious cycle where Thu is unable to leave the same hours of her day until the whole truth is revealed.

206: 8 TURKEYS - May 11 @ 10:15 PM ET/PT

Thu wins a game show grand prize of eight turkeys. She brings them home and begins cooking unique turkey stuffings for each, including hamburger, pizza, and pork fried rice. Afterwards, Thu meets up with her space engineer friend who just finished making her a spaceship that coincidentally uses raw turkeys as fuel.

207: NOSFORATHU - May 18 @ 10:00 PM ET/PT

Thu becomes a vampire, and creates a variety of blood inspired dishes. While hunting for blood in the forest, Thu turns a duck into a vampire. Unfortunately, this duck was the pet of a little German boy, who becomes furious with Thu and makes it his mission to kill her.

208: POOPISODE - May 18 @ 10:15 PM ET/PT

Thu slathers her house in raw gingerbread, in an effort to make a gingerbread house. Her plans are foiled by a giant rat who eats it and leaves behind gingerbread turds. Thu uses them to make delicious turd-inspired food. The rat admits to eating the gingerbread, but denies leaving the turds, so Thu and Satan set up a surveillance camera to catch the pooping culprit.

209: THE OREGANO GARDEN #1 - May 25 @ 10:00 PM ET/PT

Thu hosts a cooking & crafts show featuring a bounty of ideas using "oregano." She harvests the oregano buds, smokes meats with a gravity smoker, makes oregano cotton candy with a vaporizer, and tops it all off with some oregano butter thanks to her celebrity Grandpa, rasta bees, and a little bit of tie dye.

210: CANIBAL HOLIDAY - May 25 @ 10:15 PM ET/PT

A giant storm bounds towards Thu's house, but instead of stocking up, Thu makes a giant stew using her remaining food. In the morning, Thu is starving but can't leave the house, since the snow has sealed her inside. After trying to eat her puppet friends, Thu resorts to the only food left: her own body.

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