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Mr. Food

American television chef

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ6928657
Source-derived summary

Art Ginsburg (July 29, 1931 – November 21, 2012), commonly known as Mr. Food, was an American television chef and best selling author of cookbooks. He was known for ending each of his TV segments with the catch phrase "Ooh! It's so good!" The signature phrase, as spoken by Mr. Food, is registered as a sound trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Ginsburg was a pioneer of "quick & easy cooking" who, for over 30 years, paved the way for other TV food personalities to follow. With his enthusiastic style, Mr. Food specialized in practical food preparation techniques, using readily available ingredients. He extolled an "anybody can do it" philosophy of cooking and remains today as one of the early pioneers of cooking on modern television.

Early life

Arthur Ginsburg was born on July 29, 1931, in Troy, New York to Jewish parents who were deeply involved in the local meat trade.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mr. Food” is american television chef. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Food, American and television, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1931, 2012—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1931-07-29. For this dossier, Food, American and television is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american television chef” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6928657. VIAF identifies the subject as 53308736. The Library of Congress control number is n90637269. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931 and 2012.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mr. Food”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mr. Food primary sources, Mr. Food archive and Food research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mr. Food”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Mr. Food” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.