Bill Kurtis talks cattle, cooking, the Internet and, oh yeah, journalism
Bill Kurtis has not only found the Internet, but a healthier way to raise cattle.
The longtime television journalist will be in Naperville today to discuss his latest work, "The Prairie Table Cookbook."
Kurtis, who has a ranch in Kansas, created the Tallgrass Beef Company, which touts grass-fed cattle as a healthier alternative to cornfed cattle.
His presentation runs from 2 to 4 p.m. today at Hotel Arista, 2139 City Gate Lane, and is part of Naper Settlement's History Speaks lecture series.
Tickets are $60 and include a copy of the cookbook along with a beef tasting, two bar tickets and a signing. Companion tickets are $40 and include the tasting and drinks. Tickets are available at the door.
Although beef production will be the focus of today's talk, Kurtis is best know for his 40-plus years as a journalist.
He has been an anchor for WBBM-TV in Chicago as well as CBS Morning News. He produces programs such as "Cold Case Files" for A&E Network.
Kurtis returned this week to CBS Channel 2 where he will report on cold cases during newscasts. His "Cold Case Files" also will run on Channel 2.
Kurtis has gained recent fame for his AT&T commercials in which he travels to various destinations and proclaims he's "just found the Internet."
Kurtis spoke with the Daily Herald about his appearance in Naperville and his return to CBS. Here is an edited version of that conversation.
Q. What inspired you to write the cookbook?
A. It's a cookbook with 100 recipes, but it's also a food history book and it's the story of beef and how important it was to our efforts to move the frontier west, largely out of Chicago. One of the striking things about these recipes is they're pretty basic right down to lard.
I wrote it largely because of my involvement with Tallgrass Beef Company and wanting to explain why grass-fed beef is good and why I feel it's the future of a revolution toward healthy organic and natural meat and eating in this country.
Q. Do you have a favorite recipe from the book?
A. Corn fritters.
But I would have to revert. Here I'm preaching against corn. But most of the corn I'm talking about and most of the corn we raise in the United States is inedible for humans. It's edible only for livestock.
It also creates food without nutrition. Primarily starches. It drives a lot of the good nutrition out of meat. The fat, the so-called marbling the old cornfed beef has, is largely saturated fat.
Corn does something to an animal. It's like putting diesel fuel in your car when it's only supposed to have unleaded. It changes the bacteria in the stomach of the cow. And that bacteria is more acidic. So it has created an acid-resistant strain of E. coli.
In order to speed things up to create cheaper beef for fast-food and consumption in our supermarkets, we add growth hormones when they're calves and they're steroids causing the animals to eat more. The conditions in a feed lot are so bad they catch diseases.
To keep them healthy, we feed them full of antibiotics. Seventy percent of all the antibiotics we manufacture in this country go to livestock. Those are the same antibiotics we use. There is legislation in Congress to - ban it from being used in livestock because they're creating antibiotic resistant strains for us.
So the writing is on the wall that this cornfed feed lot industrial farming method of raising our beef is in trouble.
And here's the laugh: All the problems go away by simply leaving the animals in a pasture. It's called grass-fed and grass-finished.
Q. What do you enjoy about ranch life?
A. I enjoy the cause. I enjoy being on the cutting edge of a movement that could have great consequences for this country. It could change the way we eat by changing America's diet, the Western diet.
When I was working at Channel 2 News I wanted to build a tradition of journalism for television as good as the newspapers in Chicago. I wanted to start my own company, Kurtis Productions, which had not been done.
Here, I think the biggest challenge for me is that we're creating a product that could change the beef industry and the way we eat and bring nutrition back to our food. It's really neat.
Q. Do you have a favorite place in the Chicago area to get a steak?
A. I go to Prairie Grass Cafe; I'm associated with it. That's in Northbrook. Harry Caray's does a wonderful job with Tallgrass Beef, Topolobampo's Rick Bayless does, Charlie Trotter does.
There are a number of places that are picking it up. We're more expensive. We're not as expensive as Kobe, which is popular, but we do charge a premium.
Q. How did you get involved with the AT&T commercials?
A. When I got out there I said, why me? I'm in my late 60s, you have me on camera and saying my name. I said it's not exactly the demographic you're trying to reach.
They said, "Well, we think you're funny." They said "We think you're a very straight guy who does all these crime shows and we'll put you in a funny situation. So you just be straight, you just be Bill Kurtis and we'll do the rest."
And lo and behold, my goodness. What an experience it's been. International. So many people have seen me more in commercials than anything else.
Q. What's the most fun place you've "found the Internet?"
A. Hawaii. We were on the beach where they shoot "Lost" and then the next day we were on the other side of Oahu - where we were shooting the fountain of youth commercial. The waves came up and washed us away. We fortunately got enough of the commercial in, we were able to use it.
Q. Do you mind that the younger generation of viewers probably only knows you for the AT&T commercials?
A. I turned it down at first and then I said, my goodness, I've sort of had my career in journalism and I hope I'm not excommunicated forever from the journalism profession.
It's been fun. I've also learned not to take myself too seriously. I was a pretty serious guy throughout most of my career. But the business has changed. One might almost argue it's gone away. There's no resemblance to when I started. Two major newspapers in bankruptcy. It's just amazing.
Q. How can the industry keep up investigative reporting with all the staff cuts these days? Can it survive?
A. There are suggestions for not-for-profit organizations being started - but I can assure you a foundation would find it very difficult to continue to fund a very expensive proposition. So I don't think that's the future. You have to have a business. You have to make, if not a big profit, you have to support yourself.
There are 57 million bloggers in America. Everybody has a voice now, but there is a weakness. There is a need for a profession that through experience and also training teaches you to weigh truth, weigh facts. Because all of us are trying for the truth. If you don't know the people who you're able to trust, then we all are in trouble.
We can't lose the investigative nature. We are the Fourth Estate. We are written into the Constitution and economically we're falling by the wayside. I think it's tragic and also a real problem for the country.
How do we do it? Nobody's found an answer yet. I say we move out of the skyscraper buildings, into a loft. We can't have any more unions, can't have any big presses. Take fewer talent, concentrate it and start all over again with a new model.
Q. What made you want to return to CBS and to Chicago?
A. I've been doing these "Cold Case Files" for 10 years and I always knew it was a good beat and a good content because the police are always desperate to have a larger voice. Citizens really help solve crimes. "America's Most Wanted" has proven you spread the word out there and somebody will call in.
Cold cases are a step beyond "America's Most Wanted" and Channel 2 needs it. Channel 2 has been in the hole for 15 years, 20 years.
It's also fun to be part of breaking news and without a deadline of six months. Kurtis Productions is like a library compared to daily reporting. I enjoy it. Basically, I'm a reporter. I want that on my tombstone.
Q. Looking back at your reporting career you've broken some very big stories. Which are you most proud of?
A. Certainly Agent Orange. It's rare when you're able to break from the very beginning, with no one else in competition, a story of that magnitude. That led to Amerasian children that I "discovered" when I was invited back by the Vietnamese. I was the first American reporter into Vietnam in 1980, five years after the war.
Then (convicted murderer) Richard Speck has to rank near the top. It resulted in the biggest change to the American penal system in history that is still in place.
As everybody in the business knows, it's so satisfying to be able to contribute to impact or change that helps people.
One other contribution I would say is the documentary in cable television. We started "Investigative Reports" that lasted 10 years, the longest-running continuing series other than "Frontline" on PBS. So began the golden age of documentaries on cable.
Primarily because they were good to identify an image for a cable network and they were cheaper to do than buying reruns of "The Sopranos."
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>What:</b> Bill Kurtis talks about his historically focused book, "The Prairie Table Cookbook," as part of Naper Settlement's History Speaks lecture series</p> <p class="factboxtext12col"><b>When:</b> 2 to 4 p.m. today</p> <p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Where:</b> Hotel Arista, 2139 City Gate Lane, near Route 59 and Ferry Road, Naperville</p> <p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Tickets:</b> $60. Includes cookbook, beef-tasting, two bar tickets and book signing; $40 for companion ticket</p> <p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Info:</b> (630) 420-6010 or <a href="http://napersettlement.org" target="new">napersettlement.org</a></p>