Savor the Southwest: Production Company

Bruce Franchini is the director of 'Savor the Southwest,' which was produced by KAET and A La Carte Communications.

Maria Fowler/
Arizona Central

A La Carte Communications

A La Carte Communications (ALC) was formed in 1990 for the purpose of developing, producing and distributing high-quality, entertaining information programming. The principals, Geoffrey Drummond and Natan Katzman, have each built successful careers - in writing, directing, producing and management - in the film and television business. As a point of interest, they were classmates (25 years ago) at Stanford's Graduate School of Communications and over the course of their professional careers collaborated on several projects, and won numerous honors, including both National Emmy and James Beard Awards.

ALC has offices and production capabilities in Connecticut and in San Francisco. In the categories of cooking as well as general entertainment programs, ALC has a distinguished record of successful experience. This includes being the ongoing producers of the Julia Child Master Chefs and Baking series (since 1991/PBS); all Julia Child and Jacques Pepin Cooking in Concert television series (PBS); The Frugal Gourmet television series (1990/PBS); Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion for television (Disney/PBS); Wild Guide (Westinghouse/Group W); Secrets of... (PBS); Marine Miracles special (PBS). ALC currently is producing a new public television cooking series, Lidia's Italian Table, with Lidia Bastianich; a Discovery documentary series called Breakout; and Petline, a new syndicated strip that will run on Animal Planet.

Before joining with Katzman to establish A La Carte, Drummond ran a successful international production company, Sage Productions, in New York City. Sage produced numerous award-winning documentaries, as well as the highly regarded feature film, My Dinner with Andre. A leading producer in the 1980's non-theatrical home video business, Drummond produced more than 25 titles, including, The Official Mr. Boston Video Bartender's Guide for Warner Home Video; Scholastic's Baby Animal and Animal Alphabet videos for Warner; Travel & Leisure video magazine for American Express; Mickey Mantle's Play Ball video series for CBS/FOX; and The Power of Positive Thinking with Norman Vincent Peale for Warner.

Katzman, as programming vice president and then station manager, built San Francisco's PBS station KQED into a leading presenter of food and cooking series, as well as the innovator in ancillary product marketing in this area. While at KQED, Katzman oversaw the production and/or presentation of numerous how-to series, including Growing a Business, Great Chefs of San Francisco, Yan Can Cook, Dining in France, and New York's Master Chefs.