Mr. Food

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. His father owned several butcher shops in the city. He owned and ran a catering business prior to his work in television. In 1975, Ginsburg turned his flair for acting into a local television food program at WRGB in Schenectady, New York. It is believed that he filmed 1 or 2 episodes at KWWL in Waterloo, Iowa. By 1980, his 90-second Mr. Food segments were being syndicated to nine U.S. television markets, including WKBN-TV in Youngstown, Ohio, which still airs the "Mr. Food's Test Kitchen" segments today. At its peak in 2007, the program appeared on 168 television stations through King World Productions.

In addition to his television career, Ginsburg became a prolific writer, with 52 cookbooks published and sales of over 8 million copies. Since 2009, Mr. Food brand has self-published their own books.

Ginsburg was a co-host of the annual Variety Kids Telethon at WKBW-TV (a Mr. Food affiliate) in Buffalo, New York, to raise funds for Children's Hospital.

As he aged, Ginsburg stepped away from most of the daily operations of his company, Ginsburg Enterprises Incorporated. In addition to the Mr. Food segments, the company produced other segments called "Mr. Food's Test Kitchen" (in which he did not appear). It also produced his line of cookware.

Death Ginsburg was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011. He underwent treatments, including surgery, which caused the cancer to go into remission. However, it returned in early November 2012. The week following his death, the Mr. Food team produced a series of memorial broadcasts featuring his favorite recipes.

Legacy "Mr. Food's Test Kitchen" continues on most of the stations that originally carried Mr. Food, with Howard Rosenthal (chief operating officer of Ginsburg Enterprises) as the series' primary host.