Media Appearances & More
Faith-Based Viewers Have Been Ignored by Food Television. PastorChef LaMario Is Changing That
NY Weekly Contributor June 24, 2026
By Angela Cordoba Perez
Food television has always known how to find an audience. It has built empires around competition, around personality, around technique. What it has never quite managed to do is speak directly to the tens of millions of Americans for whom faith is not a background detail but the center of daily life. Lamario Bradwell noticed that gap years ago. Now, with Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario airing in primetime on Eat This TV, he is doing something about it.
The Gap That Nobody Wanted to Fill
Turn on any major cooking channel on a given evening, and the programming follows a familiar pattern. A competition with high stakes and higher drama. A celebrity chef working through a market in some picturesque city. A how-to show that treats the kitchen as a classroom. Each format has its audience, and each has been refined over decades of broadcast television. What is missing from nearly all of them is any acknowledgment that a significant portion of viewers bring their faith to the table as naturally as they bring their appetite.
Faith-based households represent one of the largest and most consistent viewer demographics in America. They watch television, they cook, they gather around food, and they look for content that reflects who they are. Food media has largely treated that audience as a niche, something for specialty channels, late-night slots, or YouTube corners, rather than a primary target worth building around. The result is a gap that has persisted for years, not through any deliberate exclusion, but through a failure of imagination.
Bradwell’s response to that failure is Divinely Inspired Cuisine. The show debuted on Eat This TV, a New York-based digital cooking network with more than 17,800 half-hour cooking shows in its catalog, and it arrived with a format that makes no apologies for what it is. Southern recipes, personal testimony, scripture woven between cooking segments, and a closing prayer that invites viewers to reflect on their faith.
What Retention Actually Tells You
Television networks measure audience loyalty in several ways, but retention, the percentage of viewers who start watching and choose to keep watching, carries particular weight. It tells a network whether the content is holding people or losing them. After the pilot of Divinely Inspired Cuisine aired, Eat This TV informed Bradwell that his show had recorded the highest viewer retention rate of any program on the network. Networks greenlight additional episodes based on evidence, and retention is among the clearest evidence available.
Eat This TV moved quickly: a ten-episode deal followed, along with a move to a 7:30 PM EST primetime slot. A show built specifically for a faith-based audience had walked onto a mainstream digital network and outperformed everything else on the schedule. The explanation is not complicated. When an audience feels genuinely seen by a piece of content, they stay. Faith-based viewers who tuned into Divinely Inspired Cuisine encountered a host who shared their values, cooked food they recognized, and offered encouragement rooted in the same scripture they read at home. That kind of resonance does not require marketing to manufacture. It requires honesty, and Bradwell has built his entire brand around it.
Building Something That Lasts Beyond the Broadcast
Bradwell’s ambitions reach well past a ten-episode run. The broader vision for the PastorChef LaMario brand includes restaurant locations in major domestic and international markets, a product line of spices, sauces, and food items for retail, and a social media presence that already spans Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and X — all under the handle @pastorcheflamario. The television show sits at the center of that structure, but it is not the whole of it. The commercial case for what Bradwell is building is grounded in the same logic that made the retention numbers possible. Faith-based audiences are loyal, and loyalty translates directly into the metrics that sponsors care about. An audience that trusts a host, returns to a show week after week, and shares content within tight-knit community networks is worth considerably more to an advertiser than a large but passive viewership.
The 2026 Global Recognition Award added independent recognition to the momentum already building. The award placed Bradwell among the top 5.8 percent of roughly 15,000 annual applicants and scored his submission at 5, the highest possible rating in the Innovation category. The panel cited his work building a content format that addressed a demographic mainstream food media had bypassed, and doing so with what it described as a rare combination of creative vision and practical execution. “Food has a way of touching people, not only in their soul and in their stomach, but also in their spirit as well,” Bradwell said during the pilot broadcast. “We’re here to make sure that you can feel elevated and encouraged every time you tune in.” That statement functions as both a mission and a market position. For an audience that has spent years watching food television that was never made with them in mind, it carries real weight. Bradwell is building specifically for them, and they are watching.
2026 GLOBAL RECOGNITION 5-STAR AWARD RECIPIENT
Lamario Bradwell has been awarded a 2026 Global Recognition Award, earning the highest possible score in the Innovation category for establishing a first-of-its-kind content format that merges faith-based principles with professional culinary instruction. The Global Recognition Awards, an international body that evaluates nominees through a rigorous multi-stage assessment process, presents this honor to individuals who demonstrate measurable, meaningful change within their respective fields. Bradwell's recognition reflects not only the strength of his individual contribution, but also the broader cultural significance of what he is building within culinary and faith-based media. Bradwell's flagship television concept, Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario, is set to debut on the Eat This TV Network, representing a significant milestone in faith-forward food broadcasting. The program positions the kitchen not merely as a place for recipe instruction, but as a space for spiritual enrichment, cultural commentary, and community building. In doing so, Bradwell has addressed a structural gap that food media has overlooked for years — the tens of millions of faith-driven viewers who seek programming that reflects their values without sacrificing culinary depth or production quality.
USA TODAY
Pastor and professional chef Lamario Bradwell has received a 2026 Global Recognition Award, earning the highest possible score in the Innovation category for his work building a distinct food-and-faith television concept.
New York, NY, United States, June 14, 2026— Lamario Bradwell, known publicly as PastorChef LaMario, has been recognized with a 2026 Global Recognition Award for building a content category that places faith-based principles alongside professional cooking instruction. The recognition was awarded by an independent judging panel, placing Bradwell among the top 5.8 percent of roughly 15,000 applicants evaluated annually.
The award specifically recognizes Bradwell’s television concept, Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario, which recently debuted on Eat This TV, a New York-based digital cooking network. Bradwell earned a score of 5, the highest possible rating under the Global Recognition Awards grading system, reflecting achievement in the Innovation category. Bradwell’s application was evaluated on criteria including industry recognition, leadership, service, and social responsibility. “What set Lamario Bradwell apart was his ability to take two established worlds, faith and culinary arts, and create something genuinely new at their intersection, which is exactly what this award is designed to recognize,” said Global Recognition Awards spokesperson Alex Sterling.
Bradwell has served in ministry since the age of 7, and has operated as a professional chef alongside his pastoral work. His brand has served more than 5,000 customers across multiple U.S. cities, including Orlando, Atlanta, and Charlotte. The debut of Divinely Inspired Cuisine on Eat This TV — a network with more than 17,800 half-hour cooking shows in its catalog — marks Bradwell’s formal entry into broadcast media. The show pairs unique, inspired recipes with scripture references and personal encouragement, structured to address both the culinary and spiritual interests of its audience.
Following the pilot debut, Eat This TV informed Bradwell that Divinely Inspired Cuisine recorded the highest viewer retention rate of any show on the network. Based on that performance, the network moved the program to a primetime slot at 7:30 PM EST. “We look forward to establishing the PastorChef LaMario brand as a legitimate and viable component of cultural influence in the culinary arts, food services, and faith-based industry,” Bradwell said. Season 1 of Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario will be available on Eat This TV.
Those interested in personal chef, private dining, or catering services can visit www.pastorcheflamario.comor call 844-PST-CHEF (844-778-2433). About PastorChef LaMario PastorChef LaMario is an American food service brand founded by Lamario Bradwell. The brand offers personal chef services and private dining across multiple U.S. markets. Bradwell also serves as Senior Pastor of Second Coming Family Life Church. The brand’s stated mission is to provide great-tasting food alongside faith-based encouragement rooted in Christian principles. About Global Recognition Awards The Global Recognition Awards is an international organization that recognizes exceptional companies and individuals who have made significant contributions to their respective industries.
NY Weekly Contributor June 24, 2026
By Angela Cordoba Perez
Food television has always known how to find an audience. It has built empires around competition, around personality, around technique. What it has never quite managed to do is speak directly to the tens of millions of Americans for whom faith is not a background detail but the center of daily life. Lamario Bradwell noticed that gap years ago. Now, with Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario airing in primetime on Eat This TV, he is doing something about it.
The Gap That Nobody Wanted to Fill
Turn on any major cooking channel on a given evening, and the programming follows a familiar pattern. A competition with high stakes and higher drama. A celebrity chef working through a market in some picturesque city. A how-to show that treats the kitchen as a classroom. Each format has its audience, and each has been refined over decades of broadcast television. What is missing from nearly all of them is any acknowledgment that a significant portion of viewers bring their faith to the table as naturally as they bring their appetite.
Faith-based households represent one of the largest and most consistent viewer demographics in America. They watch television, they cook, they gather around food, and they look for content that reflects who they are. Food media has largely treated that audience as a niche, something for specialty channels, late-night slots, or YouTube corners, rather than a primary target worth building around. The result is a gap that has persisted for years, not through any deliberate exclusion, but through a failure of imagination.
Bradwell’s response to that failure is Divinely Inspired Cuisine. The show debuted on Eat This TV, a New York-based digital cooking network with more than 17,800 half-hour cooking shows in its catalog, and it arrived with a format that makes no apologies for what it is. Southern recipes, personal testimony, scripture woven between cooking segments, and a closing prayer that invites viewers to reflect on their faith.
What Retention Actually Tells You
Television networks measure audience loyalty in several ways, but retention, the percentage of viewers who start watching and choose to keep watching, carries particular weight. It tells a network whether the content is holding people or losing them. After the pilot of Divinely Inspired Cuisine aired, Eat This TV informed Bradwell that his show had recorded the highest viewer retention rate of any program on the network. Networks greenlight additional episodes based on evidence, and retention is among the clearest evidence available.
Eat This TV moved quickly: a ten-episode deal followed, along with a move to a 7:30 PM EST primetime slot. A show built specifically for a faith-based audience had walked onto a mainstream digital network and outperformed everything else on the schedule. The explanation is not complicated. When an audience feels genuinely seen by a piece of content, they stay. Faith-based viewers who tuned into Divinely Inspired Cuisine encountered a host who shared their values, cooked food they recognized, and offered encouragement rooted in the same scripture they read at home. That kind of resonance does not require marketing to manufacture. It requires honesty, and Bradwell has built his entire brand around it.
Building Something That Lasts Beyond the Broadcast
Bradwell’s ambitions reach well past a ten-episode run. The broader vision for the PastorChef LaMario brand includes restaurant locations in major domestic and international markets, a product line of spices, sauces, and food items for retail, and a social media presence that already spans Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and X — all under the handle @pastorcheflamario. The television show sits at the center of that structure, but it is not the whole of it. The commercial case for what Bradwell is building is grounded in the same logic that made the retention numbers possible. Faith-based audiences are loyal, and loyalty translates directly into the metrics that sponsors care about. An audience that trusts a host, returns to a show week after week, and shares content within tight-knit community networks is worth considerably more to an advertiser than a large but passive viewership.
The 2026 Global Recognition Award added independent recognition to the momentum already building. The award placed Bradwell among the top 5.8 percent of roughly 15,000 annual applicants and scored his submission at 5, the highest possible rating in the Innovation category. The panel cited his work building a content format that addressed a demographic mainstream food media had bypassed, and doing so with what it described as a rare combination of creative vision and practical execution. “Food has a way of touching people, not only in their soul and in their stomach, but also in their spirit as well,” Bradwell said during the pilot broadcast. “We’re here to make sure that you can feel elevated and encouraged every time you tune in.” That statement functions as both a mission and a market position. For an audience that has spent years watching food television that was never made with them in mind, it carries real weight. Bradwell is building specifically for them, and they are watching.
2026 GLOBAL RECOGNITION 5-STAR AWARD RECIPIENT
Lamario Bradwell has been awarded a 2026 Global Recognition Award, earning the highest possible score in the Innovation category for establishing a first-of-its-kind content format that merges faith-based principles with professional culinary instruction. The Global Recognition Awards, an international body that evaluates nominees through a rigorous multi-stage assessment process, presents this honor to individuals who demonstrate measurable, meaningful change within their respective fields. Bradwell's recognition reflects not only the strength of his individual contribution, but also the broader cultural significance of what he is building within culinary and faith-based media. Bradwell's flagship television concept, Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario, is set to debut on the Eat This TV Network, representing a significant milestone in faith-forward food broadcasting. The program positions the kitchen not merely as a place for recipe instruction, but as a space for spiritual enrichment, cultural commentary, and community building. In doing so, Bradwell has addressed a structural gap that food media has overlooked for years — the tens of millions of faith-driven viewers who seek programming that reflects their values without sacrificing culinary depth or production quality.
USA TODAY
Pastor and professional chef Lamario Bradwell has received a 2026 Global Recognition Award, earning the highest possible score in the Innovation category for his work building a distinct food-and-faith television concept.
New York, NY, United States, June 14, 2026— Lamario Bradwell, known publicly as PastorChef LaMario, has been recognized with a 2026 Global Recognition Award for building a content category that places faith-based principles alongside professional cooking instruction. The recognition was awarded by an independent judging panel, placing Bradwell among the top 5.8 percent of roughly 15,000 applicants evaluated annually.
The award specifically recognizes Bradwell’s television concept, Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario, which recently debuted on Eat This TV, a New York-based digital cooking network. Bradwell earned a score of 5, the highest possible rating under the Global Recognition Awards grading system, reflecting achievement in the Innovation category. Bradwell’s application was evaluated on criteria including industry recognition, leadership, service, and social responsibility. “What set Lamario Bradwell apart was his ability to take two established worlds, faith and culinary arts, and create something genuinely new at their intersection, which is exactly what this award is designed to recognize,” said Global Recognition Awards spokesperson Alex Sterling.
Bradwell has served in ministry since the age of 7, and has operated as a professional chef alongside his pastoral work. His brand has served more than 5,000 customers across multiple U.S. cities, including Orlando, Atlanta, and Charlotte. The debut of Divinely Inspired Cuisine on Eat This TV — a network with more than 17,800 half-hour cooking shows in its catalog — marks Bradwell’s formal entry into broadcast media. The show pairs unique, inspired recipes with scripture references and personal encouragement, structured to address both the culinary and spiritual interests of its audience.
Following the pilot debut, Eat This TV informed Bradwell that Divinely Inspired Cuisine recorded the highest viewer retention rate of any show on the network. Based on that performance, the network moved the program to a primetime slot at 7:30 PM EST. “We look forward to establishing the PastorChef LaMario brand as a legitimate and viable component of cultural influence in the culinary arts, food services, and faith-based industry,” Bradwell said. Season 1 of Divinely Inspired Cuisine by PastorChef LaMario will be available on Eat This TV.
Those interested in personal chef, private dining, or catering services can visit www.pastorcheflamario.comor call 844-PST-CHEF (844-778-2433). About PastorChef LaMario PastorChef LaMario is an American food service brand founded by Lamario Bradwell. The brand offers personal chef services and private dining across multiple U.S. markets. Bradwell also serves as Senior Pastor of Second Coming Family Life Church. The brand’s stated mission is to provide great-tasting food alongside faith-based encouragement rooted in Christian principles. About Global Recognition Awards The Global Recognition Awards is an international organization that recognizes exceptional companies and individuals who have made significant contributions to their respective industries.
