The new AppleTV+ series Omnivore is correctly being billed as an epic taking viewers on an immersive journey into the world of food.
The idea for this project came from René Redzepi, the chef behind Copenhagen’s multiple Michelin star-winning restaurant noma.
He had been hatching the idea for a TV show for several years. To simplify the pitch, the ambitious concept was to try and do for food what David Attenborough had achieved in his nature documentaries.
Redzepi polished his TV project with food writer and Anthony Boudain’s TV producer Matt Goulding.
In the early 2010s, then Sydney-based Ben Liebmann met Redzepi during a visit to Denmark where he shared his TV idea with the then Shine Australia TV executive. Liebmann would later join noma as its chief operating officer. It was near the end of that time with Redzepi the idea for a series crystallised and a plan put into action. Liebmann became one of Omnivore’s executive producers.
Rene Redzepi and Ben Liebmann at an AppleTV+ preview screening in the US
Warner to Shine to Chefs: Ben Liebmann’s CV
Liebmann was no stranger to the world of media. He grew up watching his dad – broadcaster Steve Liebmann – hosting Nine’s Today show.
Ben’s first job out of university was a role at Warner Music Australia. He helped steer the business through the digital tsunami which washed away the physical music business. He observed the growth and subsequent fall of Napster, did Warner’s first deal with Apple Music and saw the launch of the iPod. “It was the era of ringtones, Big Pond Music and the start if the iTunes store,” Liebmann told Mediaweek.
Six years at Warner was followed by a stint with Vodafone before he joined Jon Penn at Fremantle Media Australia Enterprises. He joined the day the business morphed from Grundy and Crackerjack into Fremantle Media Australia with Mark and Carl Fennessy at the helm of the production business.
The production that changed the game for both parts of that business was the commission from 10’s then programmer David Mott for a stripped daily food show, MasterChef Australia.
MasterChef was the crown jewels
Several years later Liebmann left that business with the Fennessys when they launched Shine Australia with Elisabeth Murdoch. Liebmann set up a division called Shine 360. “A year later, Lis asked me to move to London, and set up Shine 360 globally,” he explained. “Shine 360 became the global commercial rights business.
“We had many wonderful shows, scripted, unscripted, factual, children’s. But MasterChef was still the crown jewels.”
The franchise versions alone give you an idea of the global success of that brand. The format that was supersized by the Fennessys and producer Paul Franklin had separate versions screening in around 50 different territories.
The MasterChef Australian version was also doing strong syndication business. At its peak showing in as many as 100 different markets.
So how did Liebmann get to work for Redzepi? Standby, we’re getting close.
Liebmann stayed with Shine 360 as CEO until Lis Murdoch sold the business to News Corp who merged that business with private equity outfit Apollo. Apollo controlled Endemol and so merged the brands into Endemol Shine.
See also: Mark and Carl Fennessy to leave Shine Australia
Sydney noma pop-up sells out quickly
Liebmann then moved back to Australia, but he’d already formed a relationship with Redzepi who had appeared on MasterChef. Later the two met in Japan while Liebmann dropped in to look at a noma pop-up restaurant.
The idea was floated to do one in Australia too and Liebmann took it on. “We built a partnership with Tourism Australia, Lend Lease, American Express and Singapore Airlines. I remember the day tickets went on sale very clearly.
“I was in a meeting with Shaun James, a colleague from Warner Music then at Foxtel and I got a call saying 5,500 noma tickets had sold out in three minutes!
“Rene then told me he wanted me to move back to Europe so I packed the shipping container with a very patient wife, and we moved to Denmark. I was in Denmark for five and a half years. I worked with them for seven.”
It was at the end of that period work started on the TV series. “We partnered with Endeavor Content, which became Fifth Season, which is Carl Fennessy’s and Hugh Marks’ partner in their business Dreamchaser.”
Omnivore calls Apple TV+ home
Fortuitously, they quickly found a home for the TV show. “Apple was the only company we wanted to sell it to and make it with,” said Liebman.
The show has been well-received. IMDB reviews give it a strong 7.4 out of 10, it has 100% Tomatameter and 75% audience score at Rotten Tomatoes. Good reviews followed from The Hollywood Reporter to Time.
There is a chance of more episodes. Liebmann: “If the streaming gods allow us, we’ll get a second season. Certainly, that would be absolutely our hope. There’s a whiteboard in Copenhagen with maybe 100 ingredients that we think have just as important stories behind them.”
The first series covered just eight ingredients. Might take a while to get through 100!
Ben Liebmann’s side hustles
That might not be the correct term, but it sort of fits a person who segued from music into TV rights and now makes TV. He has a bit of other stuff going on.
“I have been talking with some people about a music documentary out of the UK.” He also does corporate consulting, under the banner of Understory. He is working with a handful of chefs as well, but don’t call him their manager. “I offer them creative, commercial, strategic counsel,” he explained.
“If some call me their manager, then that’s what it is. I support some of them in terms of just their general business strategy direction. Others it’s helping them develop or secure interest in media, interest in raising money in investments, launching their own product companies, whatever it might be.”
Omnivore: How to watch
Created and narrated by René Redzepi, Omnivore lives on AppleTV+.
Each episode of Omnivore celebrates the cultivation, transformation and consumption of eight of the world’s most essential ingredients.
Those featured in the first series are bananas, chillies, coffee, corn, pork, rice, salt and tuna.
Redzepi and Emmy Award-winning executive producer Matt Goulding (Anthony Bourdain: Explore Parts Unknown) guide audiences on a globe-spanning odyssey, unveiling intricate stories behind the ingredients that have shaped societies, cultures, beliefs and the course of human history. The series takes viewers to destinations around the world, including Denmark, Serbia, Thailand, Spain, Japan, Djibouti, Peru, South Korea, France, Colombia, India, Bali, Rwanda and Mexico, as well as locations throughout the United States. In each episode, Redzepi and various series contributors offer an exploration of culinary traditions, showcasing local efforts to honour, conserve and protect earth’s offerings.
Omnivore is produced for Apple TV+ by FIFTH SEASON and FILM 45 with executive producers Redzepi, Goulding, Chris Rice, Ben Liebmann, Michael Antinoro, Max Wagner, Collin Orcutt and Mateo Willis. Cary Joji Fukunaga developed “Omnivore” for television.