• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 2, 2006

Yahoo today will unveil Yahoo Food, a new section that will offer visitors a smattering of recipes, food-related articles, blog posts, celebrity interviews and video.

Yahoo Health General Manager Deanna Brown, a former vice president at AOL and publisher at recipe site Epicurious.com, is leading the initiative. "Food still is a big opportunity for a company like Yahoo," Brown said, adding that she anticipated consumer packaged goods companies as well as health and diet companies to buy inventory on the section.

Initial sponsors include Kraft Foods--which also will be integrated in the site in a Kraft recipe section--Masterfoods USA, and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts.

Intended for foodies--including homemakers and casual cooks--Yahoo's new section will offer original and syndicated content. Material will include video from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, articles from The Readers Digest Association magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray, recipes from Epicurious, and original posts from 13 food bloggers like chef Marcus Samuelsson and "The Continental Chef" and The New York Times writer Ed Levine.

The site also will include a new Yahoo video show, "Cheap and Easy," with clips advising users how to make dishes for no more than $5 in under five minutes. At launch, around half a dozen three- to four-minute clips will be available, with more rolling out during the quarter.

The food initiative marks the second time this year that Yahoo has rolled out a new vertical. In May, the company launched the technology and gadget review site Yahoo Tech--the company's first major new section in five years. Brown said the Yahoo Media Group intended to soon expand into offerings in other categories.

Overall, approximately 38.2 million Web users visited food sites in September--up 15% from last year, according to comScore. The top site, Foodnetwork.com, drew 7.7 million visitors, while Allrecipes.com garnered 4.8 million and Kraftfoods.com drew 4.7 million.