Who are your favorite TV chefs?

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My favorite TV chefs would have to be Rick Bayless, Jaques Pepin, Martin Yan, and Lidia from Lidia's Kitchen. Can't forget Julia, either! All of those are on our local PBS affiliate KERA. I've learned much from

I do like some of the Food Network chefs/shows. I really like "The Kitchen" on Saturday mornings. The chefs there are likeable, and the recipes are very simple.

I have to admit I like "Chopped" and "Cutthroat Kitchen". They're sinful, guilty pleasures. ;)
 
The 'Gold Standard' of cooking show hosts is/was dear Keith Floyd of course. Dozens of his shows on YouTube.
 
Christopher Kimball and his staff at America's Test Kitchen (Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country) is a show I very rarely miss! And I appreciate the unbiased product reviews as well as the recipes that are guaranteed to work!
 
I'm kind of addicted to Cutthroat Kitchen. I really enjoyed Alton Brown's old Good Eats series, they stopped airing mini-marathons of it on Sundays. I loved Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet from eons ago. I would rush home from school to watch him. Also enjoyed Justin Wilson, Jaques, and Julia. Oh, and of course, Martin Yan.
 
The 'Gold Standard' of cooking show hosts is/was dear Keith Floyd of course. Dozens of his shows on YouTube.

This is the second post in this thread you mention this person as the "gold standard", never heard of him. Does he have a signature dish?
 
I'm kind of addicted to Cutthroat Kitchen. I really enjoyed Alton Brown's old Good Eats series, they stopped airing mini-marathons of it on Sundays. I loved Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet from eons ago. I would rush home from school to watch him. Also enjoyed Justin Wilson, Jaques, and Julia. Oh, and of course, Martin Yan.

I used to like Martin Yan, but I was beginning to feel like I was watching Adult Sesame Street. Counting every chop. Drove me crazy!

Graham Kerr loved his wine. Unfortunately, he turned into an alcoholic. And it cost him his show and his marriage. He was able to get sober and stayed that way for a number of years. I wonder what he is doing now. :angel:
 
Addie , Graham Kerr now promotes a healthier way of eating and has remained married to his wife Treena , she had some serious health problems and hence he changed his style of cooking .
 
This is the second post in this thread you mention this person as the "gold standard", never heard of him. Does he have a signature dish?
Just go to YouTube and watch some of his videos.
Then you'll know why he's the Gold Standard' of cooking shows.
He travelled the world preparing the 'signature dishes' from each region he was visiting. Then he got the locals to review what he had cooked for them.
He has an ironic British attitude/accent, trained in France.
Always in good humor.
His relationship to the cameramen over the years was 'signature' Keith.
 
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Ah Keith Floyd was British, he was just classic , great telly . Sadly in his last years he was a shadow of his former self , I think the red wine got the better of him .
 
Seems to be mixed reports , some say he suspected lung cancer but didn't have it but he was treated for bowel Cancer . He died then from a heart attack not really surprising given he drank , had taken cocaine and smoked .
 
Addie , Graham Kerr now promotes a healthier way of eating and has remained married to his wife Treena , she had some serious health problems and hence he changed his style of cooking .
Co-incidentally Graham Kerr was on television over here a while ago.

In the absence of the internet I recently decided to buy a television licence and start watching again. Same bl**dy programmes as when I used to watch.

Can I mention my UN-favourite TV cook? I have discovered Pioneer Woman on the Food Network UK. I really would like to take my rolling pin to her! Fixed insincere smile which goes nowhere near her eyes and children who often look afraid of her. And I think she's trying to kill her family off with all the fat in her meals.

The other day her husband took the youngest(?) child off to the store to buy him riding gear. This child was 6 years old. Among other things he was bought a pair of spurs with the most vicious set of rowels I've ever seen. His father's choice not the child's.

Apart from the fact that a well-trained horse shouldn't need spurs of any sort, the child wasn't a very good rider. (He was later shown riding.) In addition he was riding a horse which was way to big for him - his little legs could hardly reach half way down the horse's sides! He was then shown in the middle of a cattle muster!!

I know that Western riding is different from the "English" style but really, do these people want to kill their children off?

Got to go. My hour is up
 
MC, when you have a large farm or ranch, the kids are out there contributing to the labor pool. Six or seven is just about the age they head for the barn. As soon as he is old enough he will join 4-H or Farmers of America. He will be given a newborn heifer or filly to raise and train. Then he will be expected to show his animal in all show and tell competitions. What money he earns doing that, will pay for the winter feed for his animal. He will mate his animal, and sell off the result of that mating. Then he will sell his animal and use that money to buy a new filly or heifer. In the meantime, he will be riding with the rest of the men and used mostly to open and close the gates. I had some kids in 4-H that were richer than their parents due the championship of their animal. All kids are expected to go to college and study husbandry.

The kids get an allowance. Not much, but enough to make them feel important. But I have to agree with you about the Pioneer Woman. I have watched her a few times. That was enough. She is always cooking for some luncheon plus her family. When does she clean her house? BTW, I read somewhere that her kitchen was built separate from her home just for the purpose of the show. Ranch wives don't have time for luncheons. They are expected to feed the hired hands and bring it out to the pasture where they are working. And come haying time? All hands are out there for that. Including the Pioneer Woman. That hay is the winter feed for all the animals. It is probably the most important product they grow. :angel:
 
I like Michael Smith. We got to watch his shows when we lived in the Bahamas on Canadian satellite. I've never seen him on the US version of Food Network. I've gotten quite disenchanted with that channel anyway. I'm sick of food competition. It used to be about cooking, now it's all about the competition. Cooking is an art and a science, not a sport.

Jacques and Julia is good. I wish someone would start rerunning The French Chef right from the beginning. I'd watch that religiously.

Also always liked Martin Yan.
There's a bunch of 'French Chef' episodes on Youtube.
 
Ree Drummond is married to one of the 20 largest landowners in the entire USA. Their land consists of huge expanses of cattle ranches - also one of the largest ranches in a part of the country full of very large ranches. As such, they are also quite wealthy, and I'm sure she pays someone to clean her house. Neither she nor her husband are planting corn or baling hay.

As far as killing the kids goes, when you grow up in a family of ranchers, you get on a horse and ride with the cattle at a very young age. This is not leisurely English countryside riding on a Sunday afternoon. It's ranch work.
 
Ree Drummond is married to one of the 20 largest landowners in the entire USA. Their land consists of huge expanses of cattle ranches - also one of the largest ranches in a part of the country full of very large ranches. As such, they are also quite wealthy, and I'm sure she pays someone to clean her house. Neither she nor her husband are planting corn or baling hay.

As far as killing the kids goes, when you grow up in a family of ranchers, you get on a horse and ride with the cattle at a very young age. This is not leisurely English countryside riding on a Sunday afternoon. It's ranch work.

Yes. These kids are learning ranching. They have no need for 4-H and since they live 20 miles from town and are surrounded by other large ranches, it would be very difficult for them to participate in that.

The lodge, where the show is recorded, was already on the ranch when she married Ladd. They renovated it for their own use before she was recruited by Food Network. She was a successful food blogger before that. You can read about the renovation on her blog, www.pioneerwoman.com, which she started when she got married as a way to keep in touch with her mother.

And her kids are tweens and teenagers now. Her oldest just graduated from high school.
 
Exactly. Plus, Addie, she does prepare meals for the ranch hands and her own family while they are out in the fields working and tending the livestock. Several of her shows have focused on that, and show her cooking and delivering a truckload of hot food and cold drinks to them.

I'm pretty sure everyone in that family is very busy. The kids are/were homeschooled, and I remember her saying that there is so much ranching to do, that one full day a week is crammed into homeschooling and homework is done throughout the week. They would have no time or need for 4-H.

Edit to add an afterthought - she probably doesn't take them food every single day - with running an operation as large as theirs is, it's probably a safe bet to say she and Ladd don't have too much down time.
 
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