Food Network

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

Ever want to tell the Food Network what you think?! Well here ya go!
If you love or hate....... cook or bake..... tell them what you feel!

And for any Racheal Ray fans... Im sorry....... SOOOOOOOOOO sorry.

 

[amber]

I was expecting a link to foodnetwork in a feedback forum or something, so I guess you mean to just post here in this thread?

 

[GB]

We will not allow this to turn into a Food Network or Rachael Ray bashing thread. Please keep that in mind as you post. Thank you.

 

[amber]

Good advice GB, and I must say I am happy that foodnetwork no longer has a chat room because that afforded me the opportunity to find this great site! My fav's on foodnetwork are Emeril Live, 30 minute meals, and Paula Deen. There are many shows I dont like, but I have the option of switching the channel.

 

[mish]

Ever want to tell the Food Network what you think?! Well here ya go!
If you love or hate....... cook or bake..... tell them what you feel!

And for any Racheal Ray fans... Im sorry....... SOOOOOOOOOO sorry.

http://www.foodtv.com/

 

[Sugarcane]

I love Giada and Barefoot Contessa

 

[phinz]

I watch far too much Food TV. There is very little about it I don't like.

Yes. I even like Rachael Ray.

 

[SizzlininIN]

My only beef with them is that I went to the site to email several of the cooks to see what brand of canned tomatoes they used.......as they kept saying to use a type of tomato but I found that there were several kinds available. Anyway, long story short.....I received a response that basically said the chefs were too busy to respond to emails. What I don't understand is why on earth they have an email link for them on each of their pages?????

 

[thumpershere2]

Spring time now, haven't much time to watch the foodie show now. I do like to,watch it tho and RR is ok too.

 

[college_cook]

Alton Brown is my favorite, and I like Bobby Flay, Emeril, Michael Chiarelli(sp?), and Giada a lot.

 

[Constance]

I was always a very active person, but they say time and age change all things, and now I spend most of my time in my chair, with a laptop and the TV.
I watch Food Network a LOT, and enjoy most of what I see. Besides, it beats the heck out of watching the soaps. I always figured my life has been enough of a soap opera as it is.

I've learned a lot from the assorted chefs about cooking methods and ingredients that were previously unfamiliar to me. My husband and I have both improved our cooking skills considerably.
And let us give credit where credit is due...Rachel Ray does have lots of great time and work saving ideas. Love the garbage bowl.

 

[Toots]

My favorites on FN are Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa and Everyday Italian with Giada. I used to watch FN alot more but now they do too many entertainment type shows vs. how to/teaching cooking shows for me, so I rarely watch it anymore.

 

[kleenex]

My only beef with them is that I went to the site to email several of the cooks to see what brand of canned tomatoes they used.......as they kept saying to use a type of tomato but I found that there were several kinds available. Anyway, long story short.....I received a response that basically said the chefs were too busy to respond to emails. What I don't understand is why on earth they have an email link for them on each of their pages?????

The people on America's Test Kitchen this season said they liked muir glen organic diced tomatoes the best.

http://www.muirglen.com/muirglen/products/default.aspx

 

[BreezyCooking]

All I will say is that I rarely watch Food Network these days the way I used to, & truly miss the network it used to be.

When the network first started, it not only showcased new cooking "stars" like Emeril, Molto Mario, etc., but also brought us delights from "across the pond" like "Two Fat Ladies", not to mention showing lots of golden oldie reruns of programs like Julia Child's "The French Chef", & Graham Kerr's "The Galloping Gourmet" (even if they were on in the middle of the night). I really enjoyed watching those shows - they're timeless. (I'm so glad my mom made me tapes of all the the Two Fat Lady shows, especially since Jennifer passed away.)

As far as the new shows, I used to enjoy Emeril, Mario, & Bobby Flay, etc., when they were REAL cooking shows - with the chef speaking to the camera - aka US, the audience - while he cooked. Now every single show is set up with the chef making his dishes in front of anywhere from 3-4 to 75 people (all introduced as "good friends", of course - lol). I HATE that format, & now it seems that more than half the shows use it.

But Food Network will never go back, & I realize that. I can only hope that they continue to lose viewers due to all the new dramatic hoopla & perhaps rethink a few programming strategies.

 

[Andy M.]

The people on America's Test Kitchen this season said they liked muir glen organic diced tomatoes the best.

http://www.muirglen.com/muirglen/products/default.aspx

FWIW - Based on their recommendation and others', I tried the Muir Glen Plum Tomatoes. I found them to be extremely acidic, to the point where they completely changed the flavor of the sauce I made with them. I've switched back to my usual brand.

 

[phinz]

Now every single show is set up with the chef making his dishes in front of anywhere from 3-4 to 75 people (all introduced as "good friends", of course - lol). I HATE that format, & now it seems that more than half the shows use it.

But Food Network will never go back, & I realize that. I can only hope that they continue to lose viewers due to all the new dramatic hoopla & perhaps rethink a few programming strategies.

FWIW, Food Network *hasn't* lost viewers. They've gained them, so there's not really much to "continue" in loss of viewers, since what they might have lost in the way of people who balk against change they've made up in new viewers, plus many more. They were tanking when they had the old shows. The new format has brought in profoundly larger numbers of people. I have friends who are very involved in the marketing/promotions/programming end of the Scripps family of cable shows, and Food Network's unmitigated climb from the brink of obscurity is a template for bringing a cable channel back from the dead.

I can only think of one real "live" show. Emeril Live. Giada, Paula, How to Boil Water, Sandra Lee, Barefoot Contessa, Rachael, Bobby's grilling show, the two new guys (don't remember their show's name) and that new healthy cooking show are all studio-based and don't have a "cooking for friends/the audience" format the huge majority of the time. They do team up on occasion, but that's just a natural extension of cooking.

A Julia-type show has its place, but 24 hours of that would be *awful.* I don't cook 24 hours a day, so entertainment is also nice.

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

Well, This has been a fun topic!
Seems like folks love or not love Food Network. To me the bottom line is good ideas to make better food. If I dont like the checf, I'll just turn her off. Simple as that.

 

[buckytom]

(resisting jokes about "turning her off")

foodtv has a monopoly in that you know there'll be a food type show on at almost any time of the day. so if you have an interest in cooking or food, it's a no brainer to check it out. still, there's lots of cooking shows on tv. but even with the far superior shows on pbs, you have to plan for watching or recording them.
so i continue to tune into foodtv several times a week, usually daily, most of the time just to change the channel again because the program airing at the time is fluffy crap.
about the only thing i really try to watch anymore is iron chef - tos.

i think making emeril's shows the lead in for primetime everynight is a mistake. if you don't like his show, you're less likely to to tune in at all the rest of the night. also, why put fluff shows like "unwrapped", "food finds", and "the secret life of..." in or around prime time. are they really that popular?
the market is there, or there wouldn't be so many cooking shows on so many other channels, or segments on weekend news shows.
i wish foodtv used those shows as overnight fillers (instead of infomercials), and produced more shows like the kind pbs creates.

 

[SizzlininIN]

The people on America's Test Kitchen this season said they liked muir glen organic diced tomatoes the best.

http://www.muirglen.com/muirglen/products/default.aspx

Thanks Kleenex that helped a great deal.........maybe you should get a job at FN and answer their emails for them ..........since the cooks can't.

 

[Andy M.]

In the earlier days of FN, the cooking and instructional shows were great for us foodies. You could learn techniques and different foods from different cultures, etc.

FN figured out that there are more non-foodies in the world than there are foodies like us, so they changed the programming to draw the bigger crowds and make more money. It's always about the money.