To the Rachel Ray and Emeril bashers

[vagriller]

I truly understand why some folks don't like people like Rachel Ray and Emeril. But you should also realize that these people have gotten a lot of people interested in cooking at home, rather than going through the drive through. If not for people like Bobby Flay, Rachel ray and Emeril I might not have even gotten interested in cooking enough to seek out this site. And how sad would that be?

 

[pdswife]

Pretty sad.

 

[luvs]

i was cooking at 7, far before these t.v. personalities.

 

[thumpershere2]

I find their shows interesting and I have learned a thing or 2 from them. I like the short cuts that they have shown on several areas of cooking. Better then watching most of the junk on the boob tube. I have cooked a long time before I found their show but I still learned things from them. It's a happy cooking show.

 

[TATTRAT]

that is why FOOD TV is ENTERTAINMENT, I will stop at that...

 

[buckytom]

it is possible to be gracious, intelligent, forthcoming, and informative in a conversation. let's try to keep it there.

both of the aforementioned "talent" (the industry term for the guy/girl in front of the camera) have good and bad points, and not all of either can be attributed to the talent themselves.

both have been the darlings of the food tv cable channel, and because of the pervasive nature of television in most westerners lives, you really can't blame them for the fact that they're jammed in your face 24/7. that's the fault of cable tv corporation's bean counters, and crappy producers/directors/creative consultants.
what would you do if given the same chance to be a star chef?

to their credit, they have the certain somethin somethin that translates on tv to the viewer. maybe not every viewer, but enough to make money for the people who make it happen.
they sell products (the reason for their existence on tv), but they also teach, entertain, and inspire a loosely measured amount of people to both try out and maybe fulfill their culinary inquisitions. that can't be all bad.

 

[vagriller]

that is why FOOD TV is ENTERTAINMENT, I will stop at that...

I realize that. I have often wondered what different things a restaurant chef would do as opposed to what I see on food network. Also, I am not trying to start a war with this, just speaking my mind.

I suppose if there were a TV show about computer professionals I would have something to critique with it!

 

[thier1754]

I keep the food channel on fairly often almost as background...It keeps me mindful of the need to cook new things at home and is a good motivator. I have learned quite a bit about ingredients and some about technique. Sometimes I practice scales and the boring stuff with the food channel on and the volume down and pick up ideas that way. Hey, it works! The hands get their workout and then I can go and put together a new killer sandwich when I finish.

I am getting a popup search strip at the bottom of the screen every time I try to use an apostrophe. What is with that???

 

[licia]

I enjoy some of the cooking programs, but one thing I find in almost all of them that is very annoying: some procedures, they seem to credit themselves with inventing it, or discovering it, when actually many of them have been used for years. As much as I learned from Julia, she never took credit for something she didn't do herself. When a guest presented new information to her, she always gave them their due. Many of the current cooks/chefs could learn a lot from her. I suppose Paula is one of the worst at what I mentioned with her "as I was formulating this recipe", usually one you can find in any basic cookbook, but with an added oversupply of butter, sour cream, cream cheese or mayo. I suppose it is time for me to watch something besides cooking programs as much as some of them are getting on my nerves.

 

[rickell]

I enjoy the cooking shows

Most of the shows I enjoy some of them I really do not like,
(semi-home made) I just do not like her can't think of her name
right now. She talks like we are either little tots or just plain stupid.
I like the idea of the show just not her or should I say the way she talks.

I too have been cooking forever, I taught myself at first, my Mom and Dad
both worked my sister and I took care of the house and the meals. She
hated cooking and I hated laundry. I cooked and cleaned she did the laundry
and cleaned.

Later I dated a chef at one of the upscale places here in KC. He taught me
the basics to being a very good cook. Lucky for me that relationship did
not work out. Have heard lots a negative things about him over the years.

I have learned many things off the shows and have tried many different
recipes from watching them.

I also like it when my kids enjoy watching the shows, better than
them watching sponge bob all the time.

 

[VeraBlue]

The Galloping Gourmet

was my guru back in the 60's. Julia Child was a god. I agree that television personalities who do the cooking gig have been an inspiration to many, and usually in a good way.

I have to admit that Rachel Ray makes me wanna puke. And don't even get me started with Giada DeLaurentis and her 2000 shark tooth smile.

 

[Banana Brain]

Who was bashing?

EDIT: Sorry, my bad.. a lot of people were. And they brought up a few good points.

OK, I don't really like some things about some of the TV personalities on food network, I guess mostly because everything they say is so often predictable. Maybe the network likes that they have these "staple" personalities as well as mannerisms that the viewers will always know they can turn back to. I think although I do like Racheal Ray, she should act more like a real person and less like an actress on Forty Dollars a Day. She sounds like she's reciting a script even when she isn't. I like how the Deen Brother's are just acting like themselves on their show, Road Tasted. The way Rachel Ray talks to the camera is no way that a real person would talk to another friend normally. But I still like her because she's nice and happy, making her shows not depressing, and I like Giada because she really is passionate about the food (see the Chef's story about her). And Vagriller you're right, these TV personalities really are probably a lot of the reason that so many more moms are taking time to cook meals for their kids today. Ever since 30 minute meals has been featured on Oprah, more of Oprah's loyal followers have been trying it. I think its good because with more parents cooking with their kids (also a good thing Food Network promotes), this generation will likely produce more young chef's of the future.
There's my 2 cents. Okay, more like 5 cents, I really didn't mean to type that long.

 

[Poppinfresh]

I have never...and will never...be a fan of Racheal Ray. I just don't think the dishes she creates are that good. Her whole schpiel is she's this pretty face with a lot of energy and smiles who can teach people to make things that are "ok" in half an hour. Emeril is kind of another matter. I remember waaaaaaaay back when Food Network first popped up on cable, Emeril had a show directly after a cooking show I watched religiously (the whole basis of which was what to do with fresh foods...big black guy, remember his first name was Curtis; don't remember his last name nor the name of the show).

Emeril's show was unwatchable.

Not because what he was making didn't look good. Back then he made some fairly complex stuff, and it was quality food. It was because the guy had no personality and didn't have so much as a drop of "smooth" to him. Lot of dead air, lot of half sentences...break...other half of the sentence. There was none of that "BAM!" crap. He would never dance around the set. There would be no screaming or scripted jokes. It was just this guy who looked really uncomfortable. You could tell he was TRYING to be interesting, but it was just painful to watch (I also vividly remember cursing that channel about a year later when they yanked Curtis's show and for some reason kept Emeril's).

The very thing everyone rags on Emeril for ("that's not cooking!") is what they had to do in order to make him palatable. I don't know of anybody who would honestly try to say the man doesn't have mad chops in a kitchen. He just *needs* the house band and the energy from an audience to offset the fact that he's such a boring guy. They've had to turn him into something of a showman to compensate for the fact that he doesn't have a delivery...at all. Heck, even today, try sitting through an episode of Essence of Emeril...and he's about 10 times better in his "up to date" shows like that one than he was in the "Cooking with Emeril" thing--it's really sad. Bottom line is, the man can cook--anybody who's been to his restaurant in the MGM Grand or down in Louisiana etc. can attest to his recipes and stylings he passed on to the chefs of these places being top notch. He's just...a very dull guy that needs it covered up for television purposes.

 

[DaCook]

Food TV Canada is on here when I am home. Now don't confuse that with Food TV USA. We have some of the same programs, just not them all. They throw a few Canadian ones at us, eh? Some of the Canadians ones I really like, Rob Rainford, and Micheal Smith are a couple, but it is usually not the recipes that I want, it is the ideas.

 

[DaCook]

And don't even get me started with Giada DeLaurentis and her 2000 shark tooth smile.

Me too.

 

[Lynan]

was my guru back in the 60's. Julia Child was a god. I agree that television personalities who do the cooking gig have been an inspiration to many, and usually in a good way.

I have to admit that Rachel Ray makes me wanna puke. And don't even get me started with Giada DeLaurentis and her 2000 shark tooth smile.

Yaaaaahhhh!!! Graeme ( Galloping Gourmet) was/is a fellow Kiwi/New Zealander/Godzoner!!. I have some great memories of him sipping wine whilst he zipped about his kitchen with a live audience. Man, that was really in your face, exciting television in those days. Well considering we had just gone from black and white to colour it was. What a hoot!!

 

[auntdot]

Never bashed, or even mentioned RR or EL.

I just don't watch them.

Many seem to love their shows, and that is great, and why they are still on the air.

Just don't find them interesting.

 

[buckytom]

I also like it when my kids enjoy watching the shows, better than them watching sponge bob all the time.

but, but...... (getting a giant cartoon teardrop in my eye, lips trembling a' la spongebob), who's gonna make the crabby patties?

lol rickell, you chose to critique the only cartoon where the main character is a chef in a restaurant called the crusty crab.

there'll be no joy in bikini bottom this morning...

(to the spongebob tune)

whoooooo'd..... rather be wa-ah-tching foo-ood tv
spongebob squarepants
emeril, and rachel, and gia-ah-dee

 

[Constance]

Curtis Aikens was the guys name, Poppin. I liked him too...a big bear of a man who was always giving hugs. But I liked Emeril, too...still do, in fact.
I guess I'm pretty easy to please. Everyone has his own style and way of doing things.
Rachel is the only one that really annoys me...all the bubbly talk, exaggerated gestures and that fakey laugh just get on my nerves. But she does have some good time-saving tips.
She has a new morning talk show coming this fall, and I wish her well, but I doubt I'll be tuning in.

Hey, Bucky...I'm kinda fond of Sponge Bob and his buddies. I watch it with my grandson somethimes, though he's about to grow out of it.

 

[Alix]

Constance...you never grow out of Spongebob!