Do you like to watch cooking shows?

[phinz]

I see today's schedule indicating 11:30 to 7 is pure cooking shows. Good Eats includes cooking, so it's not just reality/etc... Emeril Live takes up a block between 8 and 9. Heck, it looks like the majority of their shows, other than Unwrapped, at least on Wednesday, involve actual cooking or explaining how to cook.

 

[ironchef]

Food Network's viewership has gone through the roof since they changed their format, FWIW.

The only reason for that is because now most of their shows appeal to a different type of viewing crowd. That's not to knock anyone, but for a lot of people including myself, that's just not their thing. I understand that as a pure business decision, it was a great move because the more that you can appeal your product to the masses, the more profitable you'll be.

For me, I don't want to see the Barefoot Contessa or Paula Dean slobber around in their kitchens, but many people now tune in for the show itself, rather than the food. That's the only explanation that I can think of because hardly anyone on that channel does anything new. To be honest, the only two shows on FoodTV where I actually learn anything is from Molto Mario and Iron Chef. Molto Mario I've watched from when I first discovered FoodTV, back in around 1996. That's when I actually enjoyed watching Emeril, before he went live. FoodTV used to about learning, showcasing new ingredients, techniques, and chefs. Now it's about attracting as many viewers as possible and like I said, there's nothing wrong with that. I understand completely. But on average, I probably watch that channel now about 3-4 hours a week. I used to watch it that much or more every day.

 

[ironchef]

I see today's schedule indicating 11:30 to 7 is pure cooking shows. Good Eats includes cooking, so it's not just reality/etc... Emeril Live takes up a block between 8 and 9. Heck, it looks like the majority of their shows, other than Unwrapped, at least on Wednesday, involve actual cooking or explaining how to cook.

Like I said in my other post, it's not a matter of them not doing any actual cooking on the shows, it's more a matter of learning, innovating, and teaching. It doesn't happen anymore. I mean seriously, if you really need to watch Alton Brown for 30 minutes to learn how to make toast, something's amiss.

 

[licia]

I enjoy some of the shows that show how to actually do the preparation and cooking. I don't like the ones that try to be too entertaining. I learn a lot from Sara Moulton, even if I don't cook the same things. I like Everyday food and Americas Test Kitchen. I sometimes watch Ina - she does show things I want to learn. I watch Paula, but she has become quite repetitive - in procedures and also the food she cooks. I'm not crazy about Sandra Lee - that doesn't appeal to me and I couldn't redo my kitchen according to what meal I'm making - or get an outfit to match. I think it is time for some new chefs or cooks or whatever - but with new ideas, new techniques - not reruns of what we already have seen.

 

[velochic]

I LOVE Ready Steady Cook, but no longer get BBC. Food Network had a variation on it -- Ready Set Cook, which was ok until people kept bringing in impossible ingredients, like octopus, rhubarb and molasses cookies.

Emeril is not at all a bad chef, but his showmanship does get in the way -- in a major way, IMO.

I think you refer to The Two Hot Tamales -- Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Fenigar who were fantastic cooks with a great show.

And Cat Cora and the Indian lady were on Melting Pot, which was, IMO, one of their best shows.

Sara Moulton is also a terrifically accomplished chef who was a great teacher.

FTV, IMO, has taken a turn for the worse by pulling some of the best shows (see all of the above but emeril) about food and cooking and replacing them with pith. It is telling when they tout Saturdays as "FOOD NETWORK IN THE KITCHEN" as though they are reserving a special day to broadcast shows about actual cooking. SOme of the shows demonstrate a disrespect for food and cooking that has turned me off completely. I hardly watch it anymore.

Thanks for the reminders of names. You pegged them all!!

I feel very differently about this Emeril guy, though. In one show that I was forced to watch he said something about this mussel that (precooked) was slightly opened and that it was O.K. because it would open when it was steamed. Uh... WHAT!!!???!!!! In the other one he said that a peanut was a treenut. Ummm... no it's not. It's a legume. He gets heating times wrong, he gets terms mixed up. Ugh. I can't believe this guy is such a sensation in the US. I feel like it's about the entertainment and not the context.

Also wanted to mention that when I happen across it... Nigela Lawson is always a joy to watch. So down-to-earth and real. I have kids, too, so it seems like she's in touch with life.

Very tired... must go to bed...

 

[velochic]

Veloholic, thanks for reminding me about BBC. I don't get BBC at home but I love the link I have to their site that have some great recipes.

I forgot about Jamie Oliver. I really enjoyed his recipes and tried some of them as well.

For the Indian gal - her name is Padma Laxmi and although she was charming she is a model/actress and not a culinary expert by any means. She is married to Salman Rushdie the controversial novelist and resides in U.K.

I like Julie Sahai and her books although I have not seen her on many cooking shows except epicurious which airs on the Travel Channel.

Well, as a lover of but not an expert on Indian food, it's nice to get some recipes at least. The recipes probably aren't even her own, but she presents them well. I've not been back to see the show for a while, though. I DID NOT know that little tidbit of trivia about her. How very charming and mysterious of her. Good for her.

I don't know this Julie Sahai... could you tell us more about her?

Oh, and I just have to say that I loved what you did with my user name... Veloholic is probably more appropriate!!

 

[auntdot]

Many Food Network fans remember David Rosengarten's show with great fondness.

David Rosengarten now puts out a gourmet food newsletter.

 

[Miss Bridget]

I like America's Test Kitchen, Everyday Italian with Giada DeLaurentiis and Paula Deen (her recipes are great, but if you ate them on a regular basis your cholesterol would be in 4 digits). I also enjoy watching Sara Moulton if the recipes aren't too foofoo Gourmet. If I'm really bored I can struggle through almost any show except for Mario Batali.

 

[sattie]

FoodTV ROCKS!

 

[Sandyj]

YES. Usually, no one gets hurt or murdered! Sandyj

 

[buckytom]

I think the shows on PBS are better.

Lidia. Rick Bayless. Ming. Jacques. Julia. Mary Ann Esposito. America's Test Kitchen. Johnson and Wales. Everyday Food.

Everyday Food is the TV show from the Martha mag. Its fantastic -- a less glitzy 30Min Meals.

i completely agree with jenny, again. pbs's shows blow food tv out of the water. and i love everyday food. no bs, just cooking info. i particularly like the left handed guy, and the cute babe with the blue eyes and long nose.
another recent fave is jacques' "fast food". lidia bastianich also rocks.
thanks for reminding me about mary ann esposito, i don't catch enough of her shows.

also, i agree with (our) iron chef. his assesments are dead on, imo.
and i cannot watch even 1 minute of "contessa", partly from envy, partly from the slobber, lol.

i still watch many food tv shows to see if they're making something that piques my interest, including iron chef tos (japan), mario, emeril, giada, rr (always with the sound muted), and alton (unless i'm in a bad mood. then i throw things at the tv when he does those dumb skits).

 

[pdswife]

That's funny Bucky...Paul watches rr with the sound off too...

 

[velochic]

I was just thinking about this... cooking shows are actually a very nice link between cultures and languages. I've heard of people learning languages better from such programs than any other way. Not the glitzy, Emril-like entertainment shows, but the REAL cooking-to-teach-you-something shows, like they had on PBS back in the day. Anyone remember "Cooking with Caprial"?

My MIL, who spoke no English, would enjoy watching PBS cooking shows when visting the US back in the early 90's. She didn't UNDERSTAND the words, but she UNDERSTOOD and was entertained by the food preparation. Managed to retain some English from them, too. Same for me in German - OST (Austrian TV) has cooking shows that I would never UNDERSTAND no matter how long I watched (because of the language), but I still enjoy it and yeah, I probably know some Austrian German now. Just goes to show you how universal the language of FOOD is.

 

[buckytom]

velochic, ja, stimmt, und ich verstehe. (sorry if my deutsche ist crappy)

i watch a lot of spanish tv and have learned a lot, especially from the weather reports. i mean, weather reports are graphic intensive, with lots of text (tormenta, bajo, alta, etc.), and the weather girls are easy on the eyes.

i'm not sure if i could watch finnish tv for any effect, tho. and who the heck edits finnish cookbooks??????
talk about spell check...

 

[Yakuta]

velochic sorry about mistyping your screen name. This is what happens when you go fast and change uppercases and lowercases and mix everything up to invent something new.

I remember cooking with Caprial. I did enjoy Chef Caprial Pence and how she demonstrated every little step. It was indeed like a cooking school. I learned how to make Hollandaise sauce from her.

I am glad to see a lot of folks on this forum remember PBS.

 

[velochic]

velochic sorry about mistyping your screen name. This is what happens when you go fast and change uppercases and lowercases and mix everything up to invent something new.

Oh, no... I loved it. I'm sure my family thinks I spend too much time on my bicycle and Veloholic is quite accurate!!

 

[Ishbel]

As I've said before, we don't get many of the American chefs on our TV screens - I suspect that the different measurement methods may have something to do with this... but also suspect it is because we have LOADS of chefs and cookery programmes of our own! A list, although others may be able to add other favourites! most of their series were made by the BBC and may have been available for PBS in the States.

Nick Nairn
Nigella Lawson
Anthony Worrall-Thompson (not too keen on his stuff)
Jamie Oliver
Jean Cristoph Novelli
The Roux Brothers (and the son of one of them - he's GREAT)
Gordon Ramsay (He ll's Kitchen - I seem to recall that he did an American copy of the UK series)
Locatelli
Anton Mosimann
Claudia Roden - for mediterranean and foods from Lebanon, Egypt and other 'Near East' countries
Madhur Jaffrey
Delia Smith (although she seems to have 'retired' from cookery programmes)
Darina Allen (Irish)
John Torode
Sean Hill
2 Hairy Bikers
2 Fat Ladies (now only Clarissa Dickson-Wright)
Brian Turner
Hugh Fearnley-Whttingstall (or 'Huge and eats it all' as he's known!)

 

[Piccolina]

(For better or worse ...) We don't have a TV. It's been that way the whole time in Ireland, but in days of yore I kept cooking shows on the tube at least 50% of the time. On a host of different channels, even Super Station's "Dinner and a Movie" could be cute at times. And who could forget the classic, enduring show "The Galloping Gourmet", for that alone PBS's cooking shows are worth watching.

Some of my top favs (I'm not sure if they still run these all)

-A Cooks Tour (lol, as I've elluded to in other posts, I have a *fondness* for Anthony Bourdain )

-Gordon Ramsey

-Nigella Lawson

-Good Eats (how good anyone on earth whose into cooking not dig this awesome show!)

-Unwrapped and Top Five (love food fact shows!)

-Food 911

-Door Knock Dinners

-Canadian Living Cooks

-Dolce Vita with David Rocco (major Italian eye candy!)

-Sugar with Anna Olson

-The Surreal Courmet (you have to like a chef who drives around in a giant silver toaster)
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/tv/shows/titledetails/title_14208.asp

 

[jennyema]

I see today's schedule indicating 11:30 to 7 is pure cooking shows. Good Eats includes cooking, so it's not just reality/etc... Emeril Live takes up a block between 8 and 9. Heck, it looks like the majority of their shows, other than Unwrapped, at least on Wednesday, involve actual cooking or explaining how to cook.

A lot of people at at work from 11 to 7 though.

 

[jennyema]

I remember cooking with Caprial. I did enjoy Chef Caprial Pence and how she demonstrated every little step. It was indeed like a cooking school. I learned how to make Hollandaise sauce from her.

I am glad to see a lot of folks on this forum remember PBS.

Who was the guy Caprial cooked with on the show that isn't on anymore?

And does anyone remember the show with those brothers from Dallas who made Italian food?