Favorite Cooking Show?

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I enjoyed Good Eats, too, and Mario Batali's old show, Molto Mario. I have Alton's book I'm Just Here for the Food. It's a great reference with good recipes that illustrate the concepts, just like the show. And it's written in his signature style :)
 
I liked the Galloping Gourmet till he quit drinking wine and went healthy.

Julia Child will always be my favorite.
 
Yes, I loved Graham Kerr when I was a kid, and had no idea he was sauced all the time! He was just so much fun!
 
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Again, today on Trisha's show, Pioneer Woman was her guest, making what? Frickn' MAC 'N CHEESE! How many times have we seen them make this? Then they made Chicken Fried Steak. These have been shown over and over and over again. Too many shows that make comfort food, that we all have been making for years. A huge waste of air time.
 
Besides repeats on Food Network, everything else is a competition not a cooking show. Look what they did with the last "Star" winner, another copy of DDD. If they want to do repeats, how about some David Rosengarten, Two Hot Tamales or Grillin and Chillin. If I want to watch a "competition" show, I prefer Top Chef.

I too watched Julia, Graham Kerr and Justin. Now, I try to catch Rick Bayless when I can. My staples are Jacques, ATK, Cooks Country, Lidia and I can take or leave Ming.
 
IMO the all time Gold Standard of cooking shows was/is dear old Keith Floyd. One of the originals. You can watch dozens of his shows on Youtube.
Then of course Julia
Then not in any order Jacque/Malto/Bayless/ and some others.
As for MC. Well the US version is total rubbish. Ramsey with his Justin Bieber haircut! Give me a break! It's the cooking show version of 'Big Brother' which is also complete trash.
The Gold Standard of Masterchef shows is Masterchef Australia and Masterchef New Zealand. Both of these shows are excellent and very classy and very informative. The contestants all support each other and are excellent home cooks and all round classy people. Both these shows can also be found on Youtube.
Start with 'binge watching' a dozen or so Keith Floyd's and you'll be hooked. Start with his Floyd On France series.
 
I think I figured out the source of the confusion about filming an episode of Chopped. According to the link below, they tape about 80 hours of footage for each show, but that doesn't mean it takes two weeks.

The chefs are there for a 12- to 14-hour day. During that time, they might film Ted Allen saying his opening lines several times. They have nine cameras recording the chefs and judges from different angles for 20 to 30 minutes of cooking time for each segment. After each contestant is chopped, producers interview them for the comments that are eventually shown while they're cooking. Then there are the location recordings of each chef's introduction at their restaurant, home, wherever they work.

So all that would add up to 80 hours or more of footage per episode, but it would only take a couple of days to accumulate that. I imagine the judges are playing on their phones while the crew cleans up the set between segments ;)

Shooting Baskets: Behind the Scenes of Chopped : Shows : Food Network

Ah, that's right 80 hours is what I read and I still equate 40 hours to a work week thus 2 weeks. Even though I'm retired I can't get that equation out of my head. Thanks for the information and clearing that up for me.
 
Barefoot Contessa. My style of cooking is very similar to Ina's. I've used many of her recipes and have always had great success and rave reviews.
Barefoot Contessa is awesome plus she is pretty.
I like masterchef and kitchen nightmares minus the swearing and screaming(GORDON RAMSEY) I also like Chopped .
LOL Ramsey is funny when he swears!
I love Cutthroat Kitchen and its spinoff, Camp Cutthroat. Who knew Alton Brown could be so evil? It's more for entertainment than for the recipes. I also like Chopped and Masterchef.

Ina Garten is so calm and sweet. I use a number of her recipes.

I grew up on Julia, Jacques, Justin, Martin, and Graham Kerr. While others were watching soap operas, I ran home from school to watch cooking shows.
I never got to see Cutthroat Kitchen, but I do like chopped. I love the cooking competition shows.
I like Chopped, Master Chef, Rick Bayless's Mexico One Plate at a Time, Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction and Beat Bobby Flay (we DVR the new episodes). I also watch Barefoot Contessa and Pioneer Woman sometimes.

I have a TV in the kitchen, so I often have the Food Network on when I'm in there during the day, preparing for dinner or processing garden veggies. Usually I'm only half paying attention, but I pick up ideas sometimes ;)

I swear I'm not addicted to food TV :LOL:
It must be cool to have a TV in the kitchen. I do my podcasts/radio shows in the kitchen so don't feel bad LOL.
 
I enjoyed Good Eats, too, and Mario Batali's old show, Molto Mario. I have Alton's book I'm Just Here for the Food. It's a great reference with good recipes that illustrate the concepts, just like the show. And it's written in his signature style :)
Good eats is a show that I loved. Too bad they don't do new episodes anymore. :(
Again, today on Trisha's show, Pioneer Woman was her guest, making what? Frickn' MAC 'N CHEESE! How many times have we seen them make this? Then they made Chicken Fried Steak. These have been shown over and over and over again. Too many shows that make comfort food, that we all have been making for years. A huge waste of air time.
I don't mind if they cook the same kind of food, but they should atleast do a different style.
 
Pioneer Woman is my favorite. I enjoy lots of others, but it always depends on what they are making during that episode.

I still get some Good Eats on the Cooking Channel. Alton Brown is informative and interesting, plus he cracks me up.
 
My favorite is Ina. Seems as though there are are too many comfort food non chefs making meatloaf, Mac 'n cheese and fried chicken. Seen them all many times. I'm sure new viewers learn something, and we did too. Just like to step it up and Ina is the only left on FN that does that.
 
When I lived in New Orleans, I remember watching reruns of Justin Wilson and Paul Prudhomme, even though my interest in cooking wasn't really all there. Hell's Kitchen season 1 started while we were there and we enjoyed that (I had never heard of Gordon Ramsey at that point).


Now, I don't have cable so I watch whatever plays on Netflix or Hulu. My favorite is MasterChef. Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen get on my nerves with the ridiculous ingredients (chopped) and situations (cutthroat) that come up. Food Network Star is okay.


What about on YouTube? My favorites there are Brothers Green Eats and Jamie Oliver's various Food Tube channels.
 
When I lived in New Orleans, I remember watching reruns of Justin Wilson and Paul Prudhomme, even though my interest in cooking wasn't really all there. Hell's Kitchen season 1 started while we were there and we enjoyed that (I had never heard of Gordon Ramsey at that point).


Now, I don't have cable so I watch whatever plays on Netflix or Hulu. My favorite is MasterChef. Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen get on my nerves with the ridiculous ingredients (chopped) and situations (cutthroat) that come up. Food Network Star is okay.


What about on YouTube? My favorites there are Brothers Green Eats and Jamie Oliver's various Food Tube channels.
Youtube Floyd on France.
 
Justin Wilson, alas, I cannot find his shows on regular tv anymore.

Back in the late 60's early 70's I'd listen to late night radio and could get WWL out of New Orleans and hear Justin Wilson do his comedy routines and jokes about duck hunting. this was before I ever knew he could cook. He was one of a kind. Those old AM radio stations would come in clear as a bell in NE Iowa back in the day before FM.

One of the first shows I saw him do on TV he did "dirty rice" and it sounded like something I'd like and still haven't made it.
 
Back in the late 60's early 70's I'd listen to late night radio and could get WWL out of New Orleans and hear Justin Wilson do his comedy routines and jokes about duck hunting. this was before I ever knew he could cook. He was one of a kind. Those old AM radio stations would come in clear as a bell in NE Iowa back in the day before FM.

One of the first shows I saw him do on TV he did "dirty rice" and it sounded like something I'd like and still haven't made it.

I learned how to play with my food watching Justin Wilson, he taught me to be brave and throw caution to the wind in life and cooking.
 
Besides repeats on Food Network, everything else is a competition not a cooking show. Look what they did with the last "Star" winner, another copy of DDD. If they want to do repeats, how about some David Rosengarten, Two Hot Tamales or Grillin and Chillin. If I want to watch a "competition" show, I prefer Top Chef.

I too watched Julia, Graham Kerr and Justin. Now, I try to catch Rick Bayless when I can. My staples are Jacques, ATK, Cooks Country, Lidia and I can take or leave Ming.

Smooches to you for David Rosengarten, Two Hot Tamales and Grillin and Chilling. Great food and/or cooking shows. Especially the former.

The only thing on food network that I watch is Chopped. I used to watch all the shows but they all suck now.

The Master chef series in other countries are terrific, if you like competitions.
 
Yes, I enjoy Chopped but sometimes the editing is kind of off. Did you know it takes them two weeks to film one show? Food Network Magazine wrote a story about it last year. RR's 30 Minutes or Less took 8 hours to shoot. On both shows lots of setups for close ups takes up extra time. That countdown in the end is added / dubbed in... They aren't really rushing and plating like they want you think they are. Technical stuff aside, I enjoy seeing what they do with the ingredients. It's inspired me to use what I have on hand with very successful results.

That two weeks bit is wrong, but the drama of the chefs plating in the last seconds is usually just creative editing. I don't doubt that making an appetizer complete in 20 minutes, or an entrée in 30, is some serious pressure, but the act of dropping the last bit of garnish or splashing the last bit of sauce as the clock runs out is bogus. It wouldn't be as exciting for ordinary viewer if 3 of the 4 contestants were just twiddling their thumbs for the last minute or so, so they spice it up a bit.

I may sound cynical, but I know that many of those types of shows create the drama from fiction. Discovery Channel did a bit on building an ice road to an oil well that my wife's company had part interest in, and while the story line was based on fact, much of the action, and particularly the climax, were pure fiction (at the company meeting the day after the show aired, everyone was in shock at how much of the story was outright fabrication). I know absolutely that this is true, so now when I watch any of these types of shows, I expect to have to take the show with a large dose of salt.

Despite that doubt, I still enjoy Chopped at times, and I have fun watching them make usually edible creations from often unknown ingredients and seemingly inappropriate or unmarriageable items.
 
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