If You Could Tell Food Network...

[Claire]

I agree with the personality thing. I suspect that the entire channel is geared to teenagers or overgrown teenagers,who scream and yell or are really pretty. It's like reading a teen fan magazine. I haven't watched it in a year or two because I got tired of hearing men yell or fashion model women posing behind food. Now if I watch TV food shows, it's pretty much PBS. Even then I'm not thrilled with the shows. There are a few I still like (I particularly like Ming's shows), but many of the shows I used to like have gone to screaming and yelling.

 

[Happy@Cooking]

That was the one! Great Chefs was a show that I really enjoyed!

Also, bring back show like 'Melting Pot' with it's guess chefs including Padma back in the day!

 

[ChefJune]

Stop dumbing down cooking, using 'characters' who act silly and don't teach anything to anyone with a brain on how to cook. I would watch you again if you could offer any shows that come even a teeny bit close to the shows on PBS, BBC America or the Travel Channel.

I hear you! and thousands of folks have told them that, and more. However they're not interested. Their "Market Research" tells them that the viewers they want to reach want to see marathons of "Unwrapped" and "Diners, Driveins and whatever." They lost me years ago.

 

[lyndalou]

I watch FN occasionally, and agree with the "personality" fixation they seem to have. Came across one show (don't know the name of it) where the gal was using bacon fat in every one of her recipes.

 

[Cathy]

It is unfortunate the Food Network has chosen to alienate mature and seasoned cooks. It seems they have chosen their target audience to be young newlyweds and folks who are reasonably inexperienced.
While Giada is beautiful and Ina Garten's obvious snobbery over living in the Hamptons might impress someone younger, I find it all just TOO TOO. ( if you know what I mean).
And don't get me started on that Semi Homemade show!
But the show that upsets me the most is ANYTHING with Guy Fieri...he is from this area and his stuff is just gluttony and embarrassment.....UGH! It embodies everything that is wrong with the waistlines and health of Americans.
I too, loved the Great Chefs show...and Julia, who launched me at a young age to aspire to great cooking.
If I could tell The Food Network ONE THING it would be to offer more shows for real foodies, to those with experience and who understand more than the basics.
Sadly, Food Network has rapidly alienated the LARGE numbers of real cooks in America.
Perhaps one of you could start a new network dedicated to us?

 

[Andy M.]

Let me repeat the recurring theme I mention every time this topic comes up.

It's about the money. Almost everything is.

If the Food Network can get more people to watch their network, they will make more money from ads. They can charge advertisers more for every 15, 30 or 60 second ad they sell. This is why the Super Bowl ads cost so much, because more people are watching the Super Bowl than just about any other show.

There are many many more people out there who are not as interested in food and cooking as we are. Foodies are a minority. If FoodTV can attract viewers with shows that have main stream appeal, it's better for them. So they copy show formats that are popular such as the next FoodTV chef show or Chopped. They try to get personalities that will "sell" like Paula Deen and Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee.

There are tens of millions of men and women out there who only care about putting an edible meal on the table at the end of a hard day with minimal fuss and effort. You all know people like that. I have a daughter like that.

FoodTV has abandoned us. If We watch it at all, it's for entertainment value, not education.

If they could double their revenues by putting on TV shows that cater to toddlers, they would.

You don't have to like it, just understand it.

 

[Max Sutton]

Cooking for one

Food Network needs a TV show dealing with cooking for one person. This would span ages from young singles to widowed seniors.

Max

 

[velochic]

One thing? Acquire and air European shows. Even just BBC shows that feature cooks like Angela Harnett, Rick Stein, Madhur Jaffrey, Ainsley Harriott, Nick Nairn, and more Jamie Oliver (who is the only one I know that really cooks straight from the source and his garden). These guys are real chefs and when I get my annual fix of BBC cooking shows when we travel back to see the in-laws, it makes me realize how awful Food Network programming really is.

 

[GrillingFool]

Ever the one to swim against the crowd, I am mightily happy that Food Network isn't
all cooking all the time.

 

[Robo410]

I enjoy the real chefs such as Tyler FLorence and Jamie Oliver. Some of Giada's recipes and Ina's ideas are great. When Mario was on, I was watching him.

I miss the "ethnic" shows like Melting pot where different chefs cooked items from different cultures and immigrant groups, and a show called Calling all cooks, which went into people's homes and had them cook recipes from their family traditions. True, some were gawd awful, but I have many of those recipes and cook them still today.

I miss cooking instructors like Donna Doher (Alice Guarnicelli's cooking loft is similar)

So FoodTV does have Alice and Secrets of a Restaurant CHef, Tyler's Ultimate and a few other shows that have some value to foodies imo. But yes, they really have gone entertainment.

 

[brauvi123]

Bring back the "golden oldies" (Julia Child, Two Fat Ladies, Graham Kerr, etc.) - those programs you purchased & showed when you didn't have squat to show. Those programs are what MADE you. What drew people (like me) in while you were in your programming infancy. And now you've thrown them away like old shoes. Show some respect & responsibility - bring them back. You obviously have absolutely no idea how many viewers you lost when you dropped those shows for your current lineup of sad sacks.

I couldn't agree more! Those were, and are, the masters, and just mentioning their names should put to shame those so called "chefs" that cook from a box, or clown their way around the kitchen screaming "Bam!". There are a few exceptions, of course. But unfortunately, it seems that showing off is now more important than serious cooking. Oh, and let's not forget to add David Rosengarten to that list!

 

[ChefJune]

Robo, that's Alex (as in Alexandra) Guarnaschelli with the cooking loft. Her Mom, Maria, is one of the most respected cookbook editors in the business.

and Brauvi123, you may not care for the man who went "BAM!" but Emeril Lagasse is a well respected chef and restaurateur, and has been so for many years.

 

[bigdaddy3k]

How about "stop forcing your personalities down my throat until I am so sick of them that I hork"

OOOooo 3 more people tuned into Essence
"Order a dump truck of Emeril to force down the public's throat!"

7 more people tuned into Rachel Ray!
"Quick! Train the "Rachel Raygun" at the satellite that will spread her from coast to coast!"

Diners Drive ins and Dive's rating just went up .00004%
"Everyone! Get on the phone to congress to force a law through that makes everyone wear their sunglasses on the back of their heads!!!"

 

[BreezyCooking]

IOh, and let's not forget to add David Rosengarten to that list!

Oh my yes - I always tuned in to Rosengarten's show & found it very informative & enjoyable. Then he suddenly dropped off the face of the earth. After he authored (or co-authored?) the Dean & Deluca Cookbook, he also started some sort of cooking newsletter that I was pelted with mail subscription invitations for, & that was that. Never heard anything about him again.

 

[yogiwan]

I like the idea of bring back the classics - Julia
I like the idea of more focus on cooking and less on personalities (at 50% of the time)
But what I would like to see is some technical stuff - why do they use cast iron for some things, why stainless for others, when to use copper, what not to use for somethings and why. The cookware and tools are assumed but many chefwannabees are unclear on these basic items.

 

[Run_Out]

The PBS cooking shows I get on Saturday are much better than anything on Food Network. Show us cooking not some cheezy program that you usually have.

Later

 

[Mark Webster]

TV Food Network Executives listen up...
Film a true mystery box competition where the contestants have "NO" idea of what the main ingredient might be. I know from a direct source that on certain shows the Chef is told about a mystery ingredient about 48 hours out. I can understand that because not everyone can come up with a great meal that quickly. But use something like, if the not actually American Culinary Federation (ACF) competition guidelines. Show the Chef the mystery basket, give them some time to come up with a menu a then time to prepare and plate five portions of a complete meal. Don't load them up with helpers (Sous chefs etc). They would be on their own. This way Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public could really see their creative talent being utilized. The next time they go into their own kitchen to fix a meal maybe they can let their creativity surge out and make something fun and unique themselves.

 

[Mark Webster]

And another thing...
I know you have an army of viewers who watch their favorite TV Chefs everyday and I appreciate that. I would think that searching the US for a creative chef that seems to fly under the radar would be an interesting show. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives comes close, but perhaps a Chef or Chef owner that is cutting edge in their city/region like a Ferran Adria from Spain or Thomas Keller with the French Laundry in Ca., but who has not been discovered for lack of a better word. This could be an oustanding show or series.

 

[brauvi123]

Robo, that's Alex (as in Alexandra) Guarnaschelli with the cooking loft. Her Mom, Maria, is one of the most respected cookbook editors in the business.

and Brauvi123, you may not care for the man who went "BAM!" but Emeril Lagasse is a well respected chef and restaurateur, and has been so for many years.

Of course Emeril is well respected, but that is not carte blanche to turn gastronomy and the culinary arts in a mockery... and don't get me going about the way he mames the English language and any foreign words that crosses his path! I think that alone is a blatant disrespect for the audience's intelligence.

 

[GB]

How is that blatant disrespect for the audiences intelligence?