Food Shows


Good Eats (Food)
Very informative. Like the Bill Nye the Science Guy or Myth Busters (if you prefer) of cooking shows. Smart guy. Explains everything. Makes a lot of random but endearingly hard-core stuff. Good.
Good Eats I love. No objections there. - GH
Molto Mario (PBS and Food)
Fast. Solid. New old school. Full of information about Italian cooking/cuisine. Sort of what Dave Rosengarten used to be.
Molto Mario I completely agree with the new old school comment. But I do not like it when he brings random people in to eat what he is cooking. They just sit around the counter saying, "ooh what's that", and "umm that tastes great." Who cares what these losers think? I just want a straight cooking show, not some attempt at a televised dinner party. - GH
Bobby Flay (Food)
Could he possibly have the skillz to back up his ego? Well he has more than I do that's for sure. Fast. Solid. Generally informative. Participates in about half of Food Network's shows .
Bobby Flay, well I just get kinda burned out on him. He is good, but if you want to see old school Bobby Flay you need to watch his old Grilling and Chill'n show. He was the master of the gas grill and his partner was charcoal. Once it was just all Bobby all the time I kinda got bored. Plus, I can only stand so much mango salsa. - GH
Barefoot Contessa (Food)
Don't let Ina Garten's laid back and carefree demeanour fool you. She's got skillz. It's just that she's relaxed about it. And unlike Martha Stewart, who makes things that "look good," with Garten, one quickly realizes it's all about the food. One runs from Martha. One runs toward Gorten. She's kind of like a non-smoking, modernized version of the classic British duo, the Two Fat Ladies from a decade ago. [Cookbooks]
Barefoot Contessa, once again on the money with the Two Fat Ladies comparison. Good show and good cooking. - GH
Michael Chiarello (Food)
This guy has a fantastic attitude blending new techniques with respect for the good old ones. A real Italian upbringing. Living in California. [Cookbooks]

Emeril (Food)
Emeril is good on his own but put him in front of an audience and he panders and it grates, but then a) so do I and b) the recipes in his New New Orleans cookbook have all turned out pretty good, actually. So I recommend him. [Cookbooks]

Lydia's Kitchen (PBS)
She definitely knows what she's doing. But she goes much slower than she (even being old-school Italian) needs to. She uses the time to wax sentimental about friends, memories, etc. Of course, I really don't care about her family, certainly not as much as she does, so it can get a bit tedious. Contrast with Mario Batale, who can sometimes give us more information than our little brains can even handle. Lydia is kind of filling the role what Justin Wilson used to do on PBS with his Creole cooking show slash good company.

Rachael Ray and the Di Laurentiis chick (Food)
Ray is to cooking shows what King of Queens is to television, catering to the lowest common. Di Laurentiis is the Desperate Housewives of food shows. A complete waste of time. But she is one sensuous woman.
i like rick bayless and the little side trips he takes. he still manages to cook a few things and show about 10 minutes of video vignettes from oaxaca or wherever...there's a great article in the new yorker from earlier this fall/maybe summer that got passed to me about cooking shows--i'll try and dig it up. the gyst was how food network has hypersexualized (my word) their programs because they all require the money shot at the end--particularly from ALL of their female hosts. don't want to call them chefs. rachel ray's taking her annoying self all the way to the bank and calling her buddy oprah on the drive thru deposit line. - TE
Update on Rachael Ray: Okay I've had it. If someone doesn't get her off the air soon I am going to kill her or myself or someone. I seriously cannot take it anymore. Everything. Everything about her is making me crazy. If it isn't her complete disregard for authenticity, or quality, or how words are actually supposed to be pronounced. Or how I am not supposed to be subjected to her and people like her, at least, in the sacred area of food. I swear to god. Is all I'm saying. Gordon Ramsay's F Word (BBC America)
Silly. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don't. Depends on my mood I guess.

Anthony Bourdain and That CRAZY guy who eats everything (Food)
Both make highly entertaining and interesting shows. Of food and places you'll probably never go to. But hey, that's why they're so great to watch. They're both characters and their passion comes through in the shows.
Anthony Bourdain is great. I never learned a damn thing about cooking from him but I learned a helluva lot about cooks. Which is exactly the point. Kitchen Confidential is a great read. - GH
You forgot Paula Deen. Like most of these cooks, their best stuff was their first stuff, then they run out of recipes and start getting gimmicky. But if you want old-fashioned, kill your arteries, all about taste, nothing about guilt, cooking then she is the Queen. You haven't seen cream and butter get used like this since the Paul Prudhomme days. Her deserts will knock you on your ass, but you won't care because by then it will be so big that you won't feel the impact.

And although his re-runs are tough to find, I must mention the ultimate asian cooking show, "Yan Can Cook". That guy rocked. He did things with a cleaver that would take most of us the entire utensil stock of William Sonoma to duplicate. I love Yan. - GH
Martin Yan (PBS)
Oh my god yes. I'll never make anything he's ever made. But I love him. I do love him.

martin yan is on every saturday morning before or after lydia and that couple from oregon who have a show. - TE

No Longer Being Made

David Rosengarten
Very informative man. And I don't find him too annoying at all. I rather enjoy his blue-collar snobbiness. [Cookbooks]

Two Fat Ladies
I have no idea if their recipes are any good, since I haven't made any of them. But I really enjoy these two on their television show. I think one of them's dead now. That's sad. [Cookbooks]



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