[erraticninja]

so I'm sure this subject has been done to death (and I apologize if it has I AM new here after all)

but I'm curious and maybe it will help me check somebody new out...

who are your favorite and least favorite celebrity chefs and foodie types. say a top and bottom 5.

faves:
1. Anthony Bourdain. (nuff said)
2. Alton Brown (a food geek. a man after my own heart)
3. The Cast of Iron Chef.

that's all I can think of right now.

the worst of the bunch:
1. Emeril (BAM!)
2. Rocco (he might have some serious chops. but while i have been watching the resturant i am appaled)
3. Bobby Flay


anyone you particularly love/hate?

[=Mark]

Julia
Alton Brown
Tony Bourdain
David Rosengarten
Kieth Floyd


Emeril
Martin Yan (I know how to count already!)
the sober Graham Kerr
Rachel Ray (call the Perky Police/ Lousy tipper)
Whomever those yutzes are on "How to Boil Water"

[Minou]

erraticninja, on Aug 21 2003, 02:18 PM, said:

who are your favorite and least favorite celebrity chefs and foodie types. say a top and bottom 5.

faves:
1. Anthony Bourdain. (nuff said)
2. Alton Brown (a food geek. a man after my own heart)

3. Jacques Torres

His sculptural application and encyclopedic knowledge of chocolate is … encyclopedic!

[KateW]

Like:
Anthony Bourdain
Julia Child of course (she was a cooking celebrity before it was cool )
Jacques Pepin

Don't like: Rachel Ray (I second the too perky thing, although once she winked at the camera and I had a crush on her for about 2 seconds)
used to like Emeril until I opened my eyes and realized he was 90% show, 10% talent. If that.

[Raynickben]

Emeril is a shoemaker.

My husband and I watch the show when we're in the mood for a comedy. He starts out with what sounds like a good dish and sure enough by the time he is finished it looks worse than cafeteria food. It's gotten to be fun for us to guess at what point the dish is going to turn disasterous. Maybe we should make a drinking game out of it.....

[ronnie_suburban]

Faves:
Bourdain
Bourdain
Bourdain
Nigella Lawson
David Rosengarten
Keith Floyd
Jacques Pepin (since reading The Apprentice)

No so faves:
Emeril
Alton (you cannot snub Bourdain at the JBA and stay on my good side)
Rocco
Flay

=R=

[erraticninja]

ronnie_suburban, on Aug 21 2003, 06:09 PM, said:

....Alton (you cannot snub Bourdain at the JBA and stay on my good side)


=R=

oh some i forgot:
Nigella Lawson
Ted Allen from QEFTSG.

and about the alton (do you mean ab from good eats?)/bourdain snub, when did this happen? what happened. i know nothing about this.

this board is so informative. i only discovered it monday night and i've already learned a lot from it.


oh and i hate to admit it but i *like* the almost universally hated Rachel Ray. i don't know why. i can see why she is hated. and she is tooooo perky. but i think she's cute. that said she doesn't go into my list of favorite or hated.

[ronnie_suburban]

erraticninja, on Aug 21 2003, 09:45 PM, said:

and about the alton (do you mean ab from good eats?)/bourdain snub, when did this happen? what happened. i know nothing about this.

AB on AB at the JBA

[SobaAddict70]

fave:

Julia Child
Jacques Pepin
the late Jean-Louis Palladin
Rick Bayless
Jula Della Croce
Ruth Reichl (for her writing style)
Nigella Lawson (for her writing style)
Lidia Bastianich (for the passion that she brings with respect to Italian food and food in general)
Roger Verge


not so faves:

Madeline Kamman (just her personality, sorry, rubs me the wrong way)
Jeff Smith (he talked too much)
the main restaurant reviewer for the SF Chronicle (pim knows who I'm referring to -- can't remember his name atm)
William Grimes (for his writing style and what I see as a lack of passion for his subject matter)
Amanda Hesser (for her writing style, although truth be told she's gotten slightly better IMO ever since her Food Diary days)
Martin Yan
Graham Kerr (in either incarnation)


Soba

[bilrus]

erraticninja, on Aug 21 2003, 10:45 PM, said:

oh and i hate to admit it but i *like* the almost universally hated Rachel Ray. i don't know why. i can see why she is hated. and she is tooooo perky. but i think she's cute. that said she doesn't go into my list of favorite or hated.

I hate to agree, but I feel the same way. Although I'm not sure I would want to go on one of her $40 trips.

[Nick]

I don't have a TV so I don't see this stuff too often, but in my very limited experience Emeril is way ahead of Rocco. At least Emeril is entertaining - and even does some cooking.

[malcolmjolley]

I find it amusing that so many who put Julia Child in their hero column (quite rightly) put Emeril in their villain column, yet she's on record as giving him very high praise. Aren't they kind of best buds?

[browniebaker]

faves, in no particular order:

Rose Levy Beranbaum - fail-safe recipes; chemistry of cooking
James Villas - excellent food writing; Southern foods
John Egerton - writing about Southern foods
Nigella Lawson - the spirit she brings to cooking
Shirley Corriher - chemistry of cooking
Christopher Kimball - recipe sleuthing, although his tastes skew a bit Yankee
M. F. K. Fisher - excellent food writing; immortal
Lidia Bastianich - lust for life


unfaves:

Martin Yan
Emeril Legasse
Burt Wolfe
too many more to mention

[malcolmjolley]

Someone needs to mention Elizabeth David, so I will.

Maybe the first true "food celebrity" in the sense that she wasn't famous for being a chef or a home economist.

[erraticninja]

i keep adding favorites...

eric ripert
jaques pepin

(mainly because you people keep reminding me of them.)

as far as the whole ab snub. that sucks. and if the others in that thread speak true he's an ass to others as well. which really really sucks. because his show and books are informative and clever and useful. and he did a great q and a on slashdot (the only site i read as much as this one) that put him onto the really like list. but if his personality is that reprehensible... wow now i'm torn.

anyway here is the link to the slashdot q & a http://interviews.sl...=thread&tid=129

[Basilgirl]

Mario
Lidia
Bourdain
Biba Caggiano
Tyler Florence



Emeril
Any Iron Chef

[alkonin]

faves:
alice waters
mario
julia
ming tsai


least faves:
emeril
the america's test kitchen guy
that horrible paula deen person on food network

[bloviatrix]

I'm fairly unoriginal in my dislikes -- Rachel Ray and Emeril.

The list of likes is long, but here are two no one's mentioned:

Rick Moonen
Francois Payard

[zephyrus]

eraticninja: if you look around the site a bit i think that you will see the anthony bourdain is pretty damn cool....i know that my fellow austin egulleters had a damn good time with him...

bourdain in austin

casey

This post has been edited by zephyrus: 22 August 2003 - 08:20 AM

[beegew]

Julia & Jacques (magical together)
Bourdain (I'd cook iguana, if it meant he'd visit here!!! I WOULD!)
Keith Floyd (esPECIALLY "another slurp for the cook!!!"...used proudly to this day in our kitchen...somebody hire this guy!)
Lidia
Pierre Franey ("...don't buy that cheese that looks like a brick.")
Tyler Florence
Alice Waters

Those who irritate me...

Emeril (Oh, quit playing to the lowest common denominator...)
Marfa
Sarah Moulton (God forgive me, I know she's the sweetest thing since French toast, but, arrghh...)
Nick Stellino
MaryAnne Esposito
Natalie Dupree

Get that sh*t off my T.V. ...

any eyeball awling Iron Chef



Does anybody show Floyd on anything anymore? I need a slurp...

[rich]

Best: (no particular order)

Caprial - substance over style
Jeff Smith - for his history of food
Julia Child - just because
Jacques Pepin - technique, technique, technique
Sara Moulton - excellent teacher
the late Pierre Franey - ingredients, just the ingredients
Mario Batali - for his intensity and obvious love of food

Worst: (no particular order)

Nathalie DuPree - the sloppiest cook in captivity

Aside from the above, I don't really dislike any others. Emeril may not be the world's best cook, but he is entertaining. And give him credit, when he started on TV, he had no presence. The man has worked hard.

Bobby Flay may not have an engaging personality, but he can cook.

[ronnie_suburban]

beegew, on Aug 22 2003, 11:35 AM, said:

Does anybody show Floyd on anything anymore?   I need a slurp...

Here's a slurp for ya...

=R=

[KatieLoeb]

I just don't get the Jamie Oliver fan club. I can't understand a word that silly lisping cockney fool says.

[Jason Perlow]

So, say that we had a Q&A with Emeril Lagasse, nobody would appreciate it?

Theoretically speaking.

[rich]

Jason Perlow, on Aug 22 2003, 12:50 PM, said:

So, say that we had a Q&A with Emeril Lagasse, nobody would appreciate it?

Theoretically speaking.

I would very much appreciate it. It would be interesting to ask him what he thinks of "The Restaurant."

[beegew]

Oh Ronnie...Brilliant!!!


Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

Now, if PBS would just pick him up again...I gladly sit through Floyd on Fish or WHATEVER they put on. His BBC harangues are just a shriek, especially after a slurp, or two...or three..

[beegew]

The Emeril you see in interviews is a vastly different person than the fellow behind the cooktop on T.V. I believe a Q & A with him would be interesting and entertaining.

[erraticninja]

zephyrus: i had figured out bourdain was cool by poking around here.(and reading his books.) i especially enjoyed his take on the rocco-circus on nbc. the first episode of that i watched i began wondering what ab would think about it and then i ran into it on this board. other than that it sounds like you guys had a time.


oh another to add to my dislikes list (i know i am probably way above 5 each by now)
tyler florence.

[GordonCooks]

I don't have any particular disdain for any food personality.
Some have forgotten their roots (Emeril, Bobby Flay, etc.),
Some are very entertaining (Bourdain, Jeremiah Tower, etc.)
Some are very informative (Pepin, Batali, Bayless, etc.)
Some are preeminent (Keller, Adria, Trotter, etc)
Some are hot (Nigella, Padma, Suzanne Goin, Etc)

but a few I could live without

The Barefoot Contessa
The Surreal Gourmet

[hjshorter]

KatieLoeb, on Aug 22 2003, 12:45 PM, said:

I just don't get the Jamie Oliver fan club.  I can't understand a word that silly lisping cockney fool says.

Katie, just watch him with the sound off, particularly the closeups of his...

Never mind. I don't want to get into trouble with the UK board again.