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William Grimes on 30-Minute Meals


SobaAddict70

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Absolutely clueless college students probably constitute the ideal readership for Ms. Ray, who can explain to them how you make prosciutto and melon, a favorite with all 30-minute cookbook writers. For the record, you cut a melon into pieces and serve it on a plate with slices of prosciutto. Is this necessary to explain? Should she also include a recipe for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?

Thirty Is The New 60 (William Grimes) (from the New York Times DIGEST update for Wednesday, 15 September 2004. Scroll down for the appropriate link.)

OUCH!!!

On the other hand, part of me was quite appreciative of the fact that he stood up for home cooks everywhere and made his stand.

Your thoughts?

Soba

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Heh heh heh.

[Re a Betty Crocker cookbook] The recipes have a train-wreck fascination to them, and some of the photographs seem almost forensic.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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He should get off his high horse every once in a while to see what it's like in the real world. It's so easy to sling arrows from up there, isn't it?

Of course he didn't "get" Rachel Ray. He's not her target audience so it's easy to be snide.

Regarding Saint Jacque's recipe for "Caramelized Canned Peaches" he wrote:

Would the kind of person who loves brioche also have a can of peaches in the larder? And how did Mr. Pépin wind up with one in his?

As if the two are mutually exclusive?!?! Geesh, gimme a break. What an elitist snob.

And then there's this beauty:

As an experiment, I substituted fresh peaches, and guess what? Fresh peaches taste better.

No shit, Sherlock! (excuse my French) I bet you thought you were brilliant doing that, which is a complete 180 from the spirit/intention of the original recipe. But come back to me in January, Genius, and tell me what you're going to do. Fresh Peaches in January...at $5.00 a pound. Yeah, right. You'll be opening a can of peaches like the rest of us, bub. :hmmm:

If ever there was someone who shouldn't be reviewing time-saving recipe books, it's this guy.

Them's my thoughts...

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Please Toliver, why don't you tell us how you feel. Don't hold back now.

:raz:

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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:laugh:  :laugh:  :laugh:

It would be good to get Toliver and William Grimes in a room with a bottle of wine together....

Only if the wine came in a plastic bottle! :shock:

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Never thought I'd say this: I miss William Grimes.

I think you're being too hard on him, Toliver. He acknowledges his snobby standards up front, and although he disapproves of the canned peaches, he grudgingly concedes that Pepin makes a good dessert out of them.

I'd like to read pieces that are this well written every week in the food section of the New York Times.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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I agree that the article is well-written, and good bitchy fun to read. Its problem isn't that Grimes is a food snob; it's that he's a class snob.

The melon and prosciutto is a good example of how he misses the point. Grimes presumes that all post-college folks (and note the assumption that only college graduates are interested in good food) are already familiar with the idea of melon and prosciutto. I'm sure that that's true, at least among inhabitants of the Upper West Side. But he doesn't seem aware that there are lots of folks who aren't aware of the melon/prosciutto concept, and he doesn't understand that the recipe is for them: open-minded people who are haven't encountered the idea of melon/prosciutto, but don't know how it ought to look on a plate.

Similarly, the canned peaches thing is nonsense. Grimes admits that the dish, even with canned fruit, is pretty good. So why does he devote three paragraphs to criticizing it? I guess so he can express his shock that a master chef like Jacques Pépin might have betrayed his class by admitting canned peaches into his cupboard, and imply that Pépin must have been bought off. That's gratuitous, and again misses the point of the dish.

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I agree that the article is well-written, and good bitchy fun to read.  Its problem isn't that Grimes is a food snob; it's that he's a class snob.

You're right about that. The real challenge in 30-minute cooking is to make good food quickly without relying on expensive cuts of meat. Grimes doesn't seem at all concerned with economy, however:

No one should ever dine at a quality level lower than veal in sage-butter sauce. At least not at my house.

It'd be nice if we could all afford to eat like this every night, but most of us cannot.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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I think Our Bill was just having a wee bit of fun. And it was fun to read.

Fun can be hard to find so let's thrash him lightly, please.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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You're right about that.  The real challenge in 30-minute cooking is to make good food quickly without relying on expensive cuts of meat.  Grimes doesn't seem at all concerned with economy,

Rachel Ray doesn't either. She often "adapts" traditional recipes to use more expensive and quicker cooking cuts of meat, or chicken breast instead of chicken pieces and extravagant amounts of seafood (for a weekday meal).

Pamela Fanstill aka "PamelaF"
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I have to admit I can't stand watching Rachel Ray. She is sooooo painfully cheerful I just want to punch her lights out. It's like she's talking to five-year olds. So I have not paid attention to anything she actually cooks.

Grimes' article is very entertaining; I wish I could write so well.

Often "fast" and "economical" do not go well together. Stews and soups are not difficult to make, but they take some time, and are great for the pocketbook. But for my lifestyle they are weekend only meals.

*****

"Did you see what Julia Child did to that chicken?" ... Howard Borden on "Bob Newhart"

*****

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Often "fast" and "economical" do not go well together.  Stews and soups are not difficult to make, but they take some time, and are great for the pocketbook.  But for my lifestyle they are weekend only meals.

As is true in the vast majority of things...

Good, Fast, Cheap: pick any two.

Charlie

Walled Lake, Michigan

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I think it's great that assholes like Grimes can make such a good living in New York. He can't do this anywhere else. I guess other places don't have enough bitchy queens to support guys like this. At least the queens I know aren't nearly this bitchy. I'm not in New York.

If anyone is going for the lowest common denominator, it's Grimes. It's so easy to trash Rachel Ray, it's practically cliche. Canned peaches don't taste as good as fresh? If I may be so bold to quote someone else on this thread, "No shit, Sherlock"! His main appeal is to those who enjoy thinking of themselves as better than everyone else. In other words, elitist, self-satisfied assholes like himself.

" Fudge pudding cake, for example, looks like a heaping helping of Alpo." Hmm, pate on a toast point looks like creamy shit as well, but somehow he fails to mention this.

"I was stupefied to learn that I was wasting a huge amount of time and effort..." (roasting peppers) Wow, occasionally, even elitist assholes can learn a thing or two! Golly, imagine that!

"Critics never stop criticizing. They just change their targets. After nearly five years of finding fault with everyone else, I now impose my exacting standards on the chef least likely to live up to them: myself."

..and then he spends the rest of the piece criticizing everyone else. What is it they say about old dogs? Someone ought to euthanize this one.

Trash him lightly? What for? Isn't bitchy fun what this is all about?

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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I think the reason Grimes gave so much real estate to Pepin's canned peaches recipe is because he wanted to criticize Pepin for catering to the Canned Food Alliance, which is, according to the article, one of his show's sponsors. I agree that it's rather shocking to have brioche and canned peaches in the same recipe. If it's winter and fresh peaches are too pricey, why not riff on the dessert with pears or apples? To me, it looks like Pepin is giving special treatment to de facto advertisers.

Kind of like James Beard cooking on an electric range. Puh-leeze.

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i think there are sharp humerous jabs then there is just mean spirited nastiness. some people just have an insatiable need to be BETTER than others. how they are able to get such forums is astonishing ! maybe it does only sell in ny, as i report in from nj

to me, food is about 30 mins or less when i have too too much homework with kid, foie gras with 6 sauces, white castle, luger vs sparks and maybe that "cowboy burger" i just read about

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Canned peaches? Depends on the time of year. Come January, when what's in the market is mealy and tasteless, and will probably freeze between the exit door of the market and the car, yes, canned.

30-minute meals? I remember them well from my days as a full-time working mom. They can be made with inexpensive ingredients, fresh food. Let's add to the list of important pieces of equipment -- the crock pot! Wonder what he'd say about that item.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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If it's winter and fresh peaches are too pricey, why not riff on the dessert with pears or apples? To me, it looks like Pepin is giving special treatment to de facto advertisers.

Or trying to emulate what a lot of ordinary people have in their pantries. Canned fruit is a de facto way of life for some and Saint Jacque (sponsors aside) was showing how a silk purse can come from such a sow's ear.

Canned peaches?  Depends on the time of year.  Come January, when what's in the market is mealy and tasteless, and will probably freeze between the exit door of the market and the car, yes, canned.

30-minute meals?  I remember them well from my days as a full-time working mom.  They can be made with inexpensive ingredients, fresh food.  Let's add to the list of important pieces of equipment -- the crock pot!  Wonder what he'd say about that item.

But that would have clashed with his "30-Minute" theme. Now if he had centered the article around something a little more broad, say "efficiency in the kitchen" (which is kind of the point of 30-minute meals), then you'd have a winner with the crock pot (of which I'm also a big fan).

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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I agree with Toliver on this one, this guy just came off as an elitist snob. His demeanor was so intolerant that I am now less likely to believe anything he prints (not that I have much need for critics of any kind).

Good food != haute cuisine exclusively.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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As intolerant as say, Amanda Hesser on Emeril Lagasse?

Something tells me that the New York Times and the Food TV Network were made for each other. :raz::blink:

Seriously, I think the issue of the Times' readership needs to be taken into consideration. An article such as this would probably be more focused and less critical were it to appear in a periodical such as the Daily News or New York Newsday, not a paper with such an extensive metropolitan and national reach as the Times.

That is not to say that writers at the Times are entirely representative of their readership, but rather that context needs to be taken into account even though reactions such as Toliver's and jschyun's are perfectly understandable.

Soba

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As intolerant as say, Amanda Hesser on Emeril Lagasse?

Something tells me that the New York Times and the Food TV Network were made for each other.  :raz:  :blink:

Soba

Funny you should mention that Soba because I was immediately reminded of the time when Ms. Hesser went off on Sandra Lee.

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

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No one should ever dine at a quality level lower than veal in sage-butter sauce. At least not at my house.

It'd be nice if we could all afford to eat like this every night, but most of us cannot..

Yeah. That was the only thing in the article that really stood out. In his house, sure. In most people's houses? Nope!

The remark about Chef Pepin's relationship with the Canned Food Alliance struck me as good reportage.

I think Grimes would probably agree that he's a curmudgeon, but I found the article fun. It's one person's biased viewpoint, and presented as such. He's the retired restaurant critic of the Times and doesn't owe any deference to anyone.

Also, keep in mind that while he demands 1-star cooking in his house, he isn't telling non-gourmet home cooks or people who have lesser demands than he what they should do.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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