Grub

Wrong! Excuse this extreme evaluation, but it only matches your extreme assertion. Okay, I'm obviously joking, by stealing your quote -- but c'mon, experience is welcome (golf clap), not to be dismissed (golf clap), but not required (jaw dropped on the floor) -- what the hell kinda professional standard is THAT? Not required?! You don't need to write a book in order to review one, or manufacture an automobile in order to express an informed, expert opinion on the topic. If you have intelligience, reasonable technical and historical knowledge, you would know that gazpacho is supposed to be served chilled, and not complain about cold soup in a review. So yeah (golf clap) if you know what the soup is supposed to taste like -- but accolades if you know how to cook the damn thing (because you'll be able to write a far better review, that way).

Okay, you don't have to know how to build a car, in order to drive it, or offer an opinion on its performance. You don't have to be Barenboim to tune a piano, or Kubrick to review a movie -- but Ebert did at least write the screenplay for a B movie, if nothing else. I think that's valuable. A food critic's opinions would be far more insightful and comprehensive, if it pertained to a dish that she had repeatedly -- and successfully -- cooked herself. Even if her attempts had failed, she'd still have an appreciation of the difficulty involved in making it. To critique a dish that you've never made yourself means you're sort of flying blind -- but if you at the very least have cooked a similar dish, and are familiar with some of the techniques used in preparing it, your opinions would be far more informed. You know it's a bad sign if a cook never tastes his own food. Well, that's no worse than a food critic who never cooks what he eats. That aside, the phrase "my boyfriend said" is used twice, and whether this Howard is the same guy or not, there are a few other references to him. I wonder if the writers' guild ensures the guy gets paid for having contributed a good portion of the culinary observations to the article?

This has most likely nothing to do with your Shoo-Fly potatoes, but the mention of the molasses and the pie made me think of a Danish potato recipe that called for sautéeing par-boiled potatoes in butter and sugar -- the sugar helped create a very crisp, outside layer. It just stuck in my memory since it seemed a little unusual.

Dang, another excellent demo... My to-do list is filling up here. And Yimay's pleat-folding method looks like just the thing to make it all perfect. Great stuff.

Can't fault you for feeling like that -- in fact, I agree with you. But the food network's other alternatives involves routines that are at best equally assinine, and at worst just fucking mind-numbingly idiotic -- and they offer you the opportunity to aquire absolutely no new knowledge whatsoever... And yeah, Alton HAS made Python references in his show, and dagnabbit, be he e'er so vaudevillian, I reckon that gentles his condition.

A geek is a sideshow freak who decapitates bats with his teeth... Now, you could argue that he does put on a bit of a sideshow fer sure, but the word he really should be using is "nerd," damnit... I think America's Test Kitchen's obsessive testing, and Alton's nerdy ways are excellent approaches to culinary education. The no-nonsese approach. Maybe it removes some of the alluring, mystical aspects of cooking that might appeal to us all, but I'm happier if I feel that I'm well informed and doing things efficiently, than following old traditions and rituals. That being said, some GOOD EATS episodes are just entirely pointless. Like Scrap Iron Chef. Or the one where he cooked pizza by running the oven through its cleaning cycle with a bunch of bricks in it, and carried these extremely hot bricks into the garage and "built" a pizza oven with them... I was thinking to myself, "Jeeeebus, now he's just completely lost it! -- Not all oven have cleaning cycles -- and not everyone has a garage. And not everyone would feel comfortable carrying a bunch of super hot bricks around!" At the moment I had that thought, Alton exclaimed (witch such enthusiam, it seemed as if he thought this insane approach to cooking pizza was the singlemost greatest culinary idea ever) that there was actually enough heat in this assembled brick oven to cook TWO pizzas -- if you were quick about it...

This looks absolutely awesome... I'll definitely make this one day, but I've already got some Hzrt8w recipes on my to-do list -- it's hard to prioritize them, they look so damn good. Re. the health inspectors, I've heard about that, too... There was a link posted to a health inspection thread on egullet a while ago, that described how authentic Chinese restaurants could never get an "A" rating because of these air-drying techniques.

Hah, well subjectiveness itself is subjective, and as such, once you've met people who don't believe in gravity you realize that it is somewhat irrelevant. Being well informed on the other hand, is very relevant, and important. You're not entitled to an opinion; you're entitled to an informed opinion -- there's a difference. I could dig up the thread, if need be?

Rancid? Damn! That's a first in the thread, I think... Good one! How long did it spend in the fridge? Did you get it from a dodgy butcher or something?

Wonderful -- this seems quite simple and straightforward. I expect I will have a go at this next week. Will report back. Thanks again, Waaza!

Yes -- this has already been covered here on egullet.

Could be, could be... But I also think that she might have noticed Sara's underhanded backstabbing... Also, there was also Sara's "cheerleading incident." And if the sous chef was stuck with the team until they finished the job, seeing one of them playing silly buggers rather than applying themselve to it -- and also taking the defeat so seemingly lighthearted, could have set her off. And for that, I really couldn't blame her. The entire men's team seem equally useless, but the women's team do have some hard-working, skilled contestants, so seeing one of their team's weaker links playing around like a retarded, five-year old brat would probably irritate me quite a bit too... All that aside, the Hell's Kitchen version of Gordon Ramsay is a cleaned-up, kind-hearted Mr. Rogers kinda persona. He is, after all, working with almost entirely unqualified people. In Boiling Point (which was not a reality show, but a documentary on his first restaurant) the man was dragging his line cooks around by the scruff off their collars, and demoting and firing people right and left for any mistakes...

Norwegians eat whale meat and smack fuzzy little white baby seals on the noggin, but you can't draw any parallels between that, and the way they treat pet animals. I sincerely believe the reason why the Japanese don't make a fuzz over foie gras is because they are more aware of what it entails, and not because they don't care about cruelty to animals. And conversely, Westerners get their knickers in a twist not because they care more about animal welfare, but because their "knowledge" on the topic has been gleaned from Disney movies.

Man, I just saw Boiling Point... The Gordon Ramsay from Hell's Kitchen is like Mary Poppins after a few monster bong-hits, compared to the Gordon Ramsay of Boiling Point... At least he's not physically assaulting anyone in HK. How the hell can this man still be alive? His behavior was completely psychotic in Boiling Point. Physically dragging people around by their collars like they were animals -- and as if he was well, a psychopatic, animal abusing piece of shit. The petty, vendictive nature of his comments boggles the mind -- but only slightly less than the abject submissiveness of his victims. It was like watching Pimps Up, Hoes Down: Some pathetic asshole, completely drunk with the illusion of his own power, surrounded by sad, damaged souls, wimpering and cowering from the abuse. Maybe there is some sociological mechanism at work here -- that there can only be one truly crazy person in a kitchen at a time. Because otherwise, I cannot for the life of me understand how come no one's done something truly horrible to the man... And I say that as someone who appreciate colorful language and the linguistic acrobatics of a good talking-to -- but man, Boiling Point is frightening.

... be in an extreme hurry, and attempt to impersonate an orangutan in the throes of an epileptic fit while struggling with complicated culinary tasks such as extracting tinfoil from its container... A cut from a nice sharp knife is straight-forward and clean, but that cutting thingie on the tinfoil container can really tear things up.

Oh yes, please do share! That sounds fantastic -- creamy tomato and ginger sauce... Indian and French food (well, I guess mostly the techniques of the professional French kitchen) are my two main areas of interest, so this sounds absolutely perfect.

Of course, you're right. Ramsay runs one of only three restaurants in England with three Michelin stars, I think -- people will put up with a loooooot of crap to apprentice under him. Still, having said that, Cowpati's remark, "This 'head chef' is a miserable excuse for a human" is uncanny, compared to A. A. Gill's comment after Ramsay threw him (and Joan Collins) out of his restaurant -- "Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being."

Well at least the guy is consistent... He did insist that there was no reason for his workers to unionize, because his workers are treated so well. I'm not sure if that's consistent with his egg-eating, chicken-keeping veganism, but it does sound an awful lot like "I don't need no health-inspectors, because I'm so clean..."

Stirfried basil beef is absolutely fantastic with deep fried basil. It really adds another dimention to the dish -- great taste, crunchiness, and great color. Nuking herbs sounds extremely clever. Definitely worth trying, that. Deep frying basil is extremely exciting... Thanks -- great advice.

Heheh... Well, a buddy of mine tells me they kept a few critters around -- not a full blown farm or anything, but some pigs, chickens, a cow or two. I don't know about the cows or chickens, but the pigs -- they were all named, after cuts or dishes... C'mhere, Pork Chop! Heeeere piggie piggie...

I admit I've had a few drinks tonight, but I've read that post a few times now, and I can't make out exactly what this is supposed to mean...?

Only ever saw one episode -- I'm fairly certain it was Floyd on France, where he jumps out of the bus and starts pilfering veggies from a field to cook a local dish for the farmhands. Looked like a very honest, and fun show. I heard of an episode he supposedly did on Australia, when they got rained in towards the end, and hadn't done any bbq yet. So in desperation, Floyd started grilling in the hotel room and set off the fire alarms. Firemen arrived and were initially fairly aggrevated, but eventually Floyd settled them down with some good grub. Or so I heard. I'd love to watch some more of his stuff...

I never saw the initial run, so all I've seen are the two first episodes of this second season. It seems to have less to do with cooking and working in a professional kitchen, than just being a reality show. It might as well be Survivor Island Catwalk Model Big Brother-o-rama, this... I came across two episodes of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, and those were a damn breath of fresh air. Not only do those degenerate, perverted Britons allow all the words of the English language to be broadcast over the airwaves, they even throw in a little bit of cooking too. I'm sure it's as contrived, and that as much dishonesty arises from the editing process as any old show, but still -- a vastly more entertaining (and infinately more informative) show.

I agree with everyone else here. I store cilantro wrapped in a paper towel, in a plastic bag, and whenever I use any, I discard the paper town and get a fresh one, and also turn the plastic bag inside out. While I don't rip it by hand (that sounds like a good idea, though), I always wait until the last minute before chopping it -- if it is to be drizzled on top of the food, I don't chop it until I've plated. I've heard it claimed that if you chop cilantro with a knife, it will take longer to turn bad, if you use a ceramic knife -- has anyone got any experience with this? The sharpness of the knife isn't the point, but the ceramic blad is supposedly better than a steel knife...?

Okay, now THAT I didn't know... And that's not right. My aversion to eating cats and dogs may be a result of the society I live in, but to kill an animal in that way seems extremely cruel. Boiling a lobster alive is different from boiling a cat alive though -- you have to consider the relative advanced/primitive state of these creatures' physiology, or whatnot...