Wild Gourmets Channel 4 UK Tuesdays

[ljr]

wild gourmets - educational or just preachy posh gits?

Just watched the second episode of wild gourmets on channel 4 (Tuesday 8.30) and still not sure what to make of them. While it is great to encourage people to eat wild food, how realistic is it for ordinary people (without a camera crew in tow) to turn up at stately homes in Surrey and ask them for free food from the kitchen garden in exchange for a bit of wood chopping. I'd like to see them do it without a camera crew and without their posh accents. In this week's show they shot some pheasants, caught a couple of pike and picked some mushrooms including parasols (they looked more like shaggy parasols to me but I could be wrong). Last week they swapped some beefsteak fungi for eggs and all manner of things at a local shop. which seemed utterly unrealistic to me. I know what my local veg. shop would say if I turned up with some battered bracket fungi and asked to swap them for a dozen eggs and some olive oil. So far almost all the herbs she has used have been cultivated ones - why is she not using wild garlic and all the other things that woods are full of rather than relying on what she can scrounge from the local toffs kitchen garden? I think we are supposed to fancy them (hence the shot of his arse this week - I will lay odds that there will be more of this posterior in future episodes) - personally I find them both utterly sexless and the recipes suspect but I will probably keep watching.

[Prawncrackers]

This programme cracks me up, the show is just another excuse for fantasy escapism for 99.99% of it's viewers. The other 0.01% are the ones who will actually be inspired to go out and shoot their own hares.

The two presenters, Guy Grieve and Tomasina Miers, are amiable enough and i have nothing against them personally. The Guy is obviously meant to be outdoorsman eye-candy, edited no doubt so that the ladeez will get a glimpse of beefy torso every week. Why this week we had a gratuitous sequence of him lathering himself in the glinting sunset! Paaa-lease.

Whilst watching the credits roll after the first show i turned to my wife and predicted that the production team would be all female. Lo and behold; editors, directors and producers. I'm sorry, if a male production team included titillating sequences of a sexy female presenter IN A FOODIE SHOW, would it be acceptable? Grow up girlies, i will take your show more seriously if you didn't employ such base production values.

On the other hand Jamie Oliver's show immediately before this one is immensely enjoyable. A topic each week, this week peppers, and useable recipes and ideas. Just one thing, does he not own a chopping board? Seriously, he's giving me kittens chopping everything directly on his countertops!!!

Edited September 26, 2007 by Prawncrackers (log)