Food/Cooking TV Lineup . . . (fantasy)

[D. B. Brown]

Not stepping on Food Network or anything . . .

My programming would include:

GREAT CHEFS of . . . (NO, SF, NY, etc. ) . . .

Some form of Julia

Some form of Jacques

Justin Wilson (guaronteeed)

TOP CHEF

Some form of Iron Chef

Daisy

Rick Bayless

Giada (AS OPPOSED to RR)

America's Test Kitchen

Mario

Alton Brown (although he is becoming irritating and condescending).

Some form of Anthony Bourdain

Something devoted to outdoor grilling and/or BBQ

* a SERIOUS critic tour of American cities

* a SERIOUS critic tour of Europe/Asia/South America/Australia

I would also like to see a show that demonstrates the virtuosity of a great pastry chef, without the 'obstacle course' thing. Maybe this is covered in "Great Chefs"?

Edited December 1, 2007 by D. B. Brown (log)

[gfweb]

No to Bayless.

Add Flay (for some reason I like the guy) and Ramsay in some form

[jsmeeker]

Not stepping on Food Network or anything . . .

My programming would include:

GREAT CHEFS of . . . (NO, SF, NY, etc. ) . . .

Some form of Julia

Some form of Jacques

Justin Wilson (guaronteeed)

TOP CHEF

Some form of Iron Chef

Daisy

Rick Bayless

Giada (AS OPPOSED to RR)

America's Test Kitchen

Mario

Alton Brown (although he is becoming irritating and condescending).

Some form of Anthony Bourdain

Something devoted to outdoor grilling and/or BBQ

* a SERIOUS critic tour of American cities

* a SERIOUS critic tour of Europe/Asia/South America/Australia

I would also like to see a show that demonstrates the virtuosity of a great pastry chef, without the 'obstacle course' thing. Maybe this is covered in "Great Chefs"?

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This is a pretty good list.

For Bourdain, I want to see him COOK rather than see another food travel show. And he should team up with Ruhlman. Cook out of Le Halles for a lot of the stuff, too.

Gordon Ramsey would be a good addition, too. And I'd keep the "Chef's Story" program too (or something like that).

More Mark Bittman. I liked his "Bittman Takes On" Series. Maybe he should do a "The Minimalist" series. That could be good.

[Kevin72]

Honestly, I don't have much fault in the FTV circa 1999 lineup:

Sara Moulton/Cooking Live

East Meets West W/ Ming Tsai

Flay's earlier, better grilling shows

Molto Mario

Taste

The cooking shows also covered a good spread of interests. There was the Mexican cooking show (Two Hot Tamales?), a vegetarian cooking show, Asian was well covered . . . Emeril live was just starting and Taste of Emeril was pretty tolerable.

Throw some PBS notables in there like Pepin, and I'd like reruns of Julia's old shows, and I'd be pretty happy.

[mizducky]

My dream food TV network, in addition to having lots of genuinely useful cooking shows hosted by people who can actually cook, would be absolutely required to always program reruns of the original Japanese Iron Chef.

Yep, I have probably seen every episode at least once. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see them again. Doesn't have to be on primetime--the shows make great after-midnight TV fodder.

Even though Iron Chef America had gotten pretty good (though I confess I haven't watched recently, more because I currently don't have a TV), it never grabbed me the way the original did, in all its over-the-top, oddly dubbed glory. Long before all the other dire changes at Food Network, I knew they were starting down a path I would not like when they took the Japanese Iron Chef reruns off the air.

[D. B. Brown]

I forgot a couple.

"New Scandinavian Cooking" with Claus Meyer is excellent. Beautiful locations, beautifully filmed, with glorious fresh ingredients. Plus the passion (bordering on nationalism) for Scandinavia that C.M. brings to the table.

And Pierre Franey. I forget the name of his shows, but I have one of his cookbooks "Cooking in France" (maybe that was the show). I miss Pierre.

[jvalentino]

I'm going to add "The Frugal Gourmet" Jeff Smith. That guy taught me so much about cooking, it's a shame the way things ended up for him.

Jeff