Heston's Feasts

[Tri2Cook]

Now showing on Food Network Canada. Victorian was last week, tonight was Medieval, Tudor is next and then Roman. I'm enjoying it.

[Darienne]

Thursdays, 9:00 pm to be exact...I had to look it up. We don't get any tv schedules at home. Thanks, Tri2cook

[tomdarch]

sigh ... why doesn't stuff like this make it onto US tv?

[Darienne]

sigh ... why doesn't stuff like this make it onto US tv?

You may be missing this particular show, but don't ever wish for what we get on the Canadian food channel. I've experienced both the American and the Canadian, and I'd pick the American every time. THAT'S how bad the Canadian is. Well, to me, anyway.

[ElsieD]

This Canadian will second that remark. There is some bad stuff on the US one but there is worse stuff one the Canadian one. I can't understand why they have dumbed it down so much. I hardly ever watch it any more. We do have Chef Abroad however, with Michael Smith which is very interesting and informative. Plus, he seems to lack an ego which makes it even more of a pleasure to watch. Note to BBC Canada - we used to subscribe to your station so we could watch "The Restaurant" until, that is, you chose to stop carrying it half-way through the season. How to keep subscribers! Not.

[Darienne]

This Canadian will second that remark. There is some bad stuff on the US one but there is worse stuff one the Canadian one. I can't understand why they have dumbed it down so much. I hardly ever watch it any more. We do have Chef Abroad however, with Michael Smith which is very interesting and informative. Plus, he seems to lack an ego which makes it even more of a pleasure to watch. Note to BBC Canada - we used to subscribe to your station so we could watch "The Restaurant" until, that is, you chose to stop carrying it half-way through the season. How to keep subscribers! Not.

Perhaps Michael Smith has no ego and is interesting and informative, but I find the endlessly 'clever' camera angles too distracting to watch him at all. The camera thingy is on his 7 pm & 7:30 pm show every night. I have never found his Chef Abroad program (or programme) because the channel has so little to offer regularly. Crab, crab, crab...

[nextguy]

I am not a big fan of either the US or Canadian Food Network anymore. But I'd say that the US version is more guilty of dumbing down cooking. The Canadian version shows more pro-chefs than the US version which gave birth to the Rachael Ray's and Sandra Lee's of the world. More and more I find myself preferring PBS's cooking shows.

[prasantrin]

We do have Chef Abroad however, with Michael Smith which is very interesting and informative. Plus, he seems to lack an ego which makes it even more of a pleasure to watch.

So ego-less that he refused to wear a hairnet while visiting a bakery whiech likely resulted in the disposal of everything made during his visit.

My mother no longer has TFN Canada (she just has basic cable), but Heston's Feasts was the only TFNC show she watched when she could. I think she also mentioned watching another very good Heston Blumenthal show once, but I can't remember the title--have his others shows aired on TFNC?

[ElsieD]

Tri2Cook - Thanks for the heads up on the shows. I have them set to tape.

Darienne - I haven't noticed the "clever" camera angles. Likely now I will. Chef Abroad is on Friday nights at 9:30. BTW, where is Cavan?

nextguy - what shows are on PBS other than ATK? Are you in the USA? If yes, you get shows that we can't get - it depends on our US affiliation which for our area is Watertown, NY. I have heard that PBS has good ones but the ones I've heard about, aren't picked up by Watertown.

prasantrin- I didn't see him not wearing a hairnet. But then, lots of chefs on TV don't. For example, those on Iron Chef, Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, etc. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a chef on any network show wearing a hairmet. Blumenthal used to have a show about finding/making the perfect whatever. It bordered on obsessive to the point I watched maybe 2 and crossed it off my list. I surely do like your avatar. Is that your kitty?

Finally, my award for the biggest camera hog is Guy Fieri (sp) on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I've never seen anyone with such a great need to dominate a camera.

[prasantrin]

prasantrin- I didn't see him not wearing a hairnet. But then, lots of chefs on TV don't. For example, those on Iron Chef, Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, etc. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a chef on any network show wearing a hairmet. Blumenthal used to have a show about finding/making the perfect whatever. It bordered on obsessive to the point I watched maybe 2 and crossed it off my list. I surely do like your avatar. Is that your kitty?

It's a very different situation, and cannot be compared with cooking shows. Smith went into the kitchen of a busy commercial bakery (not his own) and refused to wear a hairnet. That's a violation of food safety/preparation by-laws, of which I'm sure he was aware, having worked in commercial kitchens before. That's an ego of huge proportions. Interestingly, if you watch his earlier shows, he had no problem wearing a hairnet before. . .

Ya, I think the "perfect" show was the one my mother was talking about. She really enjoyed it because it delved more deeply into a dish--sort of like a less-basic Cook's Illustrated.

My cat had just had a snack, so I felt her picture was well-suited to eG.

[Brianemone]

I really enjoyed what I saw of the series. My only problem with it was that the blasted channel that showed it here in NZ decided that 11pm would be a good time to air it.

[Tri2Cook]

Blumenthal used to have a show about finding/making the perfect whatever. It bordered on obsessive to the point I watched maybe 2 and crossed it off my list.

That was In Search of Perfection. That show and the books that go with it were hugely inspirational to me. It wasn't really about making the perfect whatever, it was about making his perfect whatever. The idea was to take a dish, understand the dish and how it came to be, understand how people connect with it and then elevate it without losing the things that make it what it is. He did go to extremes to make his point but the basic idea is to make food as good as it can be for you. Never accept that there is only one best way to do something.

Heston's Feasts in an entirely different critter. It's largely about seeing how far he can push people into shrugging off their preconceptions and ideas about what they're eating. He is intentionally going over the top in an effort to challenge his diners. There have been a couple of examples where he pushed them too far. They couldn't go where he was trying to take them. He didn't make excuses or blame the diners, he simply admitted he went too far and continued on. I'm enjoying it because it's obvious he's having fun and so are the diners in most cases. There won't be too many people trying to actually cook from this one. I have the Mock Turtle Soup recipe from the Victorian Feast and there is absolutely no way to do it as written in the home environment unless you have a very well equipped kitchen (centrifuge, centrifugal evaporator, thermomix and sous vide equipment).

[ElsieD]

prasantrin- I didn't see him not wearing a hairnet. But then, lots of chefs on TV don't. For example, those on Iron Chef, Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, etc. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a chef on any network show wearing a hairmet. Blumenthal used to have a show about finding/making the perfect whatever. It bordered on obsessive to the point I watched maybe 2 and crossed it off my list. I surely do like your avatar. Is that your kitty?

It's a very different situation, and cannot be compared with cooking shows. Smith went into the kitchen of a busy commercial bakery (not his own) and refused to wear a hairnet. That's a violation of food safety/preparation by-laws, of which I'm sure he was aware, having worked in commercial kitchens before. That's an ego of huge proportions. Interestingly, if you watch his earlier shows, he had no problem wearing a hairnet before. . .

Ya, I think the "perfect" show was the one my mother was talking about. She really enjoyed it because it delved more deeply into a dish--sort of like a less-basic Cook's Illustrated.

My cat had just had a snack, so I felt her picture was well-suited to eG.

Well, that's a bummer. I doubt I'll look at him in the same way ever again. And here I thought we had a TV chef who actually had both feet planted on the ground.

And yes, your kitty is very well suited to eG. Mine belongs on some site where they are trying out matresses....but then, she is 18 years old!

[stuartlikesstrudel]

They've just started showing this in Australia as well. I caught the last bit of the first episode by mistake, and was immediately disappointed that I hadn't seen the whole thing. I've discovered that it's available online, at least here in Aus. Not sure if outside visitors will be blocked.

Here's a link to it.

I am very much looking forward to seeing more of it. Even though I've done little to none of it, I'm interested in MG and this kind of experimentation, and it's presented in an easy to watch way. And I just remembered that my parents have some port glasses that have a "straw" coming from the bottom, a bit like the ones Heston designed for his 5 flavor drink, so i might actually be able to play with the idea. I think it would be great fun to try out some flavour combinations.

[OliverB]

I can't quite imagine the Canadian version of the food channel being any worse, how could that be? There used to be a lot on there I watched, now there is nothing. Not a single show I watch anymore, it's all idiotic cooking circus shows inspired by that silly Iron Chef and a bunch of talking heads that are no cooks nor really know much about it. The southern lady that bathes everything in butter, the pretty Italian that shows more cleavage than cooking (not that I'd complain much, but still...), some moron with spiky hair traveling and eating himself silly in diners, Rachael EVO-O Ray, and so on. All completely useless to me.

I wish we'd get more Jamie Oliver (I've cooked many of his recipes with great outcome), get Heston, darn, get any real chef really showing how to do things, instead of dumbing down recipes to yet an other 30 minute wannabe replacement of the real thing.

And since Alton is headlining the crap Iron Chef America I've lost interest in him too. Besides that he seems to be running out of ideas for good eats anyways (and the art direction and layout of his books is terrible).

If pbs wouldn't have those nagging "give us your money now" people all the time, I'd watch it more, but recently I find much more interesting stuff on youtube than anywhere else.

Sadly.

[Ce'nedra]

stuartlikesstrudel, I'm in a much worse situation. I'm also from Oz and just discovered the show...HALF AN HR AGO! Far too late as in today's episode (will watch soon) is going to be the last (Roman feast)! Argh!

In the meantime, I've been watching it online so thanks for the link

[Dakki]

Thread necromancy!

Started watching this last night, starting with the Medieval episode. I really like the idea of using the techniques and equipment of modernist cuisine (or whatever we're calling it this week) with obsolete recipes, and I've enjoyed Heston's (Sir Heston's? Mr. Blumenthal's? Chef Blumenthal's?) In Search of Perfection and Kitchen Chemistry. I think inviting a bunch of B-list UK slebs who are (probably) unprepared to appreciate the food wasn't the wisest choice.

About this episode in particular, the pigeon pies looked doable (if difficult, at least for me), and the dessert was the cleverest bit. The guests' reaction to the lamprey was the most cringe-worthy moment in the show. (In comparison, the Latvian fishermen came out looking good - so did the football fans who tried the pigeon pie).

[Tri2Cook]

His second series of "Heston's Feasts" includes a Chocolate Factory Feast, Fairytale Feast, Titanic Feast, Gothic Feast, 70s Feast and 80s Feast. It has a book to accompany it that gives a more detailed insight into what he was trying to do and how he did it and provides a few recipes from each feast as well. The second series and the book are as over-the-top as the first series but I enjoyed them for the same reason I enjoyed the first series and the "Perfection" series and books. There's a lot to pick up from them if you can take your eyes and mind away from the actual dishes. Not that there's anything wrong with the dishes but I view them more as the result of the main goal which is how to achieve it and why. The real value of Feasts and Perfection is that they make you think. I think the main reason they aren't more popular than they seem to be is... they make you think and, if it doesn't make you think, it probably all seems a bit strange and pointless.