How Guy Fieri Ruined the Food Network

[gfweb]

2 hours ago, IowaDee said:

Read this morning that they are bringing back Iron Chef and that Alton Brown will be hosting the show.  It was fun to watch when I first discovered the channel.  Some nutso stuff went down.

First good thing about FN in a while

[dcarch]

3 hours ago, Shalmanese said:

 

The history of the Food Network is that it was a failing tv channel with declining audiences until it was bought by Scripps and Judy Girard was brought in charge and radically remade the network away from lessons on how to cook from actual chefs and towards travel/eating shows and reality competitions. Whatever the Food Network is today, it has almost nothing in common with Schonfeld's original vision except the title.

 

Depending on which source where the information came from. Soon after the TVFN went on air, they doubled their staff size. They ran out of studio space (from five kitchens) and had to contract out to Unitel (later part of King World, now part of CBS) for more production facilities.

 

Original hosts were Robin Leach (Life Styles Of the Rich And Famous) and Donna Hanover (Then Mrs. Rudolph Giuliani ). Very different 1993  food culture than Guy 2016, 23 years later.

 

dcarch

Edited November 30, 2016 by dcarch (log)

[rotuts]

a good book to read :

 

From Scratch: Inside the Food Network

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by Smithy
Adjusted link to be Amazon-friendly (log)

[Lisa Shock]

Fact is, the channel is still not profitable enough to run programming 24 hours. They run infomercials overnight. And, in some years, the majority of their profits have been from selling their celebrity imprinted, middle-of-the-road-quality merch not advertising spots on the shows.

[IowaDee]

Just read an article on Thrill List under the Food & Drink heading about what happens to a restaurant after Fieri visits and films a show.  Interesting and a bit surprising.

[Shel_B]

6 minutes ago, IowaDee said:

Just read an article on Thrill List under the Food & Drink heading about what happens to a restaurant after Fieri visits and films a show.  Interesting and a bit surprising.

 

Can you provide a link?  More details?

[IowaDee]

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/guy-fieri-diners-drive-ins-dives-behind-scenes/food-and-drink

 

Hope this is okay to do.  

[Yiannos]

The dude's personality rubs me the wrong way, and the constant dipping of fingers into sauces and things to taste kinda grosses me out, but that is an interesting article and now I maybe dislike him a little less. But just a little 

[Martin Fisher]

I'm confused by what seems like pretentiousness when it comes to Fieri.

He is who he is ....or what he PRETENDS to be.

He gets paid for what his bosses want him to do.

We can take it or leave it.

Fieri didn't ruin Food Network — Food Network ruined Food Network — just like MTV ruined MTV.

I have no reason to hate — or even dislike — the guy based on the role he 'plays' on silly TV.  

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Yeah, that segment of the article relating how he showed up as a regular guy named Guy, had an impact on me as well. I guess what we see on DD & D is just an affected dramatis personae he puts on to make money. It softens my perspective of him too. Considering some of the things I've had to do to make money, more power to him. I love the fact he's helping out independent small restaurant owners too.

 

Great article @IowaDee. Thanks!

[SusieQ]

On 11/29/2016 at 5:39 AM, dcarch said:

Longtime ago,  Reese Schonfeld, who has no background in world news, decided to start a 24-hour TV news show. That was the very successful CNN.

 

Umm, you kinda left out Ted Turner. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/18/arts/reese-schonfeld-of-cnn-resigns.html

 

[asthasr]

When I watched the Food Network (years ago), I found that Guy Fieri's personality was off-putting, but he (or the show runners) could at least find interesting places to eat. I'd frequently think: "Huh! That would be nice to try." The ones that drove me away were actually the ones like Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray, selling factory food as some sort of culinary revolution. "You can cook Cream of Mushroom™ Soup® in only five minutes! Just open a can of Campbell's© Cream of Mushroom™ Soup® and you're done!"

[Captain]

I find him ridiculously pretentious.  Dying his hair and stupid amounts of bling that has no place in a kitchen...

The only reason I have watched him is for his outdoor kitchen.  I love that space.  I could care less about his cooking, like most Food Network presenters.   I don't find the cooking or food relevant to me here in Australia.

 

My 2c.

Edited January 7, 2017 by Captain (log)

[GlorifiedRice]

Guy Fieri had nothing to do with it.. Its all about advertisers.

You cannot teach the fine art of French cooking when you are pushing Pillsbury Cresent rolls.

 

Remember, unlike Rachael Ray, Fieri is a chef who went to the University of Nevada Las Vegas and the Cordon Bleu.

 

 

[GlorifiedRice]

17 hours ago, asthasr said:

When I watched the Food Network (years ago), I found that Guy Fieri's personality was off-putting, but he (or the show runners) could at least find interesting places to eat. I'd frequently think: "Huh! That would be nice to try." The ones that drove me away were actually the ones like Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray, selling factory food as some sort of culinary revolution. "You can cook Cream of Mushroom™ Soup® in only five minutes! Just open a can of Campbell's© Cream of Mushroom™ Soup® and you're done!"

 

Sandra Lee and her Kwanzaa Cake!

[IowaDee]

I've often wondered if Sandra served her Kwanzaa Cake at the Governor's Mansion in New York  I'm sure she makes the most amazing tablescapes ever there.  Got to hand it to her, she came along ways from her beginnings.

[BeeZee]

23 hours ago, asthasr said:

When I watched the Food Network (years ago), I found that Guy Fieri's personality was off-putting, but he (or the show runners) could at least find interesting places to eat. I'd frequently think: "Huh! That would be nice to try"

I agreed...until they recently visited a local cafe/sandwich place the is quite mediocre, when we heard he had filmed there, the general comment was "there? why?". Watched that episode and even Guy couldn't muster much enthusiasm.

[Lisa Shock]

On 11/30/2016 at 7:08 AM, rotuts said:

a good book to read :

 

From Scratch: Inside the Food Network

 

 

 

I picked up a copy and have almost finished it. Now, I think the Food Network ruined Food Television. The blind leading the blind is what's happening. Anyone want to help me start a better cable food channel?

[Ranz]

I'm not American and we don't have the "Diner" culture here in South Africa. So when I first saw DDD, I was captivated by the great food that seems so readily available in the US, one every few miles, while every 'rest stop' we have here lies in the clutches of one of our woefully inadequate fast food chains.

 

Is Fieri an amazing chef? Doesn't look that way, but he brings red-faced, bottle blonde enthusiasm to every show, and hopefully a lot of traffic to small restaurant owners. Why the hate?

[IndyRob]

4 minutes ago, Ranz said:

I'm not American and we don't have the "Diner" culture here in South Africa. So when I first saw DDD, I was captivated by the great food that seems so readily available in the US, one every few miles, while every 'rest stop' we have here lies in the clutches of one of our woefully inadequate fast food chains.

 

Is Fieri an amazing chef? Doesn't look that way, but he brings red-faced, bottle blonde enthusiasm to every show, and hopefully a lot of traffic to small restaurant owners. Why the hate?

 

I think it's because he celebrates the exact sort of excess that may make you envious, but perhaps should, on another day, make you angry.

 

Diner food is not about this excessively ugly display of audaciousness.  It's a nice grilled cheese sandwich, or a good burger....Things that will leave room for a nice piece of pie.  And sometimes those pies will become locally famous by being just a bit more - a little bit higher - a little bit lighter than the last place.

 

But when it becomes all about the the national spotlight, when they are encouraged to be more spicy, more heavy, more, more, more....they become a caricatures of themselves.

 

And they are no longer diner food.

 

[quiet1]

30 minutes ago, IndyRob said:

 

I think it's because he celebrates the exact sort of excess that may make you envious, but perhaps should, on another day, make you angry.

 

Diner food is not about this excessively ugly display of audaciousness.  It's a nice grilled cheese sandwich, or a good burger....Things that will leave room for a nice piece of pie.  And sometimes those pies will become locally famous by being just a bit more - a little bit higher - a little bit lighter than the last place.

 

But when it becomes all about the the national spotlight, when they are encouraged to be more spicy, more heavy, more, more, more....they become a caricatures of themselves.

 

And they are no longer diner food.

 

 

He's been to a couple of places around here that we are familiar with and neither of them has suffered from what we can tell. The one place had wedding soup and that does taste like they tweaked it - but something like swapping from a heavily salted commercial base to something fresher tasting. (I don't know if they cook it from scratch or just use a better source now.) The other place has a Guy something or other on the menu, but the other stuff is all the same.

[Ranz]

1 hour ago, IndyRob said:

Diner food is not about this excessively ugly display of audaciousness.  It's a nice grilled cheese sandwich, or a good burger....Things that will leave room for a nice piece of pie. 

 

Sure, I get that.

 

That also sounds like a show that nobody would watch.

[IndyRob]

3 minutes ago, Ranz said:

 

Sure, I get that.

 

That also sounds like a show that nobody would watch.

 

Well, then I think you've put your finger on it.

 

[dcarch]

Kim Kardarshian has 64 million follower on Instagram.

Guy is very popular. I see Guy the K. K. of the food world.

 

dcarch

[GlorifiedRice]

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

Kim Kardarshian has 64 million follower on Instagram.

Guy is very popular. I see Guy the K. K. of the food world.

 

dcarch

 

Except KK has no talent or education.

I watch DDD for inspiration.

Diners and Dives are unsung local heros. Every day 24 hours a day they cook a huge menu of food.

Nourishing hungry truckers, local workers and church goers. They may not be Michelin material but Guy Fieri shines a light on them and gives them their moment....