"Gusto TV" (alternative title - "Livefeed from a restaurant on a Saturday night")

[Deryn]

In Canada, we have a relatively new tv channel (it was a $4 add-on channel for my satellite service), out of Ottawa, Ontario, called GustoTV.

I have been loving that they were primarily airing programs from Australia, New Zealand and Britain, along with a few from Canadian cooks but they are already going downhill really, really fast and I find that so sad.

Granted the programs were often a year or two behind their debuts I am sure but since I could not get them at all, I was just thrilled to have something that was NOT HGTV or FOOD Tv. These programs really were MUCH better than anything produced in the US in many years (except perhaps by PBS) as far as I am concerned.

It seems that this local entity is now determined to hire people who have never seen anything BUT perky unskilled Food TV type chefs in their lives (or they are told to emulate those) and that they think this is what we want to see. Recent local Canadian programs and hosts have been mostly nauseating to say the least (and I hate to give bad reviews - especially of Canadian endeavours but these are bad!)

They are now making 'original programs' (probably to keep the Canadian content up) that have been getting progressively worse by the week, but the one last night was beyond bad. It was HORRENDOUS.

If you love elevator music (3 bars of which are repeated endlessly - no words), NO introduction, no 'commentary' - not even an explanation about what restaurant one is viewing - other than to let you know that you are looking at live feed from a restaurant on a BUSY Saturday night - for TWO hours straight - and endlessly watching (silent) people standing around twiddling their thumbs, wiping off for the 10th time a group of clean dishes waiting for their contents to be dumped in them or reaching out of camera range for who knows what or surreptitiously licking their fingers (hello, health department - were YOU tuned in?), get GustoTV today!

Me .. I think I am going to cancel. I will miss a few programs but this has just gotten too sad even for a measly $4/month. Canadians - we CAN do better than this! We have Anna Olsen, Ricardo, Michael Smith, and a host of others who already DO better than this by a long shot!

I know busy in Ottawa on a Saturday night is not like busy in NYC on a Tuesday but this was sooooo slow and draggy and I can't imagine they had more than 10 people at tables beyond our view.

Has anyone else ever actually watched a 2 hour 'presentation' like the above? And if you did, was it better than what I have described? And did you like it? Would you think that was a good idea?

Edited August 30, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[Okanagancook]

I do like many of the shows on Gusto but I tuned into that 'live streaming' show from the Ottawa restaurant.  It truly was laughable.  What were the producers thinking?  I don't think I have ever seen anything like it.  It was like they stuck a couple of cameras on the shelf and went next door for a beer while the camera rolled.

 

I get Gusto as part of my Bell package, luckily, so will continue on with some of the shows.  I really like Nick and Paul's road trip.  They are excellent chefs and fun to see what them come up with for a dinner using the local ingredients.  We also enjoy My Kitchen Rules.  A re-run is on at the moment but I understand there is a new series ready for release.  We find ourselves yelling at the TV, 'no, no, don't do that', etc., etc.  Rick Stein's food travels is also a good show.  The current one has him touring India.  I have totally given up on Foodnetwork.

[rotuts]

Im sorry to hear that about  ( abouut ? , eh ? ) that service.

 

ive been an Addict  Student of various cooking shows on TV

 

I indeed had  for free, installation included cable at my former home in CA for a few years w my father,

 

i was able to capture some FoodTV shows on my computer and kept them

 

back when there was Cooking on FTV

 

i have most of MoltoMario etc

 

but back to Canada, eh ?

 

I did see on Google that one of may WingNuts running for Free Money, for Me not You wants to Fence Canada In

 

 

OK  but there are several older shows from North of the Border Ive enjoyed in the past :

 

Chef at Home

 

and French Food at Home.

 

Ive learned a lot from each.

 

of course, FF@Home was a bit 'tastier' w the Montreal FR accent.  just saying

 

Im sorry your go so little for your $ 4 Loons.

 

there are many excellent British shows, one of my Fav.s

 

is Great British menu, now in its "10th"season.

 

BTW  I have FF@ Home   S 1 - 3

 

 

Ill start watching them again.

 

this one :

 

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/french-food-at-home/

 

I do not want to hear there are more that 3 seasons.

'

and these :

 

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/chef-at-home/

 

just saying

 

BTW  thanks for reminding me of FF@Home, eh ?

Edited August 30, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Deryn]

Okanagancook - Thank you. Glad you saw a bit of what I was talking about. Now I know I am not as crazy as I was beginning to think I might be.

I love MKR - it was the reason I subscribed last year - and I too love Rick Stein and Nick and Paul. And there have been quite a few others as well that I enjoyed. On the other hand, I don't think they should try to compete with Netflix by showing 'food-related movies' and guys like Carlo Rota and this new 'I am just leaving home and don't know a thing about cooking' girl make me turn the channel every time. Aside from that there just seems to be a little too much 'perkiness' creeping in lately. And I don't mind their new 'recipe sojourns' (I guess they haven't sold many ads) but they could kill that horrible musak on those too. Hope these trends don't persist. Or maybe I am just getting old. Hope it is them, not me.

There have been many great shows - I am just really sad to see what I have seen this summer. They claimed no re-runs (though that has not been true) ... but .. this experimenting by doing 2 hours in that restaurant is far worse than a re-run in my humble opinion.

I pay over $150 a month JUST for basic Bell tv service, a couple of boxes that work and one which doesn't (but they can't figure out why - meantime I keep paying) plus this one channel. Seems like enough to me but maybe I should be glad it is not $4 US right now. I would be thrilled to dump all the other (non)channels and just pay the $4 for Gusto instead - since when the tv is on, it really is still on that channel most of the time. I don't 'want' to cancel .. I am just tempted to right now.

and rotuts - you are welcome, eh .. I think.

Edited August 30, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[rotuts]

my apologies.  my 'memo' was meant a la tongue in cheek.

 

Im sorry your expenses are so high....

 

cable + cell phones, both expected these days   over the long term a ridiculously expensive.

 

I did take a look at those two canadian food shows and they are still worthwhile to watch.

[Deryn]

I think the PBS site videos are set up to use Flash somehow - and I don't allow Flash on my computer any more so they never work for me these days. I wrote to PBS once to ask why all I ever get is a black screen (and no indication of why they won't play) but they never responded. I will have to stay up late or wait till they come to some other medium near me (perhaps Netflix in a year or two) I guess. But thanks for trying, rotuts.

[MattyC]

I've watched a few 'shows' and streams like this on periscope from time to time, just for kicks. I literally couldn't even figure out the slightest bit of appeal - some of the feeds were from fine dining places, so not only was the music bad ( I believe one place even had some terrible trance music playing as they tweezed the plates),everything was sterile and cold, nobody was smiling, and every plate leaving the pass was wiped down about 30 times more than needed because everyone was just standing around.

 

The only fun part of that was that it was on periscope, which means that everyone watching could comment and chat real time, and everyone was just making fun of it and commenting about how terrible it was to watch.

[Okanagancook]

Deryn, the MKR does have reruns, oh well. That World Kitchen with the different enthnic cooks is fairly annoying too. Too gushy, if you know what I mean. Let's hope for some more bbc and Australian shows.

No more live broadcasts, please!