Four New Shows on the Food Network

[TrishCT]

Jacques was a lot better looking when he wasn't trying to squeeze into sportwear that's two sizes too small. He's put on a few pounds since the days of Le Cirque...Great chocolatier though..

Sportswear eh...? I can imagine him in speedos.... covered in cocoa butter....

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

Jacques was a lot better looking when he wasn't trying to squeeze into sportwear that's two sizes too small. He's put on a few pounds since the days of Le Cirque...Great chocolatier though..

Sportswear eh...? I can imagine him in speedos.... covered in cocoa butter....

Ghuuurossssss....Hey eGullet deities....can I call upon you to strike that last post by our new friend Trish.

[TrishCT]

awww...Spencer....

[Jinmyo]

Blessed be St. Jacques Pepin, who delivered the tablets of La Methode and La Technique unto the multitudes:

tommy, if Maloub were grilled I could understand her being there. Otherwise, no.

[dave88]

Chef/Writer .... and whomever said FTV changed with the Scripps purchase/debt buyout/Kraft-ConAgra sponsorship got it almost right. All their shows are the same now. Nigellabites=Barefoot count chocula=naked chef=paula's whatever=thirty minute joke=martha out-of-focus=Essence of schlock=.... ITS ALL THE SAME CRAP. Rosengarten's show used to also take one dish and take it all the way. I'd rather watch David Ruggiero's show than Date Plate (GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!).

FTV SUCKS ASS NOW. MAY THEIR STUPID, GREEDY ARSED OWNERS BURN IN HELL. It's not about food now. It's about ratings. Ratings do not = food.

I could write pages on the rise and fall, rise and demise of.

Four years ago I watched it when the TV was on. All the time.

Now, I HATE FTV. IT'S A JOKE. Thanks for NOTHING, TVFN.

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

awww...Spencer....

I couldn't help myself.....

[Echo]

Youch. I can't say I really understand the venom toward the hosts of the programs as opposed to the producers themselves. As for my take on the programming, I'd say that it's satisfactory. There are very few programs that I absolutely must see, but since regular television programming doesn't really do it for me, I often have it on in the background anyway. I look forward to Good Eats because I usually learn something, and if I don't at least I'm entertained by the quirky humour. I've been keeping an eye on Cooking School Stories, but it's mainly of interest to me at the moment because it's topica for mel; I begin my own classes in about a week and a half. Is it a really good show? Probably not. Finally, Iron Chef always amuses me with its over the top drama. There are others that are enjoyable, but those are the three that I make a point to try to see.

The dilemma for FoodTV is keeping the style of its programming varied and interesting. Just as they can only show so many shows where a cook "roasts a chicken", they can only show so many where the host travels to Locale X and samples the local cuisine (Food Nation, A Cook's Tour, The Food Hunter, $40 a Day, Keith Famie's Adventures, Food Finds, Mario Eats Italy, The Best Of, etc.). I think it's a good idea for FoodTV to try to branch out and cover as many areas of food as they can. It's not Cook's TV or Professional Kitchen TV, after all, and they're certainly not in it for the "art" -- they have to make money, and that means appealing to the "foodies", not just the home and professional cooking enthusiasts. I can tell you that I know plenty of people who are enthusiastic abou food yet hae little to no desire to step into a kitchen and prepare it themselves, either at home or in a professional kitchen. Is there anything wrong with that? I don't think so.

The bottom line, I think, is that is they want their programming to become fresh and interesting again (it's gone stale, I think we can all agree), then they need to shake up the formula and take chances. This leaves them open to a failure or two, but if they don't try they have no chance of succeeding and the Network chokes to death on its stale, old programming.

Date Plate looks horrible to me. I won't be watching it, but I'm not about to become enraged at them for trying something outside of the box.

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

Chef/Writer .... and whomever said FTV changed with the Scripps purchase/debt buyout/Kraft-ConAgra sponsorship got it almost right.  All their shows are the same now.  Nigellabites=Barefoot count chocula=naked chef=paula's whatever=thirty minute joke=martha out-of-focus=Essence of schlock=.... ITS ALL THE SAME CRAP.  Rosengarten's show used to also take one dish and take it all the way.  I'd rather watch David Ruggiero's show than Date Plate (GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!).

FTV SUCKS ASS NOW.  MAY THEIR STUPID, GREEDY ARSED OWNERS BURN IN HELL.  It's not about food now.  It's about ratings.  Ratings do not = food. 

I could write pages on the rise and fall, rise and demise of.

Four years ago I watched it when the TV was on.  All the time.

Now, I HATE FTV.  IT'S A JOKE.  Thanks for NOTHING, TVFN.

Wow Dave, tell us how you really feel. I'm going to resign my post as head curmudgeon and hand the crown over to you. I agree with you but don't get yourself banned now. Fat Guy is unrelenting in his enforcement of the eGullet code of ethics...

I loved Rosengarten's show too--the one sans Rudy's ex-wife. He could trash bad food trends like a champ. Now he's editing film on public television or something equally as banal and demeaning. Just goes to show you can't speak up without repercussion...

[dave88]

All --that's every one of-- their new shows have that same annoying choppy editing with extreme close-ups and constantly sweeping camera work. Who needs to see what the molecular structure of flour looks like? What's with this soft-focus crap? I have little or no problems with the hosts, but the producers need to go back to MTV. This does nothing to keep viewers tuned in, in fact it nauseates so much that any viewers gained with shows like "Molto Mario" are lost due to extreme vertigo.

They've taken the food from Foodtv and replaced it with, well, shite. It's not even for casual foodies, it's for the coveted 18-19 year-old male college market who play drinking games while watching Iron Chef then go out for Taco Bell and stuff their mugs full of Chipizza or whatever they serve there.

It's unwatchable.

I'd like to see all these new producers all taken out and hung by the short-hairs.

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

All --that's every one of-- their new shows have that same annoying choppy editing with extreme close-ups and constantly sweeping camera work.  Who needs to see what the molecular structure of flour looks like?  What's with this soft-focus crap?  I have little or no problems with the hosts, but the producers need to go back to MTV.  This does nothing to keep viewers tuned in, in fact it nauseates so much that any viewers gained with shows like "Molto Mario" are lost due to extreme vertigo.

They've taken the food from Foodtv and replaced it with, well, shite.  It's not even for casual foodies, it's for the coveted 18-19 year-old male college market who play drinking games while watching Iron Chef then go out for Taco Bell and stuff their mugs full of Chipizza or whatever they serve there.

It's unwatchable.

I'd like to see all these new producers all taken out and hung by the short-hairs.

The unfortunate thing about perpetuating a channel on food is the barriers it presents with respect to keeping viewers interested. Shows run their course and slip in the Neilson rating--requiring the need to fill those vacancies with viewer friendly replacements. This point has been ground to dirt on this website--myself donating more than a few posts of relentless dissastifaction. It boils down to, like I've said, a group of suit and ties sitting around a long table trying to put their fingers on the pulse of the nation. Sad as it sounds, the state of our nation is in flux--vapid is the modus operendi of the day. Look at music and war. Back in the sixties the war really inspired some great music: CSNY, DOORS, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE etc. Now we've got to endure hick mullets strumming six strings to poorly written tunes about falling towers and flags. The Food Network is just obliging (and capatilizing like pigs) on the square nature of the vast majority of Americans. They put television on air that will reflect the status quo...Guys like us are fringe elements--that receive very little if any voice in the whole...But we are a necessary element of the new frontier. Just hold on...They're will be room for us eventually....

[tommy]

i'm not sure that the demographics presented here are really in line with their target. i know for a fact that my friends and associates who love TVFN are well out of their 20's and spend much more money than those in their 20's. so i suppose the people who are running this major network, and ultimately answer to stockholders, know what they're doing.

it seems that you can't please all of the people all of the time. i bet they figured that out already.

[Ron Johnson]

I thought for sure someone would've shot Keith Famie by now. Guess I gotta do it myself.

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

I thought for sure someone would've shot Keith Famie by now.  Guess I gotta do it myself.

Why kick a dead horse..

[rozrapp]

I loved Rosengarten's show too--the one sans Rudy's ex-wife. He could trash bad food trends like a champ.  Now he's editing film on public television or something equally as banal and demeaning. Just goes to show you can't speak up without repercussion...

I, too, always enjoyed his show. And I even liked the one he co-hosted with Donna Hanover, particularly the cooking segments with well-known chefs. As for what Rosengarten is doing now, I hadn't heard about him editing film, but I know he has his own subscription publication, The Rosengarten Report.

http://www.therosengartenreport.com

[Ron Johnson]

Why kick a dead horse..

Haven't you seen the end of Old Yeller?

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

Why kick a dead horse..

Haven't you seen the end of Old Yeller?

Never saw it...tell me....

[rhubarbd]

This is from a producer/friend at The Food Network:

"HOW TO BOIL WATER is hosted by Frederic Van Coppernolle and Lynne Koplitz. It premiers Tuesday, April 1st at noon & will then air Tuesdays/noon, Thursdays/ 5:30pm, Saturdays/10am."

Frederic used to be at The French Culinary Institute in NYC, where i had the opportunity to work with him for a brief period and found him to be highly professional.

For what it's worth ...

[TrishCT]

TV always has had the power to entertain and enlighten the masses... I for one am glad that FN brought us Mario. There's hope yet....

One more programming suggestion from yours truly... How about showing movies with food themes or food prominently displayed, i.e. foreign flicks like Babette's Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, Like Water For Chocolate, etc.... Willy Wonka... Tom Jones... Blazing Saddles.... Soylent Green ... just for some spice...

[Xanthippe]

Why kick a dead horse..

Haven't you seen the end of Old Yeller?

Never saw it...tell me....

Ack!! I cried buckets the first time I saw "Old Yeller," and that ending can get me to this day . . .

[wingding]

All --that's every one of-- their new shows have that same annoying choppy editing with extreme close-ups and constantly sweeping camera work. Who needs to see what the molecular structure of flour looks like?  What's with this soft-focus crap?  I have little or no problems with the hosts, but the producers need to go back to MTV.  This does nothing to keep viewers tuned in, in fact it nauseates so much that any viewers gained with shows like "Molto Mario" are lost due to extreme vertigo.

They've taken the food from Foodtv and replaced it with, well, shite.  It's not even for casual foodies, it's for the coveted 18-19 year-old male college market who play drinking games while watching Iron Chef then go out for Taco Bell and stuff their mugs full of Chipizza or whatever they serve there.

It's unwatchable.

I'd like to see all these new producers all taken out and hung by the short-hairs.

I'm in total agreement,and then some.I don't even have cable,but can get the food network if I tilt my antenna a certain way.But I just can't stand it anymore.Total vapid,useless dreck,now constantly broken up with endless commercials and promos,just to make it a little more intolerable.Why bother.

[Jinmyo]

Why kick a dead horse..

Haven't you seen the end of Old Yeller?

Never saw it...tell me....

Ack!! I cried buckets the first time I saw "Old Yeller," and that ending can get me to this day . . .

I was traumatized. I'd sue Disney but that Mouse Thing With The High-Pitched Voice gives me the Serious Willies and I don't want It to know where I am.

[Priscilla]

Now we've got to endure  hick mullets strumming  six strings to poorly written tunes about falling towers and flags.

Yeah, I know. I can't stand Bruce Springsteen either.

[elyse]

I really like the American dol idea IF they could keep it pure. Unknown chefs/wannabes ONLY.

Ready Set Cook was originally, I believe, Ready Steady Cook with Ainsley Harriet. We just ripped England off as usual.

Isn't Good Eats still doing repeats? I can't stand the endless repetition of the network. But I would rather see repeats of the quality shows than all of the crap their doing these days. When the network began, I watched it ALL THE TIME. Not to say they didn't sell swill at that time too, but it was fresh swill. And less of it, I think. Sorry to say, I don't watch anything there any more. Including shows I'd actually like to catch like Bourdain's. It's just so far out of my will to tune in since the great drought. Why oh why did they take off Classic Cooks (or whatever it was called)? I mean, never ending material, or what?

I'm depressed.

And wasn't Michelle Urvater doing How to Boil Water for a while? For the life of me I can't remember the other hosts. How To Die A Thousand Deaths?

Edited March 30, 2003 by elyse (log)

[TrishCT]

Perhaps I am in the minority...I like the idea of the FN and enjoy some of their shows very much... Just want them to keep raising the bar...not lowering it....

[NeroW]

This is from a producer/friend at The Food Network:

"HOW TO BOIL WATER is hosted by Frederic Van Coppernolle and Lynne Koplitz.  It premiers Tuesday, April 1st at noon & will then air Tuesdays/noon, Thursdays/ 5:30pm, Saturdays/10am."

Frederic used to be at The French Culinary Institute in NYC, where i had the opportunity to work with him for a brief period and found him to be highly professional.

For what it's worth ...

"Salted Boiling Water" has been on Epicurious.com's "Most Popular Recipe" list for the past hundred billion years.