Why do you love cooking shows?

[hsm]

This doesn't count that Ciao, America! show that FNTV reduced Mario to.

Amen. Before the first viewing, I was so excited that they were putting one of my favorite TV chefs into one of my favorite countries. Then, the watching. Gah.

That may have been the moment FNTV went into the sinkhole for me.

I loved watching people cook who seem to do it out of a passion for the food.. and for sharing, teaching others from their passion ..

Good times!

[emilymarie]

I am a PBS junkie. Colomeco's Food Show on PBS is my favorite show. He will pick a subject for the day--chefs who are couples or armagnanc or a particular restaurant such as the French Laundry--will visit that restaurant, etc., etc., take you behind the scenes, and will then make a dish inspired by his recent adventures at his house. He's funny, completely unassuming, and very very likeable. His is my favorite show on television.

Then there's Lidia, who I love because of her heavy hand with the cheese and olive oil. I also enjoy Charlie Trotter's Kitchen Sessions. Can't stand Ming or Johnson & Wales, but only because they make everything seem so sterile and non-sensual.

I agree with a lot of people's posts about the Food Network. I loved the Food Network of Sara Moulton and Cooking Live. It feels like all they show now is Unwrapped (product placement for advertisers??).

[jgarner53]

I really prefer learning something - watching the people on TV demonstrate what they love, rather than some insipid talking head yammer on about how they make Tootsie Rolls. In another life, he'd be a TV weatherman, and he knows it.

Julia, Jacques, Martin Yan, the Galloping Gourmet, Jeff Smith, Alton Brown, and Mario, too.

Iron Chef's good just for the entertainment value. I love the one where they're wrestling the live octopus, and it just jumps out of the guy's hands and slithers all over the stage floor. (It's in the opening credits, too)

[Behemoth]

As I watched Diana (age 14) make her first batch of larb today, I watched her weild the knife.  The big ass chef's knife.  Sharp, sharp, sharp.

She commented that "it's a good thing it's really sharp.  I'm less likely to cut myself."  When quizzed, she admitted that she learned about The Knife from St. Jacques.  Watching those shows taught her how to use the knife, how to care for the knife.  Which knife to use for what.

His shows were all about learning how to do what.  Not entertainment porn.

She's currently whisking up a vinagarette, with aplomb.  Lessons learned from the two J's.  Julia and Jacques.

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True that, my favorite shows are technique shows. I was able to make pasta, pie pastry, an omelette, etc successfully on the first try all from watching those types of shows. I picked up a lot of things from watching my mom cook, and these shows filled in the gaps on things she didn't make a lot of.

I always come away with something useful when I watch Julia & Jacques. There should be a FoodTV 2 (like they did with MTV) for people who aren't complete novices in the kitchen. Most of those shows are really dumbed down. I guess by and large I prefer the PBS shows.

[Sartain]

I started cooking in 1994 after catching a couple of episodes of the early Molto Mario. That was two degrees, two cities, and three four apartment/houses and many, many hours in the kitchen ago.

Yep, it was a TV show on the Food Network that kick-started my passion. And just last Saturday I enrolled in Culinary School.

But I second what's being said here about the Food Network. Please, someone explain to me why Sandra Lee has a cooking show??? The day I saw her rolling Betty Crocker chocolate icing in cocao powder and calling it a truffle was the day I gave up on the Food Network.

[lala]

I grew up learning to cook from Julia - Saturday mornings always found me in front of the TV, pen and pad in hand, scribbling notes (this was well before VHS, you young'ens...).

I love a good cooking show to learn new things, and I like food travel shows, to 'armchair travel'. I like learning the 'why', but sometimes Alton's a bit too 'cute' for me.

However, I have to admit, that after a long day, it's almost as fun to watch a bad cooking show, just so I can yell at my tv. Won't say who I yell at, I bet you can guess. Hey, it's better than kicking the dog...

[Mottmott]

I find the PBS shows most interesting overall because I'm most interested in those that focus on the food, techniques, and things I might like to try. I'm only half interested in shows that are as much travelogue as cooking show, and am really turned off by shows that distract from the food with their kids and friends (unless the friend is another chef). I have my own kids, grandkids, and friends, thank you. I don't have my own chef.

In short, I'm a grumpy task-oriented cooking show viewer for whom personality is a plus only if it doesn't upstage the food. Rose Berenbaum's series has just begun in my area. She's my idea of the perfect food show chef: a charmingly mousey teacher type who commands your attention by her absolute command of her subject. I like knowing that if you're making caramel with brown sugar that it's useful to use a white spatula so you can really see the color, that it's ready at about 300F unlike white sugar caramel that's ready at 360F. How can you not love someone so into useful detail?

I also like watching professional chefs such as Trotter and Ming because of their very strong personal way of putting food together.

[chiffonade]

I've loved cooking shows since I used to scan my seven or eight channels with my wire-attached remote control in search of that overhead shot of someone stirring a pan.

Nine out of nine and a half times, it was the Frugal Gourmet on PBS.

These are some of the reasons I gravitated to cooking shows...

* It was a subject that interested me.

* I felt that cooking was a valuable skill.

* I wanted to learn new techniques and dishes.

* I felt like in some way, the cooking host/ess was a "kindred spirit."

* I have always maintained that food is more than gasoline for the body. TV Cooks are generally passionate people who love feeding their friends and famlies well. (Until, of course, Sandra Lee came along.)

I loved watching the old Julia shows and how she made seemingly shee-shee dishes seem..well..do-able. I loved the Frugal Gourmet (scandal or no scandal) and how he associated food with spirituality and family. I love any cooking segment that features Martha Stewart because she uses top-shelf ingredients and her kitchen is The Playboy Mansion for the foodie. I love Ina Garten because she has a real desire to achieve the utmost flavor in her food - and she's not afraid to use a bit of butter to get there. I loved Pierre Franey because of his almost comic book appearance. Daughter was a baby when his show aired and she knew the theme song. The show would start and she'd stop dead in her tracks and say, "Look mommy, it's Pew-R Fraynee!!"

Even if I don't intend to make any of their food - like the chocolate spectaculars created by Jacques Torres, I'll watch the show because I might pick something up that I will use - or translate an idea into something feasible for me.

What drives me crazy...Hmmmmmm....

* TVFN's Over-Emerilization of its network. Emeril Lagasse has the right to make two statements simultaneously: TVFN made my career; and TVFN ruined my career.

* I once watched a show featuring Debi Fields (Mrs. Fields' Cookies). She had her lion's mane of hair hanging all over the place. Then, the camera zoomed in on her open hand to showcase an ingredient and you could see where her nails ended and the fake nails began! WTF?

* Sandra Lee - This hack flies in the face of all the work put in over the years by people who really cook to get the rest of the world to see it's a worthwhile undertaking. Cake mix and Pillsbury Tube Dough, my big Fat Italian A$$. Further to this...

* The DUMBING DOWN of TVFN. It was once a haven for real cooks who wanted to learn real techniques by respectable well-known chefs. Now it's a festering ground for junk like Unwrapped, The Secret Life Of... and of course, Semi-Homemade.

[Mottmott]

Thought I'd query: I saw Pepin in his new series and he moves as though he's in pain, possibly with a slight hitch/limp in his walk. Anyone? Maybe I'm imagining things..

[laurenmilan]

But I second what's being said here about the Food Network.  Please, someone explain to me why Sandra Lee has a cooking show???  The day I saw her rolling Betty Crocker chocolate icing in cocao powder and calling it a truffle was the day I gave up on the Food Network.

Is it possible to have an anti-cooking show? Because if it is, she's the "pioneer".

Sandra has a cooking show because her hubbie, a CEO of an infamous home construction co., bankrolled it. He even gives out freebies of her god-awful book to new owners of his "semi-homemade" houses (from the looks of things, his houses fall apart as quickly as one of her icing-and-angel-food-cake creations).

That, and it's profitable to have a TV show that makes loves to Kraft Foods in every episode.

I am generally against the pop-culture shows, but I do find "secret life of" interesting (it would be infinitely funnier with Good Eats' Nutritional Anthropologist hosting though!) And I'm not just saying that because a friend of mine was on an episode making Cornish pasty (mmmm, suet).

I think regular guy/gal in the kitchen cooking shows ARE entertaining enough in their own right, they don't need a band or bad jokes or what have you. But then again, I'm easily amused... I find Julia Child freakin' hilarious at times...

Edited November 16, 2004 by laurenmilan (log)

[Kevin72]

Is it possible to have an anti-cooking show? Because if it is, she's the "pioneer". 

So if Sandra and real cooking ever came into contact the universe would cease to exist?

[chiffonade]

So if Sandra and real cooking ever came into contact the universe would cease to exist?

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The world may not cease to exist, but the scenario would look a lot like Scrooge on Christmas morning (after the epiphany).

[mrsadm]

Thought I'd query: I saw Pepin in his new series and he moves as though he's in pain, possibly with a slight hitch/limp in his walk. Anyone? Maybe I'm imagining things..

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I have not seen the show but did read in his autobiography that some years ago he had a very serious car accident. Could be those aches and pains are showing up now.

[monavano]

I grew up watching PBS shows in Philadelphia, PA. The line up there was always great. Certainly much better than the present day line up in VA where i live now. I mean BBQ U.?. I miss Maria's Cucina show and was even intrigued by a show on PA Amish cooking, where at the end of each episode, the host would don white gloves to handle and explain a particular quilt.

Food Network has got a lot of great shows, and some stinkers including Sandra Lee. Everyday Italian is growing on me. The recipes are pretty simple and loaded with cheeses, which can't be bad. But, it grates on my nerves that Giada breaks into an italian accent whenever she mentions an italian ingredient.

[Wine_Dad]

While I'm a big fan of cooking shows, I have a problem with the Top Five, Unwrapped, $40 a Day, and any show sponsored by a product that does not occur naturally.

Anyone ever notice how Kraft's cheese products have their price fluctuate proportionately with the price of oil? What the hell are we doing letting them have a cooking show.

We need to get back to basics. How to make good, tasteful, wholesome foods using real ingredients. Do people really believe that North Americans are obese because of what they eat? We're not fat because of what we eat, it's because of how much we eat.

Give me a cooking show that uses butter and serves up a delicious, properly portionned meal any day. What do I get instead? A show where all of the crap that goes is has been squeezed out of a machine, injected with chemicals, and could be identified by it's chemical symbol.

BTW - $40 a day isn't living it's panhandling.