Great Chefs Magazine

[cabrales]

I recently purchased the inaugural issue of "Great Chefs Magazine", which is described as being related to the Discovery Channel's Great Chefs series ($5.99). eGullet member Marc Cosnard des Closets is noted on the cover as furnishing an article on "Navigating the New". Marc is among the contributing writers to the magazine.

A sample of contents:

-- Steamed mussels recipe, and Vanilla Parfait, from G Perrier of Le Bec Fin, Philly

-- Corn flan, and Baby Rack of Lamb with French-fried Shepherd's Pie, from D Burke of Park Ave Cafe, NY

-- Cedar planked salmon, Veal Steak with Jerkey Sauce, and Asparagus In Ambush with Ozark Country Ham and Crowley Cheese with Parsley Sauce, from L Forgione of An American Place, NY

-- Quail Farci with Black Truffle Risotto, from Julian Serrano of Picasso, Vegas

-- Rack of Lamb with Black Bean Sauce and Salad, and Swordfish Porcupines and Chayote Remoulade, from Michel Richard of Citronelle, DC

A good 85%-plus, in my assessment of the magazine consists of recipes from tapings of the Great Chefs series, with accompanying summaries of chefs' biographies as appropriate.

Marc furnished a piece on MICRI, the "miracle sauce base" or a neutral sauce base that Chef Miguel Sanchez Romera of one-starred Restaurant L'Esguard in San Andres de Llaveneres (Sant Andreu de Llavaneres in Catalan) has been pursuing. MICRI is "a gel derived from Cassva, a starchy root vegetable also known as yucca or manioc . . . . MICRI is odorless, colorless, tasteless and fat-free. . . ."

[southern girl]

Cabrales...would you buy the magazine again?

[cabrales]

southern girl -- Since I do not cook, I generally prefer food magazines that have more of a balance towards non-recipe articles. The magazine would be more attractive if I could cook and have some possibility of executing the recipes included. That being said, I would probably buy a couple more editions of the magazine. Note, however, that I buy almost all available food magazines.

[Bux]

Marc was kind enough to have shared his article on MICRI in a thread on Miguel Sanchez Romera's restaurant, L' Esguard, in Saint Andreu de Llavaneres, near Barcelona. in the Spain dining forum back in May, prior to publication in the magazine.

[Fat Guy]

Cabrales: You don't cook? Have you mentioned this before? If you feel comfortable discussing it, is this because you don't know how, you don't have the time, you don't have the facilities, or you don't like to?

[cabrales]

Steven -- When you have a chance, could you consider discussing what you intend by the word "before" (e.g., to anybody in my life; in English or en francais aussi?; taking PMs with other members into account or not; taking into account Q&As or not). Note that for me, in general, subject to certain exceptions, I find my own lack of personal familiarity with the techniques of cooking to subjectively be an impediment to cooking in my case.

[Basildog]

You 2 are just being silly..carry on

[cabrales]

Note at least certain of the recipes from the Great Chefs Magazine can be obtained from the series' web site:

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/greatche...ppetizer91.html

(Asparagus in Ambush recipe included in the magazine)

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/greatche..._dessert02.html

(Chocolate Brownie Souffle with Bitter Chocolate Sabayon from Bardley Ogden of Lark Creek Cafe, SF, also included in the magazine)

[Fat Guy]

Cabrales: You should learn to cook. It will increase your enjoyment of restaurant dining. New thread if you like.

[Holly Moore]

Steven -

If you are speaking solely of Cabralas, I can't disagree, as it is up to her to decide.

If you are making a general observation I must disagree. While some diners are better served by developing cooking skills, I know of two instances where the acquistion of those skills has made said diners intolerable as diner companions.

One case was a former Philadelphia food writer / critic. His criteria for judging a chef's worthiness was whether a chef's kitchen could prepare a dish at least as good as the food writer could in his home kitchen.

The other was a friend who went from zero cooking knowledge to what he considered total knowledge. He was always happy to share his knowledge with a chef who blundered over to our table. Happily the chef always took it in good humor when this helpful guy passed on Cooking 101 techniques to the chef.

Some people are better off if they limit their food knowledge to reading the menu, chewing and swallowing.

[guru]

Cabrales..., i also ran into a copy of that magazine. I thought it lacked serious. All i could understand is that it was a collection of recipes that seemed a little old. Besides the chef's pictures also seemed old. There surely are a few good recipes in that mag but I'TS NOT FOR ME. What do others think of it?

[thefoodhunter]

Thanks for your comments about the magazine. I will forward them to the publisher. Great Chefs magazine is meant to be a paper version of the show with recipes from the archives and chef profiles too. My column is meant to discuss products that have been used by some of the chefs. My next one will be about an olive oil from Nice that is made almost by hand and was used by Michel Troisgros.

[cabrales]

My next one will be about an olive oil from Nice that is made almost by hand and was used by Michel Troisgros.

Marc -- Could the oil happen to be...

[Steve Klc]

OK, rant coming.

There's nothing wrong with leveraging old content--especially in a vanity publication as this seems to be--if that content is updated, freshened or value-added in some way--like by adding a few chef's notes that may have been cut from the actual television broadcast or some editorial comments perhaps by the producer or director of the spot. I suspect Marc's interesting column and the other new content will determine whether the venture sinks or swims. I hope it doesn't turn into another print outlet for celebrity food authorities and freelancers to dump articles their larger circulation glossies don't want. Excuse me, but do we really need Mo' Mariani?

There's value in old content--especially if someone smart annotates or explains its influence on current cooking, its place in history or the timeline--but that takes work--and you have to pay someone to develop that. My fear is this is simply leveraging--trying to make a buck, any buck, off of older content

That said, my overall impression of the Great Chef shows is not favorable--and this is just an impression of watching maybe 50 episodes from various series--not something researched. I wonder what value is really there in the show "archive." Not much on my radar. Whenever I happen upon a show it is more often than not dated, it appears to be 5-8 years out of date or a repeat, poorly filmed, framed, etc. I feel like I'm watching the B movie equivalent of an actual film--occasionally diverting but neither arty enough nor interesting enough nor campy enough to actually be a good B movie--and rarely do I feel I'm watching a "great" chef. I'd settle for an interesting one. If anything, the shows I've watched convince me chefs are uncomfortable in front of people, in front of a camera. Frankly, I'd rather read Marc's descriptions of what the chef intended and demonstrated and have more comments extracted from the chefs themselves by a skillful interviewer--someone who knows food. (At least we can revel in the absence of silly benign shills like Sissy Biggers and Gordon Elliot.) The calmly reassuring narrative voiceovers--dropped in from the ether rather than from a visible interactive host--drive me nuts, though. So does the omnipresent hum of a range hood. It pisses me off that 75% of the time I tune in to see bad old French pastry or stupid archaic American plated desserts which have no relevance anymore--or what seems like bad German/Swiss/Austrian cooking. I guess I'm not subjectively pre-disposed to like the Hawaii shows or the New Orleans shows either, so I won't even comment on them.

These days, though, this media strategy seems ill-advised: re-packaging older content, older ideas into a new paid-circulation print publication rather than making it available on the web in an archive for free or for a slight fee. It will be interesting to follow Marc--who is erudite and knowledgeable, and as Bux has already noted, has been generous with us here at eGullet. But first impression--almost all of this should be on the web, freely archived and accessible. It would save alot of paper.

[SteveW]

The Great Chef series is not on the Discovery Channel for the fall season. What happened to it? Hope it is not cancelled. If it is on the television schedule on another network Marc Cosnard des Closets(excluding Discovery Home & Leisure Channel, where they air the older episodes), please tell me. Presuming it is still in production, where in the world are the Great Chef series filming this year? It wouldn't make sense to start Great Chefs magazine, but discontinue the television series

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Steve

[Rachel Perlow]

Great Chefs magazine is meant to be a paper version of the show with recipes from the archives and chef profiles too.

What is the point of doing a companion magazine for a show that doesn't appear to be on the air anymore?

[dave88]

It's not on!

[thefoodhunter]

Thanks for your concern about the show and your faithful following. There have been changes at our broadcaster Discovery. 323 Great Chefs shows begin airing September 30th on Discovery's Travel Channel. They'll air four shows per day, Monday through Friday, and two shows each on Saturday and Sunday, including 20 new episodes. These changes are common practice in the world of cable TV.

Re the look that many viewers criticise as being old. The show has been around for 18 years so many of the older episodes are mixed in with new ones. If you're lucky you may even catch Emeril in the early days when he started his culinary career.

The onmi present sound of a hood or pots and pans clanking comes from shooting in live kitchens. It gets real hot in the kitchen if we turn the hoods off. I can't tell you how many times when we are shooting that I have to hand a pair of tongs, a plate or a pan past the camera to the other chefs in the kitchen so that they can serve their customers. Most chefs are not TV personalities. Today many chefs go to media training schools to learn how to pander to the camera. That is not what great chefs aspires to. We try not to shoot with chefs once they have embarked on a TV career.

Up coming shoots include more Paris, Australia and Asia. We were supposed to go to Asia for 3 weeks last September 14. We didn't for obvious reasons. It takes close to six months to a year between shooting and post production to get the shows on the air. Unfortunately our director and editor John Beyer passed away last spring but we are reorganizing and had a wonderful opportunity to launch a magazine this year. It may not be to everyone's taste but really, what is?

[SteveW]

Marc, which part of Asia are the Great Chefs crew planning to go this time? From my knowledge(mostly based on knowing the Hong Kong restaurant scene fairly well), the top chefs in Asia with an exception or two(excluding the chefs that appear on the Japanese Iron Chefs program). are totally anonymous to the public. I would like to see the top Asian-based chefs in action, creating their best dishes.

Just curious, has the Great Chefs organization seriously considered, doing a series of shows in Canada? Thanks for responding to my yesterday posting.

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Steve

[thefoodhunter]

In Asia we plan to go to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. In Australia we plan to go to Sydney and Melbourne. Re: canada, yes we have considered it but our shoots are driven by client demand from broadcaster countries. If a given broadcaster in a territory wants to buy our show we would be more inclined to shoot in that country. It is after all a business, albeit the most fun one I have ver been involved iwth.

[SteveW]

Is their quick way Marc, to know when any of the 20 new episodes of Great Chefs of the World, will air anytime soon(I have all the previous episodes '... of the World' series on videotape)? Now I need to check the Travel Channel website daily, to their daily schedule of the 4 different episodes descriptions, but it's very very time consuming. Previously Great Chefs had their own website, which listed every episode, & any upcoming airings. Actually I'm looking for information of episodes #1 to #30 of Great Chefs Great Chefs(all these episodes I don't have on videotape).

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Steve

[cabrales]

It appears that Great Chefs Magazine has a sibling. CuisineMedia published its premiere issue of Cuisine Tours. Apparently, in this 9 times a year publication, each publication will feature a summary of some background information about the restaurants of a given city/region, coupled with certain recipes. I wonder whether the same base of recipes is being drawn upon as the TV versions.