Wilfrid1 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I suppose this thread will do. I suspect because this is a slow time for sports I've found myself surfing through some food television recently - for this first time in ages. What about this Chopped! thing? It's like a very cut-price Iron Chef. Four unknowns with - from what I've seen - extremely limited cooking ability are given willfully perverse combinations of special ingredients, and charged to prepare dishes using all the ingredients against the clock. The grim results are then presented to quite well-known chefs at what they call the "chopping block", although it just looks like a dining table from a thrift store. The well-known chefs are then fantastically rude about the ghastly food they've been forced to taste. Guiding us through this mess is one Ted Allen, who prefers to bark two or three word phrases rather than speak full sentences: "You have." What do they have? "Thirty minutes." Left to live? "To prepare." You get the idea... Last episode I saw featured obligatory ingredients like cream-of-mushroom soup, almond butter, and collard greens. The collard greens were condemned by the judges as tough and raw. Well, that's because they were given like three minutes to cook them. All strangely fascinating. I didn't see one thing I would have wanted to put in my mouth. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Miguel Gierbolini Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I saw two minutes or three of something called Food Detectives with none other than Ted Allen. It appears to be a food version of Mythbusters. Just plain awful. Box cooking instructions versus throwing pasta against a wall. Instructions won. Who knew? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SethG Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 How did I miss this a year ago-- they're airing old episodes of Baking With Julia on PBS?? Are they still? Nobody told me! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nuxvomica Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 What about this Chopped! thing? sucks monkey ass Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rich Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 What about this Chopped! thing? sucks monkey ass But please tell us how you really feel. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wilfrid1 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 What about this Chopped! thing? sucks monkey ass Pretty much what Scott Conant said about the competitors' cooking in the episode I watched. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Melonious Thunk Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 Food TV has deteriorated as has much of mainstream TV to the lowest common denominator. I rarely stop at the Food TV channel more than ten seconds anymore. But just look at CNN. Hughley Breaks the News. Should be called Hughely Breaks Wind. And that self-important hot shot Rick Chavez is barely tolerable. Essentially, TV that gets major ratings or tries for them sucks monkey ass (to use somone else's term) big time. Without MSNBC, TCM and WNET and the occasional program on the various cable channels, my TV watching would be less than 30 minutes a week. So I see food tv as no different that popular tv. Shit on a hi-def shingle. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OTB Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I will say this about Food Network, is that they were ballsy (perhaps desperate for lack of talent?) enough to bring aboard a real PBS-style cook like Daisy Martinez. If you missed the first run of the 6 pilot episodes on FN, I urge you to tivo the next run. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
StephanieL Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 deleted post Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rich Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 deleted post I just hate when that happens. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nuxvomica Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I will say this about Food Network, is that they were ballsy (perhaps desperate for lack of talent?) enough to bring aboard a real PBS-style cook like Daisy Martinez. If you missed the first run of the 6 pilot episodes on FN, I urge you to tivo the next run. i watched a few episodes and can't say i'm excited about the food or tempted to make any. Daisy is very instructive and detailed just not my speed. I really like Anne Burrell's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and have actually cooked a number of things from the show as everything she makes not only looks so appealing, it's easy to make as well and i don't have a lot of time for elaborate preparations. I love Anne and have worked with her so make of it what you will but she really has inspired me to cook and i think the show is both informative and entertaining. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rich Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I will say this about Food Network, is that they were ballsy (perhaps desperate for lack of talent?) enough to bring aboard a real PBS-style cook like Daisy Martinez. If you missed the first run of the 6 pilot episodes on FN, I urge you to tivo the next run. i watched a few episodes and can't say i'm excited about the food or tempted to make any. Daisy is very instructive and detailed just not my speed. I really like Anne Burrell's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and have actually cooked a number of things from the show as everything she makes not only looks so appealing, it's easy to make as well and i don't have a lot of time for elaborate preparations. I love Anne and have worked with her so make of it what you will but she really has inspired me to cook and i think the show is both informative and entertaining. Her television personality reminds me of Guy Fieri gone awry. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deb Van D Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I will say this about Food Network, is that they were ballsy (perhaps desperate for lack of talent?) enough to bring aboard a real PBS-style cook like Daisy Martinez. If you missed the first run of the 6 pilot episodes on FN, I urge you to tivo the next run. i watched a few episodes and can't say i'm excited about the food or tempted to make any. Daisy is very instructive and detailed just not my speed. I really like Anne Burrell's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and have actually cooked a number of things from the show as everything she makes not only looks so appealing, it's easy to make as well and i don't have a lot of time for elaborate preparations. I love Anne and have worked with her so make of it what you will but she really has inspired me to cook and i think the show is both informative and entertaining. I'm with you here. It actually is a breath of fresh Food Network air, and all too rare, to have both of these shows on. I like Daisy Martinez a lot and find the show mercifully free from the FN schtick, although the food itself doesn't interest me particularly. But I like her style. And Secrets of a Restaurant Chef is the one FN show we really anticipate happily. Anne Burrell is a pleasure to watch, plain-spoken and down-to-it. The food is interesting, approachable and appealing and she has growled herself into our regular rotation. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rancho_gordo Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I thought the Daisy show was full of FN schtick. It's poppa's birthday so we're doing this, or Sonny got an A on hist test so he gets to pick his favorite dish. The food seems awfully pedestrian but I suspect she's much better than she lets on. I think this and Ingrid what's her name make rwo Caribbean shows. How's about an actual show on Mexican food? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Carolyn Tillie Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 How's about an actual show on Mexican food? Rick Bayless' show? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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