I don't care about contests to bake cakes that look like Shrek - The Food Network is 65% crap!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Who is the scheduling genius who has dictated that show upon show upon show be based on baking cakes based on Disney Characters, and other animated movies or recreating the Louvre in spun sugar, etc.

They have completely taken over the programming. They are boring. They are irrelevant for the vast majority of viewers.

For this they tossed out Mario?!

[Warpy]

1. It's the same mentality on HGTV

where they show overpaid yuppies buying overpriced heaps of masonry and then paying beaucoup bucks that are only partially defrayed by the show for some chichi designer to turn them into magazine museums. People who have been foreclosed and downsized into tacky apartments need to know things like how to make the best use of a cramped space and how to make a pleasant environment out of what they salvaged from the ashes of their hopes and dreams.

If I have to watch one more fucking princess insist on granite countertops and monster commercial appliances and then sniff that s/he just never cooks I'm going to put my foot through the screen.

I really hate the food contests, that poor food turned into overworked, overtweaked, over artsy, pretentious swill that I can't imagine having to eat. I mean come ON, people, the economy is now in the toilet and a lot of people are out of work and it's time to teach them basic technique of how to feed themselves without costing a young fortune by cooking it themselves. Food TV has completely missed the mood of the time and what it needs by feeding into the glory hogs and their tortured sugar arrangements.

I really wish someone would rerun the old Julia Child series. She took a whole generation who'd grown up on Campbell's soup and TV dinners and taught us how to COOK. That's really what's needed now, not a bunch of flouncing chefs producing "edible art."

I mean, really!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. I would LOVE that -

imagine a rerun of all Julia's series!

Oh, that would be wonderful.

Fat chance it'll happen...................

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. I went into a french bistro in Williamsburg a couple of years ago

for lunch with a friend and on the widescreen TV over the bar they were playing "The French Chef" with Julia! What a hoot - while you're eating lunch, and tossing back a few Chardonnays, Julia is trussing a duck and laughing her horse laugh in the background. Just fabulous!

[JCMach1]

32. It's been reduced to FOOD PORN

[grasswire]

5. I would even appreciate the old Sara Moulton shows....

...or David Rosengarten. Personable, knowledgeable people with good skills and no shtick. Or Ming, or Mario.

But worst of the worst is Paula Deen.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. I have to agree with the Paula Deen comment

Her food is just ridiculously unhealthy pretty much all the time. I think if someone cooked her food on a regular basis they would be entirely successful in killing off themselves and their family with coronary artery disease - Death by Cookbook!

[kentauros]

10. PBS produced a lot of great cooking shows

with Julia's being one of them. I remember watching The French Chef with my mother in the mid-60s. I also always liked the "Great Chefs" series, The Frugal Gourmet, and Julia's later "Baking with Julia" :)

What really turned me off of Food Network was no vegetarian shows. Maybe they have some now, but the only show I watch at all (by recording on a DVR) is "Jamie at Home". Yes, he cooks meat, but he's heavy on the veggies, especially since it's all vegetables he grows in his very large home garden. I always learn something watching him, or laugh (like when he was chopping onions and tearing up!)

When I remember to watch, there's one of those "educational" channels on the upper end of Dish Network called "Veria". It's a health channel, the latest replacement to "Lime" and before that "Wisdom". I don't know what cooking shows they have, but you can look on their site.


I think we are seeing the future of cable/satellite/internet TV. Go for the broadest market-share, like what happened to the science-fiction channel recently. Appeal to the lowest common denominator and you are assured profitability.

Perhaps the solution is more funding to CPB and PBS, get them off the corporate underwriting teat and producing more of these shows we all grew up with.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

11. I completely agree with your comment about

appealing to the lowest common denominator. IMO, A&E used to have some great shows. I remember watching a 4 hour program that discussed the 18th century woman from poor to aristocrats. Not for everyone, but I was enthralled.

Now 90% of A&E is crap, IMO.

[kentauros]

12. They don't call it the Hitler Channel for nothing!

or is that the History channel? :P
They're interchangeable these days.

I will admit that I learned one thing watching one of the Hitler shows: lip-reading software that can determine words in silent films even when the mouth is not visible :o


A&E also had three of my favorite mystery shows:

Lovejoy - Arts and Entertainment! :D
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (with the only true Sherlock evah, Jeremy Brett)
Poirot (David Suchet was Poirot in every way!)

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

13. Do they still show them?

I just gave up when they mostly started showing mainstream stuff & repeats of law & order 24/7. Or is it CSI? One of those shows.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. LOVED Lovejoy! nt

[beac]

16. Did you know that David Suchet recently reprised his role as Poirot on the "Mystery" series on PBS?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/poirot/index.html

The two episodes were available online for awhile, but appear to be gone now. :( I watched them, and DS has hardly aged a bit and is still very much the "little Belgian."

Glad to hear that Lovejoy is good. It came up as a "recommendation" on my Netflix. I'm a bit of a mystery addict and being TV-free for about four years now, it's nice that there are other ways to enjoy these great shows.

[hippywife]

17. That would probably be the History Channel.

However, I was getting really sick of "Carrier" being shown over and over again. Oh, and a local groaner, Okie Noodling. :puke:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. I can't recall a vegetarian show off the top of my head which is a HUGE vacuum.

Most people I know have cut way back on the meat for either health or economic reasons or both. There is some vegetarian cooking on PBS. An obvious show would be Mark Bittman cooking out of his Everything Vegetarian Cookbook. Does he have a show now anywhere? Talk about an obvious winner!

[Arkansas Granny]

24. Since the digital switch, our PBS station has is now carrying the Create Channel on

one of it's 4 channels. It's a mix of kids programming during some hours and an assortment of PBS' best cooking, craft, travel and home improvement shows for the remainder of the time.

http://www.createtv.com/

[kestrel91316]

25. The cooking shows on PBS are still fairly ok. The "cooking" shows

on cable are utter dreck AFAIAC. Just more reality/game show crap.

Isn't cable where "Semi-Homemade" comes from, lol??? Jesus wept, what a waste.

[kentauros]

26. Cable was simply just another entertainment and information medium.

Given enough time, any medium will be reduced to its lowest common denominator by corporations. That is where they make the most money, so that's the level they always strive to achieve. It just makes me wonder how often DU has been made offers by corporations that want to own it and turn it into nothing more than a money-maker with a sprinkling of "acceptable" politics...

Right now, the Internet is still the best medium for creativity to thrive and not be held down by corporate greed. And, I think there are enough people addicted to it that any throttling of access might actually result in revolutionary reactions ;)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. What happened to the Food Network?

I never watch it any more. Once, it was just about the only thing I watched.

Cakes. That's all it is - cakes. Or that woman with the awful voice who likes mixed and things in jars.

Sometimes, there are more fun food shows on the Travel Channel. I admit that I'm hooked on "Man v. Food," because I think Adam Richman is just a little cutie.....................................

[csziggy]

6. They still have some good shows on, just not on Saturdays

Sunday mornings is when they run the new episodes of the cooking shows, then they drop back into the "Challenge" crap.

I've been watching "Emeril Green" on Planet Green Channel. Emeril Lagasse cooks in Whole Foods stores, teaching how to use locally grown and healthy foods. I never liked him on his other shows, but this one has me hooked.

[grasswire]

8. I didn't know he had a new show.

I actually find him kind of endearing. He's a bit of a dingbat on his cooking live shows, but he's a good person I think. I wish he would lose the belly before the inevitable M.I.

[Warpy]

18. Aw, never trust a skinny cook.

The thing that turned me off to his show on Food TV was that gaggle of self congratulatory yuppies who were his audience/tasters. Feh. I think they recycled them from the pretentious yuppie barn house porn on HGTV.

I'll look for his new show, though, it sounds interesting.

[csziggy]

19. He looks a little fitter than on some of his older shows

The new show is only on Planet Green Network - used to be Discover Home Network, but they are going for the ecology audience. It is pretty much a half hour ad for Whole Foods - the episodes are shot inside the stores, almost all the shopping is done in the stores, and the cooking segments are done at a "kitchen" set up in a store. I think they may travel to different stores for variety and as a promotional thing. The one time I saw them not buy everything inside the store, Emeril went outside to buy locally produced honey at a farmer's market in the Whole Foods parking lot.

Sine I am trying to cook more with locally grown produce (I signed up with a CSA organic gardener for veggies), I've found the new shows interesting. But if you go to the Planet Green website, their organization sucks. Oh well, at least they do have videos of the shows and the recipes from all the shows, just no good way to search for ingredients.

[grasswire]

20. ah, very interesting

I wonder if Martha Stewart (his new boss) owns part of Whole Foods stock.

My favorite episode of Emeril is when he talks about the Chow Mein sandwiches he bought as a kid in Fall River Mass. Or maybe he ate them in shoreline Connecticut. He waxes so nostalgic for those odd treats that I wish I could try them, too.

[yy4me]

33. You can still buy Chop Suey sandwiches at Salem Willows.

If you ever come to Salem Mass for a visit, a quick trip to the Willows to relax is nice. It is a simple park on the waters edge with some outdoor swings and things for the kids. I think the little Chinese restaurant is the only one in the area where you can buy such a thing. Many people love them but I've always passed on that culinary delight.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

34. I went to Salem Willows as a child

and I always remembered it. Very low key, very, very sweet place.

[hippywife]

9. These kinds of shows aren't my cuppa tea, either.

But maybe it's just escapism in this time of economic uncertainty. Kinda like the movies. People know they'll never make a spun sugar tower, but like to watch it done? :shrug:

That said, I think it would be great to have shows that, as Warpy alluded, give people real hard tack knowledge of how to survive right now by teaching them healthy, easy, scratch meals. :hi:

[grasswire]

21. maybe we oughta nominate our Warpy to do a hard-tack show

Nobody knows more about getting along than Warpy, I think. And she's not shy. :-)

[TankLV]

22. I've recently discovered some cooking shows on Channel 14 in Vegas

on Sunday's from about noon to 2pm or so.

There's a French Chef on.

and the local Educational channel on Saturday's around noonish...there's an Italian chef and one who mixes it up with other cuisines like Chinese or Hawaiian, etc...

I am so sick and tired of all these new "reality" "who's the next egotistical prick chef" shows...

[kentauros]

23. The "egotistical prick" factor is what has always turned me off to

Ramsey. I don't care how knowledgeable he is, he represents the worst the food industry has to offer, not the best. I will probably never understand this 'affection' Americans have for the asshole chef. I learned more from the nice ones and only learned to resent my job from the assholes. I also found that the nicest chefs I ever worked for or took classes from were the baking and pastry chefs.

They all had their 'days', but I found the ones that had to run a large kitchen versus a small bakery, had the most stress and they then spread it around. And now some of them make the megabucks being their sour selves on cable TV. Ramsey wouldn't have lasted 3 minutes with Julia. She'd have laid him out on the deck with a frying pan before he knew what hit him! :P

[hippywife]

27. Now THAT I would pay to see!

:rofl:

I think part of the problem with these asshole reality chefs is that is what people who go to work in a restaurant are going to expect as the norm and work for some jerk with ego issues when they really don't have to. I think patrons accept it only because they aspire to it. :eyes:

[Puglover]

31. I totally agree about Ramsey.

Why anyone would want to watch this horse's ass is beyond me. And I agree, I'd give anything to watch Julia take care of this dick.

[Vinca]

28. They're definitely going overboard on cake competitions.

I don't watch it nearly as much as I used to.

[supernova]

29. I watch much less too

I used to like the occasional competition, like the annual gingerbread house competition in Asheville. That's just fun.

But to have it be every other show is too much.

I heard that last year they figured out their biggest audience was actually younger males, teens - 30ish. So the competitions and "conflict" reality shows would make sense in that atmosphere.

But really, it isn't why I like watching food shows. I watch food shows to get away from all that, and maybe learn something too.

[The empressof all]

30. They got rid of Anthony Bourdain....

The network went steadily down the drain since then. It's Foo-tainmaint now. I rarely watch...Though I still get a kick out of Iron Chef and Chopped. I also DVR Ann Burrels show on Sat morning. Otherwise there's nothing worth watching there for me.