Favorite Food Shows - Man Vs Food, No Reservations & More

[Evo]

I think I will add a poll later.

I am addicted to food shows. There is a new show on the Travel Channel called Man Vs. Food. It's about a guy that travels around the country taking on restaurant challenges to eat grossly oversized portions of food. Normally I would be appalled, but the guy is funny and likeable and the information on the food and restaurant is interesting. And the food looks yummy.

Other favorites are Anthony Bourdain's "No reservations", Andrew Zimmern's "Bizzare Foods", and Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives". Of course there is Alton Brown's "Good Eats", which differs from these shows since he actually cooks.

Of course in his own category is Gordon Ramsay. I love both "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares". No one can yell and curse the way he can.

Other shows are Bravo's "Top Chef" competition which is interesting from a rotten personalities perspective. Funny, in that series, I find that I am rooting to get the most obnoxious chefs kicked off rather than rooting for someone I like. The series ends with (hopefully) the least obnoxious chef winning.

So what are your favorite food shows? Which other shows should I add to the poll? Please don't say Rachel Ray's "30 minute meals" or Emeril Live, this isn't about food comedies, or would that be tragedies?

 

[Andre]

The ladies here seem to like http://www.jamieoliver.com/tv/the-naked-chef

 

[LowlyPion]

There's also now on other channels Emeril Green. Then there are the segments on Martha, that criminal record and narcissistic considerations aside, offer up reasonable ideas from t2t.

Of course I still find Julia Child shows relevant and even old Galloping Gourmets offer some amusement if only as a window into the past.

Shows like Molto Mario and Sarah Moulton are gone for the most part. And Jamie Oliver is harder to find though I have to say some of his dishes are quite pucker.

 

[turbo]

All I can get on my antenna are broadcast channels carrying major networks. That cuts down the selection quite a bit.

 

[LowlyPion]

Perhaps you need to separate in categories?

Entertainment - Iron Chef, Top Chef, Ramsay's Nightmares, ...
Actual Cooking - Paula, Emeril, Alton, Rachel, ...

 

[Evo]

I'm cooking a Jamie Oliver recipe right now from his "Jamie at home" show, which is really good.

I think my all-time favorite cooking show was the original Japanese "Iron Chef". That show really increased my knowledge of unusual oriental ingredients and cooking techniques. The American version is a sad rip-off.

I've enjoyed the cookings shows with Lidia Bastianich on PBS, she was actually cooking chicken pieces with bone and skin.

 

[Evo]

Perhaps you need to separate in categories?

Entertainment - Iron Chef, Top Chef, Ramsay's Nightmares, ...
Actual Cooking - Paula, Emeril, Alton, Rachel, ...

Yes, I was thinking the same.

Hey, you snuck Rachel and Emeril in there!

 

[hypatia]

Drive Ins, Diners and Dives and No Reservations are the ones I seem to watch the most. Paula Dean is the best for good, down home cooking. But if I did what she did, I wouldn't be able to fit out my front door. It may half to do more with how early I half to be asleep, I really miss a lot of TV.

 

[turbo]

We had basic cable at our old place, a few years back, and about the only Food Channel show I could stand was Good Eats. That's because Alton Brown comes at the subject with science and technology in mind, and manages to touch on some of the basics in almost every show. His show on knife-sharpening was really bad, but most of the others have useful information. His trips to stores to select cook-ware, tools, etc, are usually well-done and he asks "newbie" questions so the store clerk can explain in detail why some feature is desirable or should be avoided. Selecting tools is an important part of cooking.

Our kitchen is tiny with very little storage space, so every pot, pan, skillet, etc has to serve more than one purpose, a point that Brown makes from time to time. For instance, we have a cast-iron Dutch oven, and the lid fits our largest cast-iron frying pan, and the round skillet, too. The lids from our Revere-ware sauce-pans also fit the two smaller Griswold frying pans, etc.

 

[Kurdt]

I eat chocolate bars because you don't have to cook them.

 

[turbo]

I eat chocolate bars because you don't have to cook them.

Obviously, you're not of Scottish descent...

 

[LowlyPion]

Yes, I was thinking the same.

Hey, you snuck Rachel and Emeril in there!

There's Ina, Giada, Bobby, ... no skip Bobby, and Nigella too.

 

[Evo]

There's Ina, Giada, Bobby, ... no skip Bobby, and Nigella too.

Ok, I will allow Bobby Flay's "Throwdown" because at least on camera he's a good sport and it seems sincere. His restaurant makeover show was a flop though. No one can take Kitchen Nightmares and re-do it as well as Ramsay. It just did not work.

Giada and Ina. :zzz: Now, if they cut up a turkey carcass or bone a chicken and get their hands dirty, that would work. I especially liked how Giada came across in her chef profile show, a very likeable person. I just don't ever remember either one of them actually getting down and dirty with their food. I know after cooking I have almost as much on me as in the pan.

 

[Redbelly98]

Yes, I was thinking the same.

Hey, you snuck Rachel and Emeril in there!

Wow, how sneaky is that ?!

 

[turbo]

Believe me, my TV is turned OFF at 11:00 am Eastern, when RR's show is airing. She's as bad as those bimbos on the Early Show - gushing and giggling over every little thing, and talking like her voice has to suffuse every second of the show. Annoying, at a minimum, and it rapidly gets worse from there. Delish! Veggies!

 

[Evo]

Wow, how sneaky is that ?!

AARRGGGHH! Yummo. Delish. Stoop.

I cringe anytime she does a show because she is almost guaranteed to make a false statement regarding the food she is preparing. I don't know if it's the writers that come up with these falsehoods and she doesn't catch it because she doesn't know any better or if she's throwing in these food blunders herself.

 

[Santa1]

HAIRY BIKERS COOKBOOK!

(need I capitalize more?)

I also enjoy the parodic "Pro at Cooking (with Dave)" Online.

http://www.proatcooking.com/

 

[turbo]

AARRGGGHH! Yummo. Delish. Stoop.

I cringe anytime she does a show because she is almost guaranteed to make a false statement regarding the food she is preparing. I don't know if it's the writers that come up with these falsehoods and she doesn't catch it because she doesn't know any better or if she's throwing in these food blunders herself.

I think she's the Sarah Palin of the Foodies. Just enough knowledge to be dangerous, and not enough to know the difference. I have tried not to detest her, because my wife told me that RR admits that her husband is a better cook than she is. After a few shows, it became painfully evident that there are a LOT of people who are better cooks than she is.

I would take her in for a few months (lots of $$$ required). She could sleep on a cot in the garage. I would start her out with several weeks of washing pots and pans, fetching tools, chopping ingredients as instructed, etc, and gradually work up to teaching her to cook, not with what some producer comes up with (scripted), but with what is in the pantry, the freezers, and the refrigerator. Cooking is like jazz or free-form blues - you've got to find some balance and go with it.

After this thread was started, I realized that my favorite cooking show is watching my wife. We had made a lot of space in the refrigerator by using the last of the baked beans, and the last of the hot-sausage and black-bean soup, and after I did up the dishes, she got the urge to cook up another soup. Out to the freezer for some chicken stock, nuke that while browning hamburg, crushed garlic and onions in EVOO (Gah!), then add diced carrots, some of last summer's quick-frozen green beans, fresh brocolli, frozen chopped jalapenos, frozen herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro) from our herb garden, a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of black beans. Tinker with salt, pepper, curry powder, etc, and another winner is born. I am the king of marinades, grilling, smoking, etc, but I usually cede soup-making to my wife. She loves it, and the results are wonderful.

Later, we made up another big bowl of roll-up filling and refrigerated it so the flavors would mix, and tomorrow night we'll roll that in wonton wrappers and bake them off. Secrets to making that filling really great include hot pickled chilies, ground cumin seed, fresh cilantro, and some fresh-squeezed lime juice. The shredded chicken, shredded cheeses, black beans, garlic, onion, etc can stand alone pretty well, but those four extras make a big difference. Note: it is easy to over-do the lime juice because chicken and beans are relatively mild in flavor.

Edit: For those who like using fresh lemon or lime in dishes - if you nuke them lightly before juicing them, you'll get a lot more juice out of them than if you juice them cold.

Extra Geek Edit: I think this works by expanding the juices in the citrus fruit and rupturing the cell membranes so that you get more juice out, and discard less into the compost. (You DO compost, right?)

 

[Evo]

Man V. Food

This guy rocks!

OMG, OMG, OMG! He's eating a pasta with three ghost chilis in it. Ghost chilis are the hottest peppers on earth, hotter than habaneros. He's crying.

 

[LowlyPion]

AARRGGGHH! Yummo. Delish. Stoop.

I cringe anytime she does a show because she is almost guaranteed to make a false statement regarding the food she is preparing. I don't know if it's the writers that come up with these falsehoods and she doesn't catch it because she doesn't know any better or if she's throwing in these food blunders herself.

Her recipes are a little coarse and unrefined, but then she is trying to hold down the slam-bam end of the food preparation spectrum; rodeo calf roping in the kitchen kind of food where time to prepare is the metric - bring the dinner to ground and tie off 3 legs kind of cooking. There are some possibilities there, but she is certainly not the next Martha.

I think Sarah Moulton did a better job of pulling off real time constrained menus, but she did it within an hour format and not 30 minutes.

RR's utensils are for the most part really overpriced. Slightly OK quality, done in her silly orange motif but way overpriced. Martha did a far better job through Kmart, as their prices are ok and the things are fairly sturdy and design considered.

 

[Redbelly98]

AARRGGGHH! Yummo. Delish. Stoop.

I cringe anytime she does a show because she is almost guaranteed to make a false statement regarding the food she is preparing. I don't know if it's the writers that come up with these falsehoods and she doesn't catch it because she doesn't know any better or if she's throwing in these food blunders herself.

Ha ha, if you didn't have your super-Mentor powers I'd be reeeeeal tempted to make RR my new avatar

But don't worry, I will not do that.

 

[Evo]

Ha ha, if you didn't have your super-Mentor powers I'd be reeeeeal tempted to make RR my new avatar

But don't worry, I will not do that.

Don't you dare!

Ok, everyone needs to watch Man V. Food tonight on the travel channel. I think they have three different shows on tonight. He's going to eat insanely hot food.