Food Network Star: Who Should Win?

[Evo]

Ok, I'm watching all of the episodes this season. This seasons does seems to be going better, they are eliminating the duds upfront, which is a nice change. They canned that weird health food nut this week.

The next person I want to see go is Jamika. She is so fake when she gets in front of the camera, I can't stand watching her. This week is the first week she acted normal and they dinged her for it. Typical of the judges, they love these phony types, I don't get it.

My top three are Michael, Mellisa and Debbie.

Michael is a riot, I think he'd be someone that would be fun to watch. Plus he can cook.

Mellisa, I never would have imagined I'd like her. If she can tone herself down, I think she might be a good show host. She seems to have a good grasp of cooking basics.

Debbie might also be decent with a cooking show. I think she can bring some humor and decent knowledge of cooking to the channel.

Jeffrey started out ok, but he seems to have run out of things to say.

Any of them would be preferable to Rachel (I'm an idot) Ray. OMG, she has started yum-o.org to teach misinformation about food and cooking to children. Way to go! I guess she doesn't feel she has done enough damage to naive Americans watching her regular show.

Anyone else watching?

 

[turbo]

Anyone else watching?

Not me. I couldn't watch the food network (apart from some episodes of Alton Brown's show) back when we actually had cable. The last thing that I would want to watch is a reality-show cooking competition in which contestants are booted one-by-one.

 

[Evo]

The last thing that I would want to watch is a reality-show cooking competition in which contestants are booted one-by-one.

Wimp! :tongue2:

 

[colonelcrayon]

I despise "reality" TV, and most cooking shows bore me. Emeril is awesome though...

 

[turbo]

Wimp! :tongue2:

I couldn't watch "Who wants to be a star" either. After making a pretty good second income for years playing guitar and singing in bars, I couldn't even stand the promotional clips of those singers (ALWAYS singers, it seems!) over-emoting and wrecking perfectly good songs with their histrionics. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard, to me. Same with over-hyped cooking shows. I don't want to watch them unless I think that the host or other participants knows more about cooking than I do. My wife watched Alton Brown, and I'd often get up and wander over to the TV when he started talking about the science behind cooking - even with stuff as simple as discussing the materials and heat-transfer properties of pots.

His show on knife-sharpening made me want to reach through the screen and choke him (I would never subject a fine Sabatier to a belt grinder!), but for most episodes, it seemed that he and his producers actually did some research, and tried to educate the viewers.

Maybe I should make a Youtube video on how to properly sharpen a knife on a water-cooled diamond stone and how to touch it up with a steel between uses. You don't pay $75-150 or more for a top-quality hand-forged chef's knife only to pay some gypsy to overheat the edge with a belt grinder and ruin the careful heat-treating. I admit that I watched that episode all the way through, just to remind myself that the best host on FN could blow it big-time.

 

[Evo]

Maybe I should make a Youtube video on how to properly sharpen a knife on a water-cooled diamond stone and how to touch it up with a steel between uses. You don't pay $75-150 or more on a top-quality hand-forged chef's knife only to pay some gypsy to overheat the edge with a belt grinder and ruin the careful heat-treating. I admit that I watched that episode all the way through, just to remind myself that the best host on FN could blow it big-time.

Yeah, I was really disappointed when I found out that Alton was a video producer when he came up with the concept of the "Good Eats" show and although he went to food classes for the show, he relies on a research staff and does episodes based solely on a script and no actual knowledge of the subject. Oh well, another bubble burst.

 

[turbo]

Yeah, I was really disappointed when I found out that Alton was a video producer when he came up with the concept of the "Good Eats" show and although he went to food classes for the show, he relies on a research staff and does episodes based solely on a script and no actual knowledge of the subject. Oh well, another bubble burst.

That's sad, really. Almost everything I know about cooking I learned from my mother and grandmother, and my wife and I still make lots of stuff from the old family recipes, though we modify stuff to our tastes. I still make bread-and-butter pickles using my great-great-aunt's recipe on my father's mother's side of the family. That recipe has been kicking around since the 1800s, probably. I fear that this whole country is turning into a collection of can-openers and micro-wavers, sprinkled with some radical vegans and other nuts, and very few real cooks. I wish I could tolerate being around people wearing fragrance chemicals - I would gladly volunteer to teach cooking in continuing education classes and perhaps run a lunch-only restaurant with daily specials - no menu. In another generation or so, we might have nobody left who can do it all. If you can't raise hogs, don't know how to slaughter and process them, don't know how to smoke hams and bacon, salt down pork fat, or make sausages and cure them, you are going to be condemned to going to a supermarket and buying over-processed crap made a thousand miles away. Sad.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I watched one season of that show a couple years ago and did not care for it much. All of the contestents seemed overly sappy and silly when ever a person left the show like they were playing it up for the cameras. Nearly all of them had even more phony personalities when they were shooting for the contests. The guy I actually kinda liked won but then was disqualified for having lied about his chefs training and where he served in the military.

I much preferred Top Chef but that show was getting worse and worse by the season. After a while they would spend half the show on interpersonal drama and I would be falling asleep waiting for them to get to the actual cooking.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I wish I could tolerate being around people wearing fragrance chemicals - I would gladly volunteer to teach cooking in continuing education classes...

You could do youtube webisodes (like your knife sharpening class idea) as part of an online cooking blog. I heard a little news bit the other day about stay at home moms that are making money off of their blogs just talking about their daily lives. This of course comes from advertisers who advertise on their blogs and I doubt you would like the idea of letting whom ever is willing to pay you to advertise on your blog page. But if you don't care about making money off it then that isn't much of a problem.

 

[Evo]

Ok, so this week they sent Michael home, as one judge said "people are asking who the guy with red & yellow hair is". Too bad, he could have been the most interesting ooking show host.

Melissa was awesome. She just keeps on surprising me with her food knoweldge and background. They will send her home because she's too knowledgeable.

Debbie turned out to be a piece of work. She lied about what she did. They were given a *team* assignment, and she is the only one that didn't contribute. She spent the entire challenge working on her entries. The when they were being judged she started lying about how much work she had done and how she was just overwhelmed bu how much she had to do. Then melissa (GO melissa!) ratted her out! YAY! There is nothing I hate more than for people to sit there and let someone lie and throw you and others under the bus. Show some spine and tell the judges the person is lying! Also, another thing I like this season is that the judges are watching the video of what the contestants are really doing behind the scenes and also calling the liers out. Love it.

The judges love Jamika and already stated on camera that they will be grooming her to be the winner! OMG, she is the only person left in the competition that I would never watch. She has absolutely nothing to bring, but she is capable of being a shallow peppy perky puppet, which is what they want.

My vote is for Melissa.

 

[Evo]

Update. They kicked Jamika off Sunday before last. That left Jeffrey, Debbie and Melissa. All three very strong contenders.

Sunday, they kicked off Debbie. She just wasn't doing too well.

Jeffrey made a risotto that apparently was a disaster. Of course he had that dingbat health food nut they had previously kicked off as his kitchen assistant, not sure how much she contributed to the failure.

Melissa rocked! This woman is actually intelligent, can cook and knows her food. If she doesn't win, I'm going to be upset.

The "judges" keep saying that they're looking for "star quality" someone that can push a line of pots. :uhh: Yeah, that's what I'm looking for, someone to endorse more junk.

Speaking of junk, I crack up every time Rachel Ray tries to put that lid on one of her pots. It keeps sliding and she has to fight with it to get the lid to stay on. Yeah, I want cookware like that! Not to mention it's hideously ugly. Now she's got stoop stock and olive oil with her name on it. The olive oil was the tiniest bottle and the most expensive. Are there really people stupid enough to buy that? I love how a chef blasted her for her idiotic use of olive oil, using it for high heat frying and grilling. He said you absolutely do not ever use extra virgin olive oil for that, the oil breaks down at high heat, smokes and becomes nasty tasting. He said extra virgin olive oil is something you use for seasoning. Yes, most cooks know that, but thanks to RR, millions of people don't know that and can't figure out what the problem might be.

Season finale is Sunday night.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

You would think that someone who likes to eat as much as I do would pay more attention to the food network. Part of the problem is that I don't watch much TV at all. I just listen while my wife watches mysteries. Do they have a show where the host eats in 5-star restaurants in big cities around the world. That's a show I might enjoy.

 

[turbo]

I love how a chef blasted her for her idiotic use of olive oil, using it for high heat frying and grilling. He said you absolutely do not ever use extra virgin olive oil for that, the oil breaks down at high heat, smokes and becomes nasty tasting. He said extra virgin olive oil is something you use for seasoning. Yes, most cooks know that, but thanks to RR, millions of people don't know that and can't figure out what the problem might be.

Season finale is Sunday night.

Extra-virgin olive oil is used in my marinades, pizza sauce, vinaigrettes, etc, but if I want to sear meat, stir-fry at high temps, etc, I reach for the peanut oil, or at least use a lower-grade olive oil that has been heat-extracted, not the $$ cold-pressed stuff. My wife and I tinkered with various vegetable oils for a while, and we found that we can get by just fine with some pricey cold pressed extra-virgin olive oil, some less expensive heat extracted olive oil, and some peanut oil, and we always have all three on hand. RR needs a bit of schooling. Well more than a bit...

 

[Evo]

You would think that someone who likes to eat as much as I do would pay more attention to the food network. Part of the problem is that I don't watch much TV at all. I just listen while my wife watches mysteries. Do they have a show where the host eats in 5-star restaurants in big cities around the world. That's a show I might enjoy.

Oh, there was a show where they went to fancy restaurants. I would also enjoy a series on that. But, I want to be the show host.

I'm home recuperating from major surgery, so I am confined to sitting in front of the tv all day, so I just leave the food channel on and scream at them every time they do or say something stupid, which is about every 5 minutes.

 

[protonchain]

I have been watching this show since the last season.

I don't love this show but when there's pretty much nothing else to watch (besides hell's kitchen) this is the only other possible substitute.

I AM SO GLAD THEY GOT RID OF DEBBIE. Cannot say that louder. I absolutely abhorred that girl. All she did was play the role of a martyr, and repeat the "I am Korean" thing over and over again. I'm sorry but a selection of spices used in cooking doesn't automatically make it Korean. Coriander is used in other cultures as well you inane monster.

I'm down for either Jeff or Melissa winning. Don't really care which, both of them are good.

 

[Evo]

I have been watching this show since the last season.

I don't love this show but when there's pretty much nothing else to watch (besides hell's kitchen) this is the only other possible substitute.

OMG! Did you watch the 2 hour season premiere last week? Where did they drege up this batch of losers? Can you say "anger management"? And why are all of the contestants chain smokers? No wonder they can't tell the difference between a carrot and a radish in the blind taste test.

I AM SO GLAD THEY GOT RID OF DEBBIE. Cannot say that louder. I absolutely abhorred that girl. All she did was play the role of a martyr, and repeat the "I am Korean" thing over and over again. I'm sorry but a selection of spices used in cooking doesn't automatically make it Korean. Coriander is used in other cultures as well you inane monster.

debbie was the Queen of Weasels.

I'm down for either Jeff or Melissa winning. Don't really care which, both of them are good.

I think Jeff would be good, but since there can be only one, let it be Melissa.

 

[Evo]

So, we're into Next Food Network Star 2010. They are now getting contestants that have some cooking background and have been watching the contest for several years and know what to do.

Not a single one of them is worthy of their own show.

One contestant that's Indian could have had some potential, but she's so incredibly annoying. Her name is Aartie, but she pronounces it "otty" and every time the camera points at her she goes "otty potty!". Good gawd. Someone sedate this woman.

The other woman is an emotional basket case that admits "Real Housewives" is one of her favorite shows.

One guy seems like a really nice guy, but was traumatized by being a fat kid, so he's let his ADD take over. I don't know that I could watch him bouncing off of the studio walls, no matter how good his intentions.

The 4th guy. I'm not sure what his point is, but he hasn't irritated me yet. The contest isn't over though...