Questionable Skills of Cooking Show Hosts on Food Network

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The discussion critiques the quality of cooking shows, highlighting a trend where many hosts lack formal culinary training. Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, and Rachel Ray are specifically called out for their perceived inadequacies in cooking skills, with claims that they rely on scripts and teleprompters rather than genuine expertise. Viewers express frustration over the lack of educational content in these shows, noting that they fail to teach fundamental cooking techniques or the science behind cooking. The conversation also laments the decline of traditional cooking shows that featured knowledgeable chefs, contrasting them with the entertainment-focused format of current programming. Alton Brown's "Good Eats" is mentioned as a rare exception that combines cooking with scientific explanations. Overall, there is a call for more authentic cooking content that emphasizes skill and knowledge over personality and entertainment value.
  • #31
I enjoy Bobby Flays throw-downs, and I adore Paula Dean, and Alton Brown. I have borrowed many of their cooking tips. I've also enjoyed Diners, Drive in and Dives, some of my favorit places to eat are little mom and pop joints.
I did give Sandralee, Giada and Rachael fair viewing time, and will still watch Giada's show from time to time. More so to figure out how she eats so much pasta and stays thin.
I'm with Moonbear on the Rachael Ray voice, aagghhhhh it makes me nuts to hear her talk.
 
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  • #32
ZapperZ said:
I think these shows have not only content about food preparation techniques, but also the historical and cultural connections. For me, learning about the social aspect of food is almost as fun as the food itself. I get more appreciation for the food, especially the exotic ones, even if I don't find them too appetizing. You have at least a degree of respect on why such-and-such is eaten and part of some culture's diet. I love those kinds of stories about food.Zz.
Do you watch Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel? I LOVE HIM! He really talks about the culture and the history and how to eat the food.

http://travel.discovery.com/tv/bizarre-foods/bizarre-foods.html
 
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  • #33
Evo said:
Do you watch Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel? I LOVE HIM! He really talks about the culture and the history and how to eat the food.

http://travel.discovery.com/tv/bizarre-foods/bizarre-foods.html

Yup! I love that show. I also used to like Anthony Bourdin when he was doing something similar. Now he's doing way too much preaching in his No Reservations show.

Zz.
 
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  • #34
I've had a hunger for baklava lately--I think its part of the cabin fever I've been going through in the last few days.

http://candiedquince.ca/wp-content/baklava04.JPG
 
  • #35
When it comes to pastry, I tend not to like the rustic stuff... I never liked baklava for that reason. Then again it's very hard to find good pastry here in NA, so baklava might be on top of many other things. :S
 
  • #36
I love Baklava.
 
  • #37
Most of the time its more pastry--but --ooohh myyy---that filling!-----drool!



-------------------

Anyone want to make me some?

(you WILL be aptly rewarded)
 
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  • #38
On another note, Evo, I think you're not digging deep enough. Food TV reflects the state of the general food culture in America. While it is better than what it was before, it's still fairly sketchy. There's almost no emphasis on either technique or patience, without which the highest culinary criteria can just not be met. It's all about minimizing cooking time while mitigating the importance of expertise. Attacking Food TV is a noble cause, but it doesn't address the actual problem.

Most of the time its more pastry--but --ooohh myyy---that filling!-----drool!
-------------------

Anyone want to make me some?

(you WILL be aptly rewarded)

The filling is actually quite simple to prepare. You need crumbled nuts, mostly almonds I believe (I know almonds aren't nuts, but let us not get technical), and a simple sugar syrup prepared in a sauce pan (I'm not sure on this... I know it has to have a pasty consistence though). Cinnamon complements it quite well.
 
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  • #39
I like the ones made with honey
 
  • #40
Werg22 said:
The filling is actually quite simple to prepare. You need crumbled nuts, mostly almonds I believe (I know almonds aren't nuts, but let us not get technical), and a simple sugar syrup prepared in a sauce pan (I'm not sure on this... I know it has to have a pasty consistence though). Cinnamon complements it quite well.

Walnuts are terrific in baklava...but taste them first to make sure they're not bitter.
 
  • #41
Werg22 said:
There's almost no emphasis on either technique or patience, without which the highest culinary criteria can just not be met. It's all about minimizing cooking time while mitigating the importance of expertise.

I agree with this. When I watch a cooking show, I want to be able to jot down what they're doing and be able to replicate the recipe without having to hunt for it on some website...if I haven't seen all the steps, I might as well just have a cookbook rather than watch TV for recipes. Since I am already pretty fully competent at following cookbook recipes of any complexity, and fairly decent at throwing together my own combinations of ingredients based on concepts I've already learned about cooking, the only reason I'd really want to watch a cooking show is to pick up techniques that are better learned by watching than from reading about them. For example, the old PBS shows used to teach you how to make a roux, and would show you the color as it cooked, so you could learn from watching when it should be done, something you can't quite get from a cookbook. I never see anything like that on Food Network. Instead, they show you the easy side of it...a bunch of chopped up onions or peppers on a cutting board tossed into a pan that they never show the inside of (probably because they aren't actually cooking and will soon swap out the pan with all the raw ingredients for the one with the finished product).

For entertaining cooking shows, does anyone remember the show "Yan Can Cook" from PBS? I used to love that show...that guy was hilarious, and it was amazing to watch him handle a knife.

I'd love to see more shows on various ethnic cuisines. I never see anything like that, and I'd love to know how to use different spices and ingredients. I don't need a cooking show to tell me how to make basic American foods, or Italian foods, I need one to teach me to make dishes I can't otherwise get around here. Though, I was informed that the dinner I threw together last night because I was just too tired to cook anything else was very similar to a Korean dish (my house guest since last week is Korean). The only difference is the Korean dish has rice where mine had pasta, and the Korean dish serves it with a thin layer of scrambled egg on top.
 
  • #42
Moonbear said:
For entertaining cooking shows, does anyone remember the show "Yan Can Cook" from PBS? I used to love that show...that guy was hilarious, and it was amazing to watch him handle a knife.
Yes! He was great! I loved it when he made the chicken dance. See, you can have an instructional cooking show with entertainment.

I guess what's upset me the most about Food TV is the show "Next Food Network Star". The panel of Food Network Executives giving their non-cooking critique pretty much sums up the current mindset of the channel. They want someone high energy, smiles alot, can babble while throwing stuff into a pan while using the most atrocious cutting and cooking techniques I've ever seen. The future stars were unable to fillet a fish, a couple of them didn't even know what it meant. One guy was so bad that when the task was to "julliene" a vegetable, he chopped it into cubes.
 
  • #43
I actually don't care for Yan Can Cook. I think he was more interested in showing off than anything else. And if you pay attention closely, the dishes he prepared tended to look the same or tasted the same. Chinese cuisine is a lot more varied than that.

I agree with Evo on that "Next food Network Star" thing. I hate it when they over emphasize style over substance. I think the substance must always, always comes first. But I get the impression that it is the other way around. I'm not saying that they should pick someone who is dead boring either. But there is an over emphasis on style and camera presence. But then again, that is what the viewers wanted, isn't it? This is why Emeril Live was a hit.

Did anyone ever watched BBC America's "Master Chef" competition (it's probably on one of the BBC channel in the UK)? Now THAT is a cooking competition to beat all other cooking competition.

Zz.
 
  • #44
I'm with Moonie. I would love to have my own cooking show (with no audience and no guests) to teach the techniques that result in food that not only "sounds" like it might be good, but is actually wonderful. One thing that bugs me is when "chefs" on TV throw a mix of vegetables into a wok or a stew-pot all at once, with no regard for the various cooking times required to bring those vegetables to done-ness. This is especially important in stir-fries and stews, and they either don't know how to handle this little dance, or they are willing to cut corners and settle for "good enough". I sympathize with people who want to cut corners to save time at the end of a busy day, but a good cooking teacher should show the proper way to do things, and then say something like"if you want to save time, you can add all these vegetables at once, but by the time the carrots are done al dente, the broccoli will be soft and soggy and the mushrooms will be mush".
 
  • #45
Werg22 said:
On another note, Evo, I think you're not digging deep enough. Food TV reflects the state of the general food culture in America. While it is better than what it was before, it's still fairly sketchy. There's almost no emphasis on either technique or patience, without which the highest culinary criteria can just not be met. It's all about minimizing cooking time while mitigating the importance of expertise.

The best bread, for example, simply can't be done quickly. Apparently the best baguettes are left to rot in a wine cellar (or fridge) for a few days to slow down the fermentation process & bring more flavour out of the wheat. Maybe that's why there are no baking shows, only cooking shows. Proper barbecuing (not grilling) is another example that I think most people know about. Now that I think of it there aren't really any barbecue shows either, only grilling shows. I think Rob Rainford occasionally turns his grill into a makeshift smoker, but when he does he burns his propane for 3-4hrs at a time. Pretty wasteful if you ask me. I hope he hasn't inspired people to do the same at home.
 
  • #46
Evo said:
This channel cracks me up.

Could they possibly have more people hosting cooking shows that have no background in cooking? :smile:

Bobby Flay, high school drop out that is dating the producer's daughter. This classless idiot has no place in the cooking world.

Emeril Lagasee. As his former boss at the New Orleans restaurant warned the new restaurant up north he escaped to (since it appeard, IMHO, that his lack of food knowledge and cooking skills were ending his career) that Emeril can't cook, but he loves to shmooze.

Rachel Ray, you've got to be kidding. I'd love to see her prepare a consommé, much less explain what it is. :smile:

Most of the "food personalities" have no culinary education, have no idea what they're doing, their scripts are handed to them and they plow through what their kitchen assistants have placed on the set along with teleprompters telling them what to do and say. Put in a real kitchen with no assistants or scripts, these people couldn't boil an egg.
Tell you what Evo, I don't care about any of these guys' credentials, but I do care about the fact that I have learned a lot about cooking from watching them prepare food. Alton Brown, Giada, Tyler, and Bobby, inspire people to start cooking. They're offering me a product (their show) that obviously shows they can cook a good Baked Ziti, and that's all the credential I need.
 
  • #47
Mk said:
Tell you what Evo, I don't care about any of these guys' credentials, but I do care about the fact that I have learned a lot about cooking from watching them prepare food. Alton Brown, Giada, Tyler, and Bobby, inspire people to start cooking. They're offering me a product (their show) that obviously shows they can cook a good Baked Ziti, and that's all the credential I need.
Mk, since you don't know how to cook you don't notice all of the mistakes they make, I do. It's like a physicist watching "What the Bleep". People that don't know anything about physics think it's great and that they are learning something from it.

Like I said in other posts, it has entertainment value.
 
  • #48
Seeing as PF is one of the first links on google, I wouldn't be half surprised if Flay found this thread. (Unlikely, but who knows?)
 
  • #49
Math Jeans said:
Seeing as PF is one of the first links on google, I wouldn't be half surprised if Flay found this thread. (Unlikely, but who knows?)
The Food Network used to have a blog and Flay got so much negative feedback that they shut the blog down.

Actually Flay seems to have improved, he actually made a classic lobster Sauce Americaine the other day, I was dumfounded. It appears he's been taking cooking lessons.
 
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  • #50
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  • #51
Math Jeans said:
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Last edited by a moderator:
  • #52
Ok, I'll make some positive comments.

I love Alton Brown, his show "Good Eats" is a wonderful educational food comedy. Alton is not actually a chef, his background is a video producer that came up with an idea for a different kind of cooking show. He took some cooking classes then pitched his idea to the Food Network. Although his shows are great, he does occasionally get things wrong. Just ask turbo1 about knives.

The other day his show was about grits. His first statement was "grits and polenta are identical, only the name is different". :bugeye: :rolleyes: No, yellow cornmeal and grits are not the same thing. http://www.solutions.uiuc.edu/content.cfm?series=3&item=280&Parents=0%7C28 And no southerner would ever boil yellow cornmeal in milk and call it grits, they'd be run out of town. I was horrified that Alton of all people would make such a mistake! He's my idol. :cry:

Well, a bit of googling turned up the fact that the show had edited out a crucial segment.

Alton Brown said:
I wish to apologize to any and all southerners who might have caught our True Grits episode the other night. Why? Because a short but crucial scene got lost in the edit and I’ll be darned if I can find where I put it. The scene in question dealt with the issue of hominy grits which are not the same as plain old grits. Hominy grits are made from hominy, a form of dent or field corn which is treated with an alkali such as lye before drying and milling. The resulting chemical changes inside the corn manifest themselves in a gruel that never gets totally creamy. Hominy grits are in fact “grittier” than other grits. But they are not the only grits out there. Many reputable firms such as Bob’s Red Mill market the same product as grits and polenta. And they are technically right to do so. Well actually, they're wrong. Grits and polenta are dishes prepared from corn meal...so they really should just be selling corn meal but that's their business. <snip>

So, what are we doing? We’re fixing it of course. In fact by this time next week, Food Network will have replacement shows in their hot little tape decks.

This is the first time I’ve recalled a product for content reasons. It was a simple but negligent oversight on my part made worse by the thought that someone out there may suspect that I don’t know my grits … which is almost too much for me to bare.

Yours truly,

AB
November 5, 2004
Philadelphia, PA

posted by Alton Brown, 4:03 PM
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season8/grits/true_grit_trans.htm

Alton Brown has exonerated himself. :smile: Unfortunately, Food Network is either still airing the wrong version, or I somehow missed the inserted correction.
 
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  • #53
Brown usually gets things right. His show on knife-sharpening was a rare example where he got it mostly wrong. His instructions on how to brine turkeys prior to roasting has resulted in some wonderful birds, and we have since applied that procedure to pork rib roasts (just had one tonight) with fantastic results. The secret to keep the pork as moist as possible is to dredge it in a mixture of flour, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper after you rinse off the brine. Roast the pork in a greased metal pan until it is browned, then cover lightly with aluminum foil and continue roasting until the center of the roast reaches 170 deg F. The juices and some of the coating will brown on the bottom of the pan. Use a metal pan so you can put in on a burner, dump in some water and boil the carmelized material off the bottom of the pan. Mix up some flour and water and stir it into the juices while boiling to make a nice dark gravy.
 
  • #54
I got a chance to try Alton's brownie recipe over the break and I was really pleased with them. Although, I deviated a little by adding a bag of peanut butter chips.
 
  • #55
Did you make enough to send some to all of us?
 
  • #56
hypatia said:
Did you make enough to send some to all of us?

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/119/299000164_4d7398dbf6.jpg"
 
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  • #57
Evo said:
This channel cracks me up.

Could they possibly have more people hosting cooking shows that have no background in cooking? :smile:

Bobby Flay, high school drop out that is dating the producer's daughter. This classless idiot has no place in the cooking world.

Emeril Lagasee. As his former boss at the New Orleans restaurant warned the new restaurant up north he escaped to (since it appeard, IMHO, that his lack of food knowledge and cooking skills were ending his career) that Emeril can't cook, but he loves to shmooze.

Rachel Ray, you've got to be kidding. I'd love to see her prepare a consommé, much less explain what it is. :smile:

Most of the "food personalities" have no culinary education, have no idea what they're doing, their scripts are handed to them and they plow through what their kitchen assistants have placed on the set along with teleprompters telling them what to do and say. Put in a real kitchen with no assistants or scripts, these people couldn't boil an egg.


My mother has a real culinary education and she could cook anything. I think she should have a show on the Food Network. But, as we all know, the only real reason why Rachel Ray is on TV is because she has a personality and she appeals to the lazy cook.
 
  • #58
I knew Emeril lacked in the cooking department when I bought some Emeril brand items and they tasted horrible. Good Eats is the only cooking show that is entertaining to me. Well I take that back, Giada is entertaining but only for staring at cleavage.
 
  • #59
An organization in Japan is trying to start http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080129/lf_afp/lifestylejapangastronomy" with an "authentic" certification.

"We are not aiming at something like a sushi police aiming to crack down on inauthentic restaurants," said a member of the Organisation to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad, declining to be named.

"Our objective is to promote Japanese food, not eliminate Japanese restaurants."

This, of course, will not stop the "Americanized" Japanese food being served already in many Japanese restaurant. Still, it would be interesting for those of us who haven't been, or can't go to Japan often, to at least be able to go to a restaurant serving actual, authentic Japanese food, rather than the "local" version of Japanese cuisine.

Zz.
 
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  • #60
Chef Cyrus just made 4 pieces of toast, 4 eggs sunny side up, and 6 strips of bacon for lunch. Yummy. I should start my own show.
 

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