Questionable Skills of Cooking Show Hosts on Food Network

[Evo]

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.

Can you babble endlessly while smiling and hold up a recipe box decorated to look like a baseball and in your bubbliest, perkiest voice exclaim "HOW CUTE IS THAT?!?

If you can't, I'll watch.

 

[Evo]

An organization in Japan is trying to start http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080129/lf_afp/lifestylejapangastronomy" with an "authentic" certification.



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.

I'd like to see some authentic Japanese foods. I think it's a good idea.

 

[Cyrus]

Can you babble endlessly while smiling and hold up a recipe box decorated to look like a baseball and in your bubbliest, perkiest voice exclaim "HOW CUTE IS THAT?!?

If you can't, I'll watch.

My food was supper yummy mmmmmmmmmmmm. Its delish. (isnt thata the stupid stuff these people say on tv) mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... yummy. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[turbo]

My food was supper yummy mmmmmmmmmmmm. Its delish. (isnt thata the stupid stuff these people say on tv) mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... yummy. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

You have managed to capture the essence of Rachael Ray, Cyrus. Another really infantile thing that grates on my nerves is when these idiots talk about "veggies", a word that might be OK for preschooler, but not for adults who profess to know how to cook.

 

[Evo]

You have managed to capture the essence of Rachael Ray, Cyrus. Another really infantile thing that grates on my nerves is when these idiots talk about "veggies", a word that might be OK for preschooler, but not for adults who profess to know how to cook.

Ack "veggies".

Jamie Oliver has a new show called "Jamie at Home". He uses vegetables, roots and lots of peppers from his own garden. He is all about the food, carefully showing how to prepare each item in a dish and why. He smoked some salmon and then drizzled homemade hot chili oil over it the other day, and then made a fresh chili pepper salza to go with it.

I'm going to make this dish, it sounds great. I got a great deal on a 10 lb pork shoulder, so I need to cut it in half.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_100311,00.html

 

[Astronuc]

Ack "veggies".

Jamie Oliver has a new show called "Jamie at Home". He uses vegetables, roots and lots of peppers from his own garden. He is all about the food, carefully showing how to prepare each item in a dish and why. He smoked some salmon and then drizzled homemade hot chili oil over it the other day, and then made a fresh chili pepper salza to go with it.

I'm going to make this dish, it sounds great. I got a great deal on a 10 lb pork shoulder, so I need to cut it in half.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_100311,00.html

Spicy Pork and Chili-Pepper Goulash sounds really good!

 

[turbo]

Ack "veggies".

Jamie Oliver has a new show called "Jamie at Home". He uses vegetables, roots and lots of peppers from his own garden. He is all about the food, carefully showing how to prepare each item in a dish and why. He smoked some salmon and then drizzled homemade hot chili oil over it the other day, and then made a fresh chili pepper salza to go with it.

Mmm! I love smoking fresh Atlantic salmon, and though I prefer to hickory-smoke it with a maple syrup glaze, I should consider punching that recipe up a little with some of my home-made hot stuff. I'm rationing the red habanero relish, now, but I have a lot of green habanero relish that I made at the end of the season, and I'm getting hooked on that pretty well. When I serve my smoked salmon cold as an appetizer, there is always salsa on the table, along with mustards, etc that find their way onto the Triscuits along with cheese, salmon, etc. That reminds me - I've got to put a couple of potatoes in the counter-top oven to bake. We've got left-over pork rib roast with gravy to eat tonight.

 

[lisab]

Do you smoke it yourself?

My hubby and I took up smoking for our 15th wedding anniversary (meats, not cigarettes!). We've had great success with chicken, moderate success with beef and pork. But the fish somehow doesn't seem to taste very smoky. Do you brine the fish before putting it in the smoker?

 

[turbo]

Yes, get a nice salmon fillet and brine it in the refrigerator for a few hours in a saturated solution of sea-salt and water. Rinse off the brine using cold water and let the salmon dry off in the refrigerator. This allows the development of a sticky film on the outside of the meat. I make a "boat" out of aluminum foil, oil it lightly, lay the fillet in it skin-down, and dust it with salt and crushed black pepper. Then I drizzle maple syrup over the fillet and put the boat on the top rack of my Brinkman smoker. I use a charcoal-fired smoker with LOTS of damp hickory chunks so it will produce a lot of smoke. Salmon doesn't have to cook too long, and you want to expose it to as much smoke as possible during that short time.

 

[glondor]

I remember several shows my mom and dad would watch when I was a kid. A lot of them were local shows, some of them made it (like martin yan, yan can cook) and some of them did not. The funniest one was a bbc production we would pick up on the cbc. Let me introduce the "2 fat ladies" .http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=cooking+show+2+fat+ladies&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

cannot remember if they could cook, however I seem to remember they were all over england and europe cooking up a storm. They rode a motorcycle Triumph thunderbird)with a side car. funny stuff. They were not perky.

 

[lisab]

What a funny picture! And yeah...they don't look perky...

 

[Evo]

Ace of Cakes

Ok, first show, ok, you make comic book style cakes.

Second show, ok, you make comic book style cakes.

Dear Gawd! You people make crappy comic book style cakes! STOP!

They can make fascimilies of characters, but they don't have the artistic expertise to pull off extraordinary cakes with refinement or detail.

A good example was the "Taj Mahal" cake. A flat, void of detail cake of the main structure. What was really horrible were the green colored corn dogs they used for trees. It was ugly, plain, no detail, and the "grounds" were pathetically comical.

Can we cancel this show, please?

I've seen incredible cakes and fine works of art in sugar. These people simply do not have the talent or ability to make works of art. Any hack can make these cakes with enough effort. I want to see talent, not effort.

 

[Evo]

I *love* Guy Fiero. He wasn't my favorite in the "Next Food Network Star" competition, but I didn't see the last segments where he won. They were right, this guy rocks.

He's funny, he actually knows his way around a kitchen, he puts on a great show and he makes "MAN FOOD". Got to give him credit for going for taste over gimmicks. Although that wimpy papaya show was sad.

 

[Moonbear]

I've seen incredible cakes and fine works of art in sugar.

There was some show, I think it was on Food Network, but might have been on one of the other channels, that had competitions of confectioners...they'd have to do this huge sculptures from sugar (looked like glass) or cakes, etc. Some were really badly done and would fall apart for judging (then again, the skill level required was amazing, so even a badly put together one was way better than what someone untrained could ever dream to accomplish), but some were GORGEOUS. There was always that tense moment as they had to carry the finished piece from the work table to the judging table (being able to move it was part of the judging criteria...people who really create things like this have to get them to the event where they are displayed without them crumbling).

If the show you're talking about is the one I think it is, yeah, it should be cancelled. How many times can you show how to cut out shapes from fondant to make a cake? I could make most of those cakes with ready-made fondant at my disposal.

 

[Evo]

There was some show, I think it was on Food Network, but might have been on one of the other channels, that had competitions of confectioners...they'd have to do this huge sculptures from sugar (looked like glass) or cakes, etc. Some were really badly done and would fall apart for judging (then again, the skill level required was amazing, so even a badly put together one was way better than what someone untrained could ever dream to accomplish), but some were GORGEOUS. There was always that tense moment as they had to carry the finished piece from the work table to the judging table (being able to move it was part of the judging criteria...people who really create things like this have to get them to the event where they are displayed without them crumbling).

Yes those take talent.

If the show you're talking about is the one I think it is, yeah, it should be cancelled. How many times can you show how to cut out shapes from fondant to make a cake? I could make most of those cakes with ready-made fondant at my disposal.

Yeah, it's that show. "ooh look, it's a cat", "oooh look, it's a hot dog", ooh look, it's a hamburger".

 

[~christina~]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080709011413AAZTLSC

1000 or more? It's for those cartoon cakes

http://bittenandbound.com/2008/02/1...es-and-his-charm-city-cakes-photos-and-video/
examples of his cakes..including that taj mahal with the corndog trees

 

[Evo]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080709011413AAZTLSC

1000 or more? It's for those cartoon cakes

http://bittenandbound.com/2008/02/1...es-and-his-charm-city-cakes-photos-and-video/
examples of his cakes..including that taj mahal with the corndog trees

Well, I'm starting a crummy cake company! christina, are you in?

Don't they look like green corn dogs? This was the same week that they had a candy Taj Mahal on a candy contest and the candy Taj Mahal looked like a photograph, it was stunning. All of the intricate design work on the outside was recreated, unlike the cake which is just solid white.

 

[Moonbear]

How much do wedding cakes cost nowadays? These should probably be in that same price range, since they're basically what you'd order as groom's cakes (though some look like they could be wedding cakes themselves...there are a few pretty ones in that second link aside from the outlandish ones). They're cool looking, but I've seen all I need to see looking at the photo gallery.

 

[~christina~]

Well, I'm starting a crummy cake company! christina, are you in?

Don't they look like green corn dogs? This was the same week that they had a candy Taj Mahal on a candy contest and the candy Taj Mahal looked like a photograph, it was stunning. All of the intricate design work on the outside was recreated, unlike the cake which is just solid white.

I'm in! If we get a show on the food network, we'll be FAMOUS!

They look like corndogs with green mold on them.

I missed that show.

 

[Evo]

Here's the chocolate Taj Mahal.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/saugus/archive/x1107265706/g258258a45df40631e1656bc818cc9ba8a946313b7a0f02.jpg

Actually, that Charm City Taj Mahal, looks doctored from what was on the show. It was just plain white fondant and the couple looked really disappointed when they saw it.

 

[Moonbear]

They look like corndogs with green mold on them.

To be fair, the real plants at the Taj Mahal really are shaped like corndogs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Taj_Mahal_in_March_2004.jpg

Though, if you compare them, they clearly weren't concerned with placing them where they are really located. The other bushes look like gumdrops. I've had nicer looking gumdrop bushes on my gingerbread houses.

 

[~christina~]

Here's the chocolate Taj Mahal.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/saugus/archive/x1107265706/g258258a45df40631e1656bc818cc9ba8a946313b7a0f02.jpg

Actually, that Charm City Taj Mahal, looks doctored from what was on the show. It was just plain white fondant and the couple looked really disappointed when they saw it.

That's nice. (chocolate one)
I'm not sure if this is the one I saw in a competition, but it looks familiar. Did the guy who make it have a hat on?

I would have liked to see their expression. The show always had people, ooing and aaahing over their cakes.

To be fair, the real plants at the Taj Mahal really are shaped like corndogs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Taj_Mahal_in_March_2004.jpg

Though, if you compare them, they clearly weren't concerned with placing them where they are really located. The other bushes look like gumdrops. I've had nicer looking gumdrop bushes on my gingerbread houses.

The color of the trees are wrong and there isn't any texture to the trees at all.

 

[wolram]

The best batter for fish, i guess you Americans have never tasted fish and chips cooked the old way, i say old way because fish and chips do not taste any thing near what they used to.
The fish used to be firm with a crip batter, not soggy and soft as served in fish and chip shops nowadays, i think they used lard to fry with then i may be wrong though, any ways up there must be a method to bring back the crispy batter.

 

[~christina~]

The best batter for fish, i guess you Americans have never tasted fish and chips cooked the old way, i say old way because fish and chips do not taste any thing near what they used to.
The fish used to be firm with a crip batter, not soggy and soft as served in fish and chip shops nowadays, i think they used lard to fry with then i may be wrong though, any ways up there must be a method to bring back the crispy batter.

My fish 'n chips are not soggy. Lard isn't good for your health either.

 

[WarPhalange]

Ugh, lard? No thanks.

 

[Evo]

Ugh, lard? No thanks.

Lard tastes best for frying potatoes.

 

[wolram]

I said lard, more beef dripping, far and away the best thing to fry potatoes in as Evo said, i am sure non of these fancy oils existed way back when.
We used to eat beef dripping sarnies.

 

[turbo]

Lard can be held at a much higher temperature without smoking than cooking oils and shortening. This means that they crisp the breading much better and more quickly, which results in less fat absorption into the breading, and a lighter, healthier meal. There is nothing wrong about using lard for deep-frying - it is a superior fat with a high smoke-point, and it got some really bad press from people pushing alternative fats that have more recently proven to be quite unhealthy for our cardiovascular systems.

 

[wolram]

Turbo, they do not bread the fish in fish and chip shops, they just have a thick gloopy batter they dip the fish in, years ago one could buy bags of scratchings ,the bits left over from frying but not now as i am sure the oil they use saturates the batter.

 

[turbo]

Turbo, they do not bread the fish in fish and chip shops, they just have a thick gloopy batter they dip the fish in, years ago one could buy bags of scratchings ,the bits left over from frying but not now as i am sure the oil they use saturates the batter.

Here in the US, we sometimes call batter "breading". Most deep-fried fish in the US has a batter of some sort. Clam-shops in Maine sometimes guard their batter recipes like gold. A friend of mine worked in a place that was famous for their fried clams, and his home-made fried clams are to die for. One secret is powdered mustard in the batter, though I never managed to pry the recipe out of him.