Questionable Skills of Cooking Show Hosts on Food Network

[Evo]

Oh dear.

I am watching the "National Chicken cooking contest" on the Food Network and some of the contestants were given their chickens breasts and these contestants are complaining that "these are HUGE, they are the BIGGEST chicken breasts I have ever seen, there is NO WAY I can cook something this large and have it done in time". Another contestant, "all around me I hear people pounding these HUGE OVERSIZED chicken breasts".

They show the "HUGE, OVERSIZED chicken breasts.



They are normal sized whole chicken breasts. Apparently these competitors have never seen a whole chicken breast, they have only worked with the store cut half breasts.

Uhm people, you cut the whole breast into two halves. OMG.

In case anyone here has never seen a whole chicken breast and how to cut them in two, here you go. Picture #6

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cutupchicken.htm

 

[~christina~]

Speaking of the Food Network, I heard that, chef Michal Simon is going to be doing, Dinner Impossible . I can't watch him do that of course, but in my opinion, I wouldn't watch the show with him doing the cooking. Is it his goatee? or his bald head? or is it that smirk that says, I know it all => http://www.wisdairy.com/AllAboutCheese/ChefAmbassador/images/MichaelSimon-med.jpg

I liked, chef Robert Irvine, even if he was a liar. It's not like he bragged about his fake resume during the cooking.

I remember that I was watching Pat and Gina from, Down home with the Neely's at my friend's house, and they were traveling around and trying sweet stuff in random stores, they're funny and work well together. I was drooling after I saw them try the ice cream from this organic ice cream store. They had, corn flavoured and basil flavoured ice cream! Yum!

 

[LowlyPion]

I liked, chef Robert Irvine, even if he was a liar. It's not like he bragged about his fake resume during the cooking.

Yes, but could you believe him when he said it tasted good?

His credibility was shot.

 

[~christina~]

Yes, but could you believe him when he said it tasted good?

His credibility was shot.

I didn't base his cooking on what he said, I based it on what the people who ate his food said.

 

[LowlyPion]

I didn't base his cooking on what he said, I based it on what the people who ate his food said.

Not to be too contentious here because I see those shows as entertainment, not that much to be believed to begin with, but as a producer/director of the show do you think you would air clips of people spitting out food and complaining about how bad it tasted?

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Oh dear.

I am watching the "National Chicken cooking contest" on the Food Network and some of the contestants were given their chickens breasts and these contestants are complaining that "these are HUGE, they are the BIGGEST chicken breasts I have ever seen, there is NO WAY I can cook something this large and have it done in time". Another contestant, "all around me I hear people pounding these HUGE OVERSIZED chicken breasts".

They show the "HUGE, OVERSIZED chicken breasts.



They are normal sized whole chicken breasts. Apparently these competitors have never seen a whole chicken breast, they have only worked with the store cut half breasts.

Uhm people, you cut the whole breast into two halves. OMG.

In case anyone here has never seen a whole chicken breast and how to cut them in two, here you go. Picture #6

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cutupchicken.htm

The other day I bought a tray of bonless skinless chicken breast steaks. I thought that there were going to be three or four in there but when I opened it up it was only TWO! If I had thought about it I would have halved them before I froze them.
I'm used to the size of chicken breast you get in a fast food place. Maybe they shrink quite a bit when cooked though.

 

[~christina~]

Not to be too contentious here because I see those shows as entertainment, not that much to be believed to begin with, but as a producer/director of the show do you think you would air clips of people spitting out food and complaining about how bad it tasted?

Okay well, I wasn't planning on actually attending a cookoff by him, so it doesn't matter to me. It's all entertainment, exactly like you said. The success of a show all depends on:
a) looks b) humour c) entertainment value

 

[Moonbear]

Oh dear.

I am watching the "National Chicken cooking contest" on the Food Network and some of the contestants were given their chickens breasts and these contestants are complaining that "these are HUGE, they are the BIGGEST chicken breasts I have ever seen, there is NO WAY I can cook something this large and have it done in time". Another contestant, "all around me I hear people pounding these HUGE OVERSIZED chicken breasts".

They show the "HUGE, OVERSIZED chicken breasts.



They are normal sized whole chicken breasts. Apparently these competitors have never seen a whole chicken breast, they have only worked with the store cut half breasts.

Uhm people, you cut the whole breast into two halves. OMG.

In case anyone here has never seen a whole chicken breast and how to cut them in two, here you go. Picture #6

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cutupchicken.htm

They must not know the difference between a chicken cutlet and a whole chicken breast. I caught part of that show, and didn't stick around to watch the rest. It was really lame. It's not even that hard to figure out where to cut the breast in half. There's a natural separation between the two muscles that make it up.

Edit: Oh, I just followed your link. You're talking about a whole vs half breast as in not divided from the breast bone yet. I was thinking they got the halves, but they didn't know why they were so thick...they can be split again into cutlets, which is often what stores sell as boneless chicken breast.

 

[Evo]

They must not know the difference between a chicken cutlet and a whole chicken breast. I caught part of that show, and didn't stick around to watch the rest. It was really lame. It's not even that hard to figure out where to cut the breast in half. There's a natural separation between the two muscles that make it up.

Edit: Oh, I just followed your link. You're talking about a whole vs half breast as in not divided from the breast bone yet. I was thinking they got the halves, but they didn't know why they were so thick...they can be split again into cutlets, which is often what stores sell as boneless chicken breast.

These were actually a whole breast with the bone removed, but it still has enough connective tissue that you have to cut it in two to get two halves.

This is probably a better explanation with pictures of cutting the deboned whole breast in two, but he's made a mess of boning that poor chicken.

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/123/Boning-Chicken-Breast

 

[turbo]

Where do these people come from? When I was a kid, we ate mostly egg-laying birds. Roosters were culled out when they were fairly young and still tender, and when the sitting hens became non-productive (they were often large by that time) we ate them, too. The old hens could be tough, unless you roasted them for hours in a very moist environment until the meat was practically falling off the bone. Since those birds cooked for a very long time, they were generally stuffed with stale bread and seasonings, with onions and some egg to make the stuffing bind better. The young birds were not often stuffed, but were roasted whole at a higher temp or were cut apart so they could be broiled or BBQ'd. The difference in size could be impressive. Apparently, these people have never handled chicken (as an animal) and have only dealt with the processed meat (already eviscerated, boned, and cut up). How did these people end up in a "National Chicken Cooking Contest" with that level of "expertise"?

 

[Moonbear]

Where do these people come from?

Cities. I was sitting out on the Esplanade, reading a book the other day, and a woman with her son walks by. The little boy looked about 4 or 5. I didn't hear the first part as they were walking toward me, but I heard the mother respond, "Yes, water comes from a water fountain," and then the boy answer, "Sometimes it comes from a bottle." The Esplanade is a nice park/walking area along the Hudson River. Why the little boy is being told water comes from a fountain or bottle when right next to the river filled with...WATER...I don't know. I told my boyfriend about it later, then remarked, "She probably tells him his meat comes from styrofoam packages too."

 

[lisab]

When my daughter was 3 or 4, she knew chickens laid eggs (we had several hens in our back yard), but she thought that pigs laid hams.

Sometimes the hardest thing about being a parent is trying not to laugh at them.

 

[turbo]

Cities. I was sitting out on the Esplanade, reading a book the other day, and a woman with her son walks by. The little boy looked about 4 or 5. I didn't hear the first part as they were walking toward me, but I heard the mother respond, "Yes, water comes from a water fountain," and then the boy answer, "Sometimes it comes from a bottle." The Esplanade is a nice park/walking area along the Hudson River. Why the little boy is being told water comes from a fountain or bottle when right next to the river filled with...WATER...I don't know. I told my boyfriend about it later, then remarked, "She probably tells him his meat comes from styrofoam packages too."

Man, that's discouraging! I hope the kid has some good teachers in school because his mother is so stupid that she should have had her tubes tied for the benefit of the gene pool.

 

[Moonbear]

When my daughter was 3 or 4, she knew chickens laid eggs (we had several hens in our back yard), but she thought that pigs laid hams.

Sometimes the hardest thing about being a parent is trying not to laugh at them.

Oh, I nearly laughed at the kid telling his mom in all seriousness that water can come from bottles too...you know, the way that only a 5 year old can try to sound serious when sharing something they are sure they know that their parents don't. It was adorably cute, just sad that the mom wasn't correcting this in a perfect place to explain.

 

[Moonbear]

Man, that's discouraging! I hope the kid has some good teachers in school because his mother is so stupid that she should have had her tubes tied for the benefit of the gene pool.

And she had a second on the way too. Maybe I should try to give the benefit of the doubt though, and assume she was just tired and worn out or in a hurry to get somewhere with him and was just humoring his banter to keep him moving along.

 

[turbo]

Oh, I nearly laughed at the kid telling his mom in all seriousness that water can come from bottles too...you know, the way that only a 5 year old can try to sound serious when sharing something they are sure they know that their parents don't. It was adorably cute, just sad that the mom wasn't correcting this in a perfect place to explain.

It's so sad that his mother couldn't explain to him that water evaporates and then falls from the sky as rain and collects in ponds and pools that drain to feed streams, rivers and oceans. Isn't that widely known by elementary-school children?

Is city-life so isolating and "cocooning" that people don't manage to connect rain-showers and rivers with the water coming out of their faucets? Scary...

 

[Evo]

Let's hope that he had asked where drinking water comes from and they had already passed the "water company" explanation of how water gets to homes and businesses via underground pipes.

But after listening to that woman on the rainbow video, I wouldn't be so sure.

 

[Math Is Hard]

When my daughter was 3 or 4, she knew chickens laid eggs (we had several hens in our back yard), but she thought that pigs laid hams.

 

[LowlyPion]

But after listening to that woman on the rainbow video, I wouldn't be so sure.

But surely that is a farce playing to the stereotype that people are predisposed to think exist. (Not that dissimilar I think to fish that seem to strike at the most unbelievable lures.)

Anyone that can caption a video like that certainly knows a bit more than they would be letting on.

 

[Evo]

But surely that is a farce playing to the stereotype that people are predisposed to think exist. (Not that dissimilar I think to fish that seem to strike at the most unbelievable lures.)

Anyone that can caption a video like that certainly knows a bit more than they would be letting on.

You over estimate the intelligence of the average American.

I have actually overheard the following conversations at work.

I know I've commented before about some of the amazing things that my co-workers have come up with like "Is Germany its own country?"

The guy that believes dinosaurs are faked by Darwinists because "you can make anything you want out of a pile of bones", was talking about the tv show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?'. He was commenting on how difficult the questions on math and especially English are, like "conjecture, you know, like sentences, and dangling prospects".

And...

A conversation I just overheard.

Kyla: "Hey Jay, what is El Salvador?"

Jay: "It's a state in the country of Central America, maybe the capital".

Kyla: "Oh, like India!"

Jay: "Yes".

Oh and the reigning Miss America was on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader". The question was "What object in our solar system has the greatest mass? Her answer: "The Universe!".

 

[LowlyPion]

Oh and the reigning Miss America was on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader". The question was "What object in our solar system has the greatest mass? Her answer: "The Universe!".

Isn't that totally off bounds to quote such an unreliable source as Miss America on any subject other than eyelash curlers?

 

[Evo]

Isn't that totally off bounds to quote such an unreliable source as Miss America on any subject other than eyelash curlers?

To her credit, she was actually intelligent. If I were on tv, I might have said the Universe also. Except, her second answer was the Milky Way... At least she was getting closer.

 

[Moonbear]

Okay, NOW I remember why Iron Chef America is so pathetic. Another episode just started, and the secret "ingredient" is a whole assortment of fresh items from a farmer's market...squash, leeks, mushrooms, guinea hens, etc. There's no challenge here...they give them way too easy of ingredients to work with. I think the original was more interesting simply because they had such strange secret ingredients. It's not much of a challenge to incorporate fresh fruits and veggies into lots of dishes, but when you get something like octopus, that's a bit more challenging, especially if you want to include a dessert.

 

[Quincy]

I don't know why, but I think Iron Chef America is very entertaining.

 

[~christina~]

Okay, NOW I remember why Iron Chef America is so pathetic. Another episode just started, and the secret "ingredient" is a whole assortment of fresh items from a farmer's market...squash, leeks, mushrooms, guinea hens, etc. There's no challenge here...they give them way too easy of ingredients to work with. I think the original was more interesting simply because they had such strange secret ingredients. It's not much of a challenge to incorporate fresh fruits and veggies into lots of dishes, but when you get something like octopus, that's a bit more challenging, especially if you want to include a dessert.

They actually know the, "secret" ingredient in the Iron Chef America. I don't know but I assume that the Iron Chef Japan people, didn't know the secret ingriedient. I remember, Iron Chef, Morimoto standing and discussing what he was going to cook with his sous chefs right after they saw the secret ingredient. It looked genuine to me.

 

[Moonbear]

They actually know the, "secret" ingredient in the Iron Chef America.

How do you know this? I saw one episode where the challenger was talking about what he decided to make, and commented about planning ahead that if it was a fish, he'd make this dish...it didn't sound like he knew ahead it would be a fish, just that they try to plan for different types of food to already have some ideas of what they'd do with it. But that's why I find it kind of boring, because the secret ingredients are so ordinary that anyone with halfway decent culinary skills could plan ahead for general categories and have a good chance of being ready for whatever it is (i.e., if it's a fish, I'll make this, a poultry, that, red meats, something else in mind, vegetables, etc.)

I'd love to see how they handle a truly strange secret ingredient. Give them something like sea urchins or snails and see if they can think up more than one dish to make with it. Or give them a truly horrid cut of meat to work with...something like a really tough stew meat and see if they can do something with it in the hour long competition.

Did the Japanese one allow the chefs to bring their own ingredients and tools? I can't remember. It really ruined it for me when I learned that. I think it would be more interesting if they had to use only what was in kitchen stadium, and wasn't a competition of who had more resources to bring more stuff along with them.

 

[tribdog]

The Japanese one was so much better. the secret ingredient could be anything tongue or pinecone or asbestos. And these chef's went to town pretty soon they were whipping up some squid ice cream and it looked pretty good.

 

[Evo]

In the original Iron Chef, not only was the ingredient usually unique, they also spent some time talking about the ingredient and showing where it came from, so you had some understanding.

Another HUGE difference that turns me off to the Amercan version is that they are forced to prepare 5 dishes. In the original Japanese version, there was no minimum number of dishes, which allowed the chef to focus more on quality and not on quantity. Part of the surprise was in hearing the announcement of how many dishes the chef was going to try to prepare, and then see if they were able to make them all. In the American version, all you see is the camera flying from one close up to another while Alton is talking a mile a minute. You don't actually get to watch more than 5 seconds at a time of anyone actually cooking. You see a flash of something being peeled, wine being splashed into a pan, a flame, someone's hand dropping meat into a pan. It's ridiculous. You can't get a feel for what they are preparing or why. Suddenly at the end after all these haphazard snippets, you see food appearing.

 

[~christina~]

How do you know this? I saw one episode where the challenger was talking about what he decided to make, and commented about planning ahead that if it was a fish, he'd make this dish...it didn't sound like he knew ahead it would be a fish, just that they try to plan for different types of food to already have some ideas of what they'd do with it. But that's why I find it kind of boring, because the secret ingredients are so ordinary that anyone with halfway decent culinary skills could plan ahead for general categories and have a good chance of being ready for whatever it is (i.e., if it's a fish, I'll make this, a poultry, that, red meats, something else in mind, vegetables, etc.)

Well they talked about it on a nightly news program. They said that they give the chefs 3 possible secret ingredients and one will actually be presented to them. I don't find it to be too much of a challenge if you can plan what you are going to cook ahead of time.
Too bad, the "ingredients" are pretty normal. I remember the time on Iron chef Japan, the secret ingredient was a large tuna. Morimoto went and grilled the eyeballs of the fish. That was entertaining.

I'd love to see how they handle a truly strange secret ingredient. Give them something like sea urchins or snails and see if they can think up more than one dish to make with it. Or give them a truly horrid cut of meat to work with...something like a really tough stew meat and see if they can do something with it in the hour long competition.

Leftovers anyone?

Did the Japanese one allow the chefs to bring their own ingredients and tools? I can't remember. It really ruined it for me when I learned that. I think it would be more interesting if they had to use only what was in kitchen stadium, and wasn't a competition of who had more resources to bring more stuff along with them.

I thought that was on the American version. (I remember some sort of tool they brought in..a screwdriver and nails) I think that the competition is ruined if they know what they are cooking ahead of time as opposed to having extra tools.

Did anyone but me notice that the Iron Chef America cameras always turn away when it comes to killing things? Like fish? (seriously people) The Japanese version just gave it to you like it was.

 

[tribdog]

And the announcer in the Japanese show would say something like "oh, I see what he's doing. He's going to chill the fish eyes and reduce the urine into a syrup." then they cut to the actress who says "MMMM, chilled" I wonder how accurate the translations were.