The Food Network? Yesterday and today

You're of a much different generation than I am. In July of 1958, I heard those magic words, "I need two lean corn beef on caraway rye; plenty of pickles and beets, they're friends !" MTV ?? Michael Jackson?? Remember?? I know nothing of Michael Jackson's inability to get a video on MTV.

graham kerr

Yeah, Graham is a really nice guy. I met him around 2000 he was doing a book signing here in Portland, ore. I met him and his wife Trina. Really just as nice as you remember him on tv very bubby personality.

We talked for a few minutes. I know he did a stint with Haggen (food stores) for developing some ideas for there deli case. But I havent much heard about him lately.

Matt

Hulu and bit-torrents are your friend:smoking:

As you may know, Kerr and and Trina have had heath issues. Both are in their mid 70s and Graham had a long battle with alcoholism. Trina had a stroke in the mid 80s. I believe it was in his battle with the bottle when Graham became a very devout Christian. You may recall that he had a short lived TV program that was pulled off the air because he insisted on including some prayer.

I've actually tried Hulu, but bit-torrents are far beyond me. I have no idea what they are.

Food Network is just awful. They need to fire that president of the network with the quickness. The only cool cutting edge show that they have is Iron Chef. I actually lose passion for food when I watch food network. Their thirty minute shows are so beyond corny and goofy. From Guy acting like he is a co-star from the movie Swingers, or that Everyday Italian chef that does that silly sexy eye thing everytime she eats something. Dont get me started on that one show that shows us how everything is made with that annoying Mark guy. Actually, I think the guy in charge of most horrible shows is that Elliot guy? Fire him! It's all too fake for me to swallow.

Food Network should be the birth place of cutting edge shows that excite, motivate, inspire, piss off and wow the viewers not bore them to death and make them feel less inspired. These Disney goody good personailties need to go.

Shows like No Reservations, Hells Kitchen, The Restaurant, Top Chef, F word, Kitchen Nightmares (UK Version) should of came from Food Network, but instead they create the lamest rip off versions. Just Awful. Just hire talent with "real" personailites and let them keep their own flare, instead of turning them into a Disney toon.

I do however like Booby Flay and a couple of others that keep it real and fun. Food Network would be awesome if they were leaders and not horrible followers.

/rant off

food tv is less about food these days and more about tv... theyre more concerned with getting celebrities or creating celebrities than focusing on food... now coming from a business POV you do what brings in the money, however coming from the content/quality end, you should stick to your beliefs and roots and remember what the channel was originally about...

long story short our rants on her will prolly fall onto deaf ears, as long as the masses tune in, however its good to vent.

hopefully one day one of the food tv execs or the powers that be over there stumble across this thread and take it to heart...

i would love to see the food network focus on food again, and actually having chefs on tv instead of joe schmoes and the like deep frying or using creating corny sandwiches or anything with lard just bc its popular doesnt make it good.

Standard disclaimer: I'm not a pro, but I have a small amount of relevant information probably not otherwise known on this forum:
In Japan, where Iron Chef came from as you know, the show had a great deal of trouble over the years. The problem was that somebody wins and somebody loses, and it's usually the challengers who lose. The show was quite popular, and it could be a serious blow to a restaurant to have the chef lose on national TV. The result, of course, was that chefs increasingly didn't want to come on the show.

One of the many things that Disney-ifies Food Network is their desire to have everything be happy and good and friendly and nice nice. Take Flay's "Throwdown." Even if he wins, they go to enormous trouble to ensure that the other cook is made to look great, and Bobby does lots of hugging and whatnot. On Iron Chef, too, the challengers are buttered up and complimented in a way that didn't happen so much on the Japanese version.

Just a piece of side information that might be useful.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program. ;)

you can catch the japanese originals on US television... they air them late at night on certain channels.

I completely agree with this statement! I had someone ask me once if I cooked a new meal every night and when I told them I did they gave me the oddest look! I think we get stares in the checkout lane at the grocery store too because we're one of the few families (well that shop at our store anyway) that doesn't have anything pre-prepared in their carts! I do my fresh shopping at the local farmer's market and all we use the grocery store for is canned and dry goods.

I remember watching the Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr when I was a little kid and I loved it! At the time I had no idea I would one day be a cook but he was entertaining.

As for the food network today.. I hate it, and I hate Food Network Canada even more. The few shows I did watch I can no longer watch on our station and it seems that it's more reality shows and honestly shows I have no interest in watching on there.

One show that I did enjoy was the Urban Peasant. I think it was James Barber who hosted it and from what I could gather he had directed the show at bachelors and he did demonstrate some easy to pepare meals that were tasty and appealing to the eye. ( I did try a few of his recipes years ago)

I'm really grateful to the UK food network for the programmes we get. Ive cringed my way through many US shows when over there and a few of ours are just as bad. But on the whole ours seem to be more real life, and inspirational. You only have to watch Nigella and you want to get the pans out. Rick Stein actively promotes eating more sustainable fish and Reza Mahammed has made Indian cooking easy and do-able for everyone...I could go on, But you may not know who i'm talking about.

We sometimes get Top chef and Iron chef and they're great fun. I'm warming to Ina Garten. She's a scary lady...All fake laugh and scared hubby.

I do think if you're not happy, you should bombard the show makers with your protests. They may not listen, but then again if enough folk say we're not happy it may make a difference.

I once wrote in to a show to say i wasnt happy with the message they were sending... Cross contamination over and over. I was duly ignored. They have made some changes now tho, although the ubiquitous multi purpose teatowel still rears its ugly head

I think US food channels need to get a balance between entertainment and education

Edutainment :D

i agree Bughut... entertainment and education can be combined and if it is done well it will do well out there in the ratings.

This is a lame-ish comparison but my family loves Mythbusters... we all know it is mostly tv grandeur but they do get their science plugs in there so while we are having fun watching Adam and Jamie blow stuff up we're also learning some things too.

I would love to see a show totally food related that goes along with the mythbusters concept... that would be very interesting!

I've put in 25 years in the business. when i first started, i told my parents that i was going to culinary school and i got a look of horror, lol. back then "cooking" wasn't considered a particularly "professional" or respected career choice. there were no celebrity chefs and people thought that trained chef's were really no different than short order cooks. in mid western america people would look down on you. that all changed with the food network. it opened up a whole new world of thoughts and perseptions to people in our field. suddenly it was respected and even a bit glamorous to be a chef, i dare say that a whole generation of our latest best and brightest wouldn't be cooking at all without it. so i, for one, am greatful for the food network. sure it could be better, but think of where we would be without it.:chef::chef:

I agree with you Natividad...Up to a point. No.2 son was inspired by a very young Jamie Oliver to beleive he could be more than "just a chef" I'm sure culinary schools were jam-packed with young hopefuls the year he appeared on our screens.

Chefs worth their salt, though, have been reviered for centuries without tv.

I think the food networks have shown the average person a whole new way of enjoying food. People now want more...They expect more. We eat food we'd never heard of before.
At home in Dundee, the last 10-15 years have seen amazing changes. There used to be 2 places to eat . Unless you wanted fishnchips or a greasy spoon cafe. We now have so much choice.

So i'm happy to have food networks, but i do think they've lost something along the way since conception

The reason why there are frozen foods in carts is because Mom and Dad have to work for a living.......The kid doesn't grow up with any knowledge of cooking but they do have Soccor, Baseball, football,dance, tennis, Volleyball, swimming, whatever.....Find a Kid that has his Mom home and you will find a Kid that knows how to cook....................................We all took the 3 cars in the driveway and the 500K house.....................See what we got.........................Bill

Both my husband and I work full time and I make a fresh meal every night and while my kids are fussy eaters at times, they will eat pretty much anything. I did stay home for a few years when they were small and I know I had "all day to make dinner" ....HA! anyone who says that hasn't been a stay home mom to two active kids who like the local parks and libraries.... and yeah then too I cooked every night. We didn't go for the 3 cars and 500K house.. thank goodness,.. or the hockey or all that running around from activity to activity

Not to play devils advocate but, FN is just a network, they rely on what the market wants to plan the entertainment. Unfortunately or fortunately, what they show is what the masses want. I do not like a lot of the shows either, but, ****...if the kids are watching it and loving it, then they just may become interested in the culinary arts and become our future Executive Chefs of America. At the end of the day, isn;t that what we all want anyway....the next generation to keep the culinary arts alive and appealing? I would hope so........

You're assuming the network execs know what the masses want. Such is not the case, as evidenced by FN's continued loss of viewership and revenues. They threw away the demographic that made them without really having a replacement. So now they're casting around trying to to give us shows that are: 1. cheap to produce, and, 2. maybe will bring in the mass audience.

A classic case. In their chefography of the Neeley's the network president specifically talks about how their popularity is due, in part, because of the format of a couple cooking together. "People want that," she insists.

Uh, huh! Then how come, among all the really stupid shows they've put together the past couple of years, there are no other couples having fun with each other in the kitchen?

Instead of focusing on what they claim is a winning format they'd reather experiment with things like that new show with Brian Boitano---which, far as I can tell, should be subtitled Bob & Ted's Excellent Adventure in the Kitchen with the Muppets.

Or how about that Chefs And The City? Gimme a break! That's neither good food nor good entertainment.

My husband works in advertising (he's a graphic designer for an ad agency in TO) and well sadly the people making the choices as to what goes and what doesn't have no clue what mr and mrs public want to see or hear or even have on their cell phones for that matter. It's all about competition and if the other guys is doing it then by gum the client has to do the same thing better whether or not it appeals to the rest of the world or even their own clientele. Clients are their own worst enemies at times and some of the stories he tells me are downright funny! (and really sad too because these freaks are very well paid for their stupidity)

KYheirloomer,
good points indeed and well taken. As far as couples having fun in the kitchen...well my wife and I have fun in the kitchen but it is not "cooking".... :P :)

Ahhhh, Niznickr. But have you tried it with Creme Anglaise? :beer:

Creme Anglaise is divine................thick, soft and full bodied, it goes with just about anything.....:crazy:

Amazing how dirty this thread got all of a sudden.

There are still some interesting shows on the food network. Maybe not as many as a few years ago but Bobby Flay is the man and Alton Brown knows as many food facts than anybody I've ever met. The key is to get what you can out of the shows that are on. The ones you can stomach watching anyway, which excludes any of Guy Fieri's shows and that new winner Melissa for me. All things are gonna change eventually, no sense in being so irate over it. I keep on watching the channel waiting for the Japanese Iron Chef to begin airing again, those guys did some serious cooking. Anyway, there isn't any other channel so devoted to the progress of American Culinary growth. Even with all those home cook style shows at least people can learn how to make a meal from canned goods rather than running to the closest Mickey D's. I would definitely like to see more shows that appeal to me and my industry, but I'll take what I can get.

One last thing, I cant believe so many people are complaining about Giada's cleavage. That's just a bonus when watching her show. And it helps me ignore her over-dramatic pronunciation of every ingredient.

Is very difficult not to over pronounce Italian IMO. The language lends itself to a passionate performance. We're all learning it at the moment and we sound ike a scene from the Sopranos when we get going. I know what you mean tho. She's a bit OTT
As a man lovin woman, I have to say...She's hot!

Some of the food handleing I see on the food network is a discrace. This big daddy guy supposed cook , sticking his fingers into the food over and over to tast it??? Health Department should descend on their studios and issue fines and court appearance citations.

I agree entirely with FN journey from a really interesting show (at least for non-professional cooks like myself) to a completely useless network, aside from AB's show. Too bad! More time for Discovery or History Channel for me (sadly, even Desperate Housewives has become something I would watch over FN shows).

lol he is one of the biggest culprits... i watched his show a few times, and the food is just bad... it doesnt even look appetizing on the show.

Nothing makes me see green but when a chef sticks his finger in food to taste instead of taking a few extra seconds to get a spoon. I was shocked to see my Jacques Pepin to do it last night.

If FN became a constant 24/7 loop of Japanese Iron Chef reruns, I seriously would never turn my tv off.