[shel]

The comings and goings of Emeril Lagasse at Food Network ...

mediabistro.com: FishbowlNY

Serious Eats: Emeril Leaves Food Network

Serious Eats: Emeril Still Alive at Food Network

[Beemerchef]

Who is Emeril?

[allie]

I'm glad that Essence will still be produced but seriously, couldn't care less about Emeril Live anymore. When I first started watching Food Network, I enjoyed Live but now it just really irritates me.

[stir it up]

Many moons ago, long before Emeril was the "bam" guy on TV, I had the pleasure of eating at his chef's table in his restaurant in New Orleans (when he had one restaurant).

I was impressed to the highest degree with what was going on down there, the restaurant was jam packed, in a warehouse, I would guess at least 250 seats, many tables with large groups. He was the best "field marshall" I've ever seen, had an excellent team that worked like a finely tuned precision instrument, taking on one table at a time and finishing every different dish within never more than about one or two seconds of the others, then it would be immediately whisked out to the clients. (two seconds variance would be long and rare, it was usually practically instantaneous). He still found time to be charming to us, made great wine recommendations, and dinner was fantastic. So I'll always think of him very well. I never watched his show, but when I think of him I think of that experience and am in awe of how he ran his kitchen.

[Chef House]

Emeril is one of the few chefs early on the food network that I respected, I worked in the Big Easy and it was not easy, it was hot, humid and the after work nearly killed me. Alot of these "chefs" would not last a day in one of my kitchens, they have poor knife skills, don't follow proper procedures and never have herd of clarified butter. Yes at times he is annoying but nows his trade.

[cakerookie]

Originally Posted by Beemerchef

Who is Emeril?

Are you serious?

[eatdrinksleep]

these days, rachael ray and giada are the popular ones..
what do u guys and girls think?

[Goose]

Originally Posted by eatdrinksleep

these days, rachael ray and giada are the popular ones..
what do u guys and girls think?

I can watch Giada on mute all day long!

RR, on the other hand, I would rather shove a screwdriver through both of my eardrums...and possibly my eye sockets too!

Food Network has dumbed itself down to the lowest common denominator. Nothing quality comes from that network anymore...some of the hosts can't even cook...Sandra Lee? C'mon!

[GhettoRacingKid]

my pastry teacher went to school with emril and he said that emril wanted to be the biggest chef on TV. Goal Achived except for BeemerChef, lol.

RR is not trained and I work with one o her relatives in upstate NY in 1999. She is a home cook. simple as that.

Giada always wears low cut shirts. I want to see them but dont think it will ever happen.

Ive noticed with the food network is that they realyl "push" some of there stars into stars. They pushed Guy Piere

I do enjoy Alton Brown's good eats mostly becuase its educational and not dumbed down kidna. i enjoy learning the science behind it becuase onceyou know how it works you can know what to do with it.

[eatdrinksleep]

I agree! I can watch Giada all day long too!
As for Alton Brown, he's great because I learn a lot of interesting tidbits from his show.
Emeril stands out a lot in my mind even now because of the BAM, BAM, and BAM!

[bbay]

i concur and am glad others feel the same.

[IMHO]the food network has taken a dive since i started watching.
i don't doubt for a moment the abilities of celebrity chefs such as alton, emeril, wolfgang puck, etc., but i feel that they are performing for the lowest common denominator.

i do believe that even that has its place. i have friends who are fledgling home cooks and the shows on the food network actually help/inform them.

but, for me, i see better programming/learn more on the travel channel now. [/IMHO]

'bam'; indeed.

edit:
good eats is okay. i sometimes disagree with his proceedures. his science is tight, though.

[Mezzaluna]

I'm a home cook and have benefited GREATLY from the knowledge I've gained here at Chef Talk. I've learned from some of the personalities on Food Network too, but in recent years the entertainment focus has overtaken the instructional focus there. I wouldn't expect a show for professionals to be comprehensible to me, but I'd certainly watch and try to learn.

Perhaps it's time for some enterprising and well-funded individual to pitch a show or block of them for professionals in the culinary world. It could be cast as a sort of professional in-service for people in the industry. Some public TV stations have programs for teacher in-service (I know because I am a retired teacher); these are usually on PBS stations. PBS is where cooking shows really took off (Julia Child, Graham Kerr, etc.) so why not?

[shel]

Originally Posted by Mezzaluna

I'm a home cook and have benefited GREATLY from the knowledge I've gained here at Chef Talk. I've learned from some of the personalities on Food Network too, but in recent years the entertainment focus has overtaken the instructional focus there. I wouldn't expect a show for professionals to be comprehensible to me, but I'd certainly watch and try to learn.

I agree about the quality of the shows on FN. I've only been watching FN for about a year, and in the beginning I thought it was great. However, it didn't take long for me to see a lot of faults, and now, with one or two exceptions, I don't watch the cooking shows. Maybe that's because my style of eating isn't served by Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, and Emeril Lagasse.

The shows that do try to educate, like Alton Brown, Ellie Krieger, Sara Moulton, and to a lesser extent, Robin Miller, work for me. I'd love to see AB lose some of his shtick, but not all of. It's kinda fun to be entertained while learning something and getting some good recipes and ideas. Mario is also enjoyable as often he provides a little history or background on the food he's preparing.

I like some of the entertainment shows - Iron Chef America does it for me. I think it's tha pace at which the chefs work that holds my interest, and I always look forward to the Cat Cora episodes.

Recently I've been able to watch some PBS shows, and some shows on other channels as well. For the most part, I find them more useful because there's more instructional technique and less frenetic pacing. I wish I could get some cooking shows from these other stations here at home. Oh well, there's always Chef Talk

shel

[cakerookie]

You got a remote? Iron Chef America in no way compares to the Japanese version of the show.

[shel]

Originally Posted by cakerookie

You got a remote? Iron Chef America in no way compares to the Japanese version of the show.

What does my having a remote got to do with anything?

I know the two shows are different - I still like ICA.

shel