The Food Network? Yesterday and today - Page 2

TheAutomaton · #16 04-24-2009, 04:24 PM

I am not a pro. chef, so I'm not allowed over here, but I couldn't resist.
The Food Network is for entertainment only. Just like the survival shows on The Discovery Channel. If you watch Survivorman and then go out and try to live off pine bark and grasshoppers for a week, you're crazy.
The Food Network is mainly reality tv now anyway. The only shows I'll watch are Good Eats, because I find it funny and somewhat informative and Chopped, because I think it's entertaining. You won't learn much about cooking from watching a vegan chef trying to make gummy bears and squid into a meal...
If I were a professional chef I wouldn't be offended by TFN. It's for fun.

And I agree about Giada. Her skinny *** is just on tv because she's hot. And I hate Dean's fake accent. I watched her show once and it took me a while to figure out that "all" means "oil" and I live in the South!!

I don't think a pro should be watching ANY cooking show looking for working knowledge. I mean, Good Eats will teach you some cool facts you might not have known, but most of the fare offered on the Network is just entertainment for normal folks who like looking at inedible, motorized cakes.

chefelle · #17 04-24-2009, 04:44 PM

I don't think any of us in the industry actually watch the Food Network for "working knowledge". We just like food and anything that has to do with food interests us. We're looking for entertainment too!

I am a professional chef and I am not offended by the Food Network. It's geared to a different audience than me. It's just that in times past there used to be some great cooking shows that could be enjoyed by the home cook and the pro chef alike. I think those of us in the industry sort of mourn for those shows.

There also used to be some other shows that while not geared to the professional chef WERE entertaining. Then they removed them all. My favourite time of the morning used to be 2 am when I was getting up to go into my bakery for a 4 am start...I'd spend my first hour of the day with the Food Network Challenge. And if I was really lucky I'd catch an episode of The F Word. Now it's all Guy's Big Bite, Christine Cushing, and 30 Minute Meals. No thanks.

I think I'm probably seriously in the minority here but I CANNOT STAND Alton Brown. He gets on my nerves big time. To each his own, I guess.

foodpump · #18 04-24-2009, 08:35 PM

Meh.... for the last 11 years we had no cable, so the TV was pretty much for ornamentation and videos. So after Christmas this year we finally gave in to the kids and got cable. For the first week, I watched nothing. One evening my son had the TV on to food channel, he called me over because there was a "cooking show" on. Ah, so that's what Racheal Ray looks like. After 30 seconds I walked a way again. I've never bothered to look at the box since, and it's almost May now.....

trk · #19 04-24-2009, 11:16 PM

Maybe some folks have long term memory loss but alas, there was a time when the food network had much to offer for EVERYONE. In my opinion, as a pro, if you can learn from or take inspiration from a cook book, a class, or a youtube video, you can certainly learn from TV. I'm not elititist and never felt bound to PBS only (until now) because back in the day, FN had such awesome and educational programs as Chocolate with Jaques Torres, Bakers Dozen with Marion Cunningham, East Meets West with Ming Tsai, Rick Bayless, Mario Batali, Gale Gand (who will be a guest here on Cheftalk) and of course, Julia. When I was first starting out as a pro in the early 90's, I DID take inspiration from some of these shows and they were targeting an audience of foodies. While I agree that those days are long gone, I think it's a bit pretentious to assert that pro's are beyond learning from cooking shows. I don't know everything about Mexican cooking or Asian cooking - and according to St. Bourdain (who was ALSO on Food Network), one could live an entire lifetime and still continue to learn about these cuisines. Why on earth would it be more acceptable to learn from a cookbook or a class than a TV program?

Ideally, one would hope to learn on the job, under the tutelage of a great chef. But if you're cooking in a Mediteranean style restaurant, who is going to show you how to make great tamales? I suppose you could spend another ten years on the job, hoping for a chance to work in a great authentic Mexican restaurant where you might be taught these cuisines. Or, you could teach yourself.

Food TV has gone the way of MTV, IMO. Once, the latter network was devoted to music only and appealed to a predominantly rock audience (remember Michael Jackson couldn't get his video on there at first). Today, the only time you'll see a music video on MTV is 8am or 2am. The rest of the time is devoted to highlighting the general debauchery of tatooed and pierced bottom feeders and attention whores.

Rant over...for now...

TheAutomaton · #20 04-26-2009, 06:41 PM

TRK nailed it I think. I think that most channels that used to be educational have gone the way of mind-numbing pointless bull, personally. I mean, does anyone remember when you used to be able to learn something from The Discovery Channel or The Learning Channel. Now all you can find on there are reality shows about idiotic dog trainers who hardly know which end of the animal to feed and documentaries about religious wing-nuts with twenty plus children. I think we just have to keep in mind the nature of your "average" TV viewer. Most of them are vapid morons who would rather light their own heads aflame than learn something, so reality shows about midgets and cooking shows about 7 foot tall flying super-hero cakes it is.

iconoclast · #21 04-26-2009, 10:45 PM

anyone here remember graham kerr??? i remember watching him as a kid... he was funny and educational. also yen can cook...

m.d.hughes · #22 05-27-2009, 08:24 PM

I just want to see that Guy dude's sunglasses fall into a deep fryer, preferably whilst still attached to his head

rat · #23 05-28-2009, 12:28 AM

I remember my mom following along with Julia Child on TV, she was making some sort of duck a l'orange? My mom couldn't keep up with the show, I learned many new words that day.......

Gunnar · #24 05-28-2009, 09:48 AM

I miss the Cajun Cook from the good ol days of PBS. Him and Yan Can Cook would be on back to back when i was a kid. Would watch him with my dad. Every recipe had wine in it and half the bottle would go in the recipe and the other half in to the Cajun Cook.

even stephen · #25 05-28-2009, 10:00 AM

I miss "Justin" too. He had a great recipe for BBQ crab using smoked salt.
He was really fun to watch and if you ever tried his recipes, some were
pretty darn good. He reminded me of my Grandfather...who was from the
outer banks in the carolinas....

iconoclast · #26 05-28-2009, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m.d.hughes

I just want to see that Guy dude's sunglasses fall into a deep fryer, preferably whilst still attached to his head

i hate him so much. he is so annoying and it aggrevates me to watch him on tv. i immediately change the channel... hes such a bro. worst person.

RSteve · #27 05-29-2009, 06:58 PM

Thanks to all for this thread. It's given me a hearty laugh. From criticism of Giada's cleavage to Nigella's "soft porn", to the general dislike of Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee, I've laughed and laughed. How in heaven's name can anyone be so upset, make that incensed, over TV food programming designed for a mass audience?

What do you expect, Dr. Robert Jarvik, to replace Hugh Laurie in House so physicians are happier with the show? Maybe Alan Dershowitz should have replaced William Shattner as Denny Crane in Boston Legal ???

It's TV, nothing more. If, as a professional, you're looking to The Food Network for continuing education, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Most TVs have functioning on-off switches and channel changing capability. If Giada and others offend you, watch something else. Frankly, I saw more cleavage on my morning walk today than I would in a few years of viewing Giada.

foodpump · #28 05-29-2009, 07:14 PM

Problem is, it's billed as "reality TV" and most schmucks believe it.

Many of them are young and think nothing of spending 40 grand on a cooking school so they can be like "their Hero" on TV. And guessy-guessy who has to bring such people back to reality in MY kitchen?

trk · #29 05-29-2009, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSteve

Thanks to all for this thread. It's given me a hearty laugh. From criticism of Giada's cleavage to Nigella's "soft porn", to the general dislike of Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee, I've laughed and laughed. How in heaven's name can anyone be so upset, make that incensed, over TV food programming designed for a mass audience?

What do you expect, Dr. Robert Jarvik, to replace Hugh Laurie in House so physicians are happier with the show? Maybe Alan Dershowitz should have replaced William Shattner as Denny Crane in Boston Legal ???

It's TV, nothing more. If, as a professional, you're looking to The Food Network for continuing education, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Most TVs have functioning on-off switches and channel changing capability. If Giada and others offend you, watch something else. Frankly, I saw more cleavage on my morning walk today than I would in a few years of viewing Giada.

A wee bit condescending, no?

So, I guess you've never read any chef autobiographies or articles where chefs discuss their earliest influences? Never heard any of them say that seeing Julia Child or Jacques Pepin on TV inflamed their passion for cooking? And perhaps you are unaware that prior to any food programming on TV, cooking was on a downward trajectory and heading quickly toward the prolifieration of Swanson Frozen Dinners into every American home? Yes, I'm generalizing, but anyone who has ever read a book about the history of food in our country in the last 50 years can't rationally deny the impact that food programming on TV has had.

With all that said, the Food Network did have credibility when it first started. My previous post lists the many successful chefs that had, at one time, either their own show or a presence on the network. In response to your statement:

Quote:

If, as a professional, you're looking to The Food Network for continuing education, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

let me just say that yes, I can still learn from such folks as Lidia Bastianich, Rick Bayless, Jacques Pepin, and GALE GAND (a recent guest here on ChefTalk). All these successful chefs did time on the Food Network. I suppose when I've published several cookbooks, owned a string of my own restaurants, and hosted my own food show, I can say confidently that there is nothing I can learn from successful chefs who appear on TV.

RSteve · #30 05-30-2009, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trk

A wee bit condescending, no?

No, not at all. The Food Network is not educational TV. You want educational TV, sample some of the food programming on PBS. Nothing in the entertainment media stays the same, ever.

In your opinion, The Food Network has regressed. Others find it more entertaining. Obviously, the general public has moved TFN's programming in another direction; away from education and directed to entertainment. If it no longer suits your needs, watch something else. I think I get 97 channels with my cable TV package and I often can find nothing I care to watch, so I just shut it off.