The Great American Recipe - General Discussion

[NotChristine]

Quote

Join host Alejandra Ramos and judges Leah Cohen, Tiffany Derry and Graham Elliot as ten talented home cooks showcase signature dishes, share heartfelt stories and compete to win the national search for “The Great American Recipe.”

Premieres June 24 on PBS

Official Site

Preview

[DanaK]

This looks like it should be quite interesting

[Darian]

Looking forward to it. I'll watch Tiffany Derry in anything, but with the "heartfelt stories," I do anticipate lots of complaints about "sob stories." I like hearing them, or what food/cooking means to people, etc, and if I were on a cooking/baking show, I would be all about my family.

[EllenB]

First episode was okay. Odd mix of British baking show type of music and shots, with American overuse of dramatic pauses, overblown personalities, and not enough time spent on the actual food. It felt more like a  commercial network show than PBS, but at least there was no screaming and scheming.

[mertensia]

A nice palate pleaser; I'll keep watching.

Can I just say, though, how sick I am of "I'm here to represent my Italian heritage" as if they're unique? Like, every US cooking show has someone there to represent their Italian heritage.

[captain1]

I’m watching this because I love Top Chef type shows, and also because this was shot about five miles from my house in Caroline County, Virginia.  The venue is a new golf/ wedding venue.  The owners have sunk a fortune into it.

https://mattaponisprings.com/

[Leeds]

On 6/24/2022 at 7:00 PM, EllenB said:

First episode was okay. Odd mix of British baking show type of music and shots, with American overuse of dramatic pauses, overblown personalities, and not enough time spent on the actual food. It felt more like a  commercial network show than PBS, 

I could only put up with the show for about thirty minutes because of everything you brought up.  Plus half the "characters" are way too over the top and "on", especially the woman who cut herself.

[khyber]

I don't care about anyone's personal "journey", etc.  I just want to see interesting creative cooking. I ignore or fast forward through the other stuff.

[DanaK]

I found this interesting, especially with the contestants making food from their region of the country and representing where they come from

[Driad]

I like this, but some of the instructions could be clearer.  If you're cooking what you would cook on a weeknight when you don't have much time, are you supposed to use the level of hot peppers that your kids like, or what the judges like?  And people vary in how much salt they like, so if the judges prefer more, couldn't they just add some?

[mertensia]

I like Brian but dude, just because your friends can down habaneros like they're candy doesn't mean the judges can.

[Salacious Kitty]

5 minutes ago, mertensia said:

I like Brian but dude, just because your friends can down habaneros like they're candy doesn't mean the judges can.

If you blow out Tiffany Derry's palate, it's too hot. That said, the right person went home. 

[meep.meep]

I disagree.  If the show is supposed to be about the recipe, then Irma's recipe was good, she just needed more time.  Brian's recipe was inedible to many people, including the judges who actually like hot food.

I understand the time limitations necessary for a TV show, but I'd make the pot pies - they sounded good.

[Yeah No]

On 6/25/2022 at 12:55 AM, mertensia said:

Can I just say, though, how sick I am of "I'm here to represent my Italian heritage" as if they're unique? Like, every US cooking show has someone there to represent their Italian heritage.

The same could be said for those with Asian, Mexican or Southern American heritage on US cooking competitions so I'm wondering why it's any different for those with Italian American heritage.  There are a lot of Italian Americans in the US that are very close to their family culinary traditions (myself included) so I think not including them would not be an accurate representation of this country.  I actually think the show has done well in terms of including contestants from the biggest ethnic culinary traditions in this country.  Just because "fake-talian" is on every menu everywhere in this country doesn't make it less valid to include those that represent their Italian American culinary heritage passed down in their families.  What concerns me is how many times I've seen similar sentiments expressed toward Italian Americans and their cuisine recently and I'm trying very hard not to take offense at these comments.

[Yeah No]

On 6/24/2022 at 10:00 PM, EllenB said:

First episode was okay. Odd mix of British baking show type of music and shots, with American overuse of dramatic pauses, overblown personalities, and not enough time spent on the actual food. It felt more like a  commercial network show than PBS, but at least there was no screaming and scheming.

I've only watched the first episode so far but I took some of the lack of focus on the food to be in part a function of their focus on introducing the contestants.  I'm hoping that now that they've gotten that out of the way there will be more focus on the food.  And actually as far as the overblown personalities and drama is concerned on American TV cooking competitions, I'm finding this rather low key compared to pretty much all of them.  Only one contestant so far has come across as OTT but I doubt that's a function of the show's influence.  

[mertensia]

24 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

The same could be said for those with Asian, Mexican or Southern American heritage on US cooking competitions so I'm wondering why it's any different for those with Italian American heritage.  There are a lot of Italian Americans in the US that are very close to their family culinary traditions (myself included) so I think not including them would not be an accurate representation of this country.  I actually think the show has done well in terms of including contestants from the biggest ethnic culinary traditions in this country.  Just because "fake-talian" is on every menu everywhere in this country doesn't make it less valid to include those that represent their Italian American culinary heritage passed down in their families.  What concerns me is how many times I've seen similar sentiments expressed toward Italian Americans and their cuisine recently and I'm trying very hard not to take offense at these comments.

The biggest ethnic heritage group in the US is Germany. Midwestern is not synonymous. See any German cooks on the show? No. 

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, mertensia said:

The biggest ethnic heritage group in the US is Germany. Midwestern is not synonymous. See any German cooks on the show? No. 

I've actually always wondered why there isn't much recognition for German culinary heritage on cooking shows and competitions.  I'm wondering if it hasn't become a victim of the same blind eye that Yankee/New England cuisine has received.  A lot of dishes that were original to New England going back in some cases to the earliest days of the colonies have become ubiquitous and considered to be just general "American" fare and I suspect similar can be said for a lot of German food (even though most German immigration took place a little later), so neither of them are given their due as a unique and separate style of cooking.  My father tells me my Yankee grandmother used to make very "American" dishes like pot roast, franks and beans and "johnnycakes", all holdovers from her New England heritage.  Unfortunately she died before I was born so I never had the pleasure of eating her food.  But my point is that most people in this country today wouldn't consider those dishes a separate ethnic cuisine.

Part of this may be in no small part due to the great push in the 19th and most of the 20th century for immigrants to "assimilate" and do away with their ethnic affiliations for the most part.  Some of that was because of ethnic prejudice from WASPs, so if one could "pass" for a WASP one was more willing to "cleanse" themselves of their true ethnic heritage.  This happened with a lot of Irish who came here fleeing the potato famine in the 1840s and I'm sure it also had an effect on Germans coming here mid 19th century.  It wasn't as much of a thing for later immigrants from those countries or we wouldn't have so many Irish pubs in New York and the German Yorkville neighborhood in Manhattan (now largely extinct, unfortunately).  But those later immigrants were in the vast minority so unfortunately they didn't have as much influence as they probably should have.  I grew up eating German food in Yorkville thanks to my Dad, who had a German grandmother and I'm very sad that aside from a couple of restaurants and Schaller and Weber, it's pretty much gone.

Most of the ethnic culinary traditions represented on cooking competitions are from people who are no more than 3rd generation Americans.  In my case, one of my Italian grandparents was born overseas and one was born right after my great grandparents arrived here in 1904.  So for me and a lot of Italian Americans the culinary heritage is still fresh and distinct.  The same can't typically be said of most "Yankees" and those of German descent.  They have blended into what has commonly morphed into a general European-American culture at by now and most of them are not 100% or even 50% from any particular background at this point. 

Anyway, just my take.  🙂

Edited July 4, 2022 by Yeah No

[mertensia]

Look, I don't care that they're Italian. I'm tired of the omnipresent "representing Italy!!!" attitude. I'd feel the same about French, Sumerian or Latvian "representing!!" contestants. Like, good. Just stop pushing it in my face. You're Italian-American. Cool. Is that your only personal trait?

[Yeah No]

52 minutes ago, mertensia said:

Look, I don't care that they're Italian. I'm tired of the omnipresent "representing Italy!!!" attitude. I'd feel the same about French, Sumerian or Latvian "representing!!" contestants. Like, good. Just stop pushing it in my face. You're Italian-American. Cool. Is that your only personal trait?

I don't think that's something contestants necessarily push on their own.  It's something TV producers make them do.  These days it's all about ethnic and other types of representation on TV.  Not something I love either when done to excess, but I don't see that as the contestants' fault unless it's obvious that they're the ones pushing it.  On this show I'm not seeing that so far.  I have seen it on others, though.

[Annifran]

I'm confused on why the show is named The Great American Recipe when most of the foods being prepared by the contestants are ethic specialties representing their heritages.  And so many of them are hot/spicy.  So far, it's a so-so for me.

[Yeah No]

Unless we're native American or eating native American food, there is no American food that that doesn't descend from somewhere else originally.  We're a nation of immigrants from other countries at least at some point in the past and many people here follow and eat the cuisines of other countries more than mainstream "American" food so there is that....I grew up in New York City.  We ate Chinese one day, Jewish deli the next, Italian the next, Middle Eastern the next, Caribbean the next, French the next, German the next, Japanese the next, Greek the next, Southern the next, Indian the next, etc.  Many people argue that hot dogs and hamburgers were invented in Germany.  The "American" recipe includes all of those foods imported and made by immigrants to this country because they're Americans too.

[mertensia]

Loved Bambi's enthusiasm but I could tell it would be her tonight.

Mmmmmm....spaetzle. Love spaetzle. Also, nice to see something not Italian, Mexican or Asian.

Canned ham....is that spam?

[chessiegal]

8 hours ago, mertensia said:

Canned ham....is that spam?

No.

Quote

Canned ham is pork that has been cured, pressed into a can, and steam cooked. The result is a very stable, albeit somewhat bland, food product. Unlike conventional ham, the canned variety will keep in less than ideal conditions, and since it tends to be made from cheap ingredients, it is a cheap source of protein.

[Annifran]

The "canned ham" I saw being used in the recent recipe was Spam, a square/rectangular processed product.  The "canned ham" I would buy years ago had a teardrop shape and definitely was real ham.

[jcbrown]

This show tries hard to emulate the British shows. It fails on many counts, a few of which are that the British shows this is copying have:

•  a narrator and drawings of what they are going to make, as well as to introduce the contestants
•  more focus on the judges at the start of each round when they tell you what they are looking for
• challenges where people make similar things that can be judged against each other, as opposed to “I made pork dumplings!” “I made oatmeal cookies!” How do you judge those against each other? The challenges need more parameters.

In  sum, I really wanted to like this show but I so not think it works.

[zoey1996]

I am enjoying watching this. No intense drama, just good home cooks doing their best, and in far less time than I would need!

I would like to see Dan cook in another cuisine. He has Italian down pat; what could he do in Tex-mex, Asian, etc.? Nikki's salmon looked good, but Bambi's combination plate looked more interesting. Too bad it didn't wow the judges.

[bioprof]

Jcbrown put it perfectly….there’s no “there” there.

Where is the competition?

They practiced recipes at home countless times and then do the same recipe in “competition”….not once, but twice each episode.

I wanted to like this, but I’m totally out…this is boring as all heck.

[Yeah No]

On 7/12/2022 at 10:39 PM, bioprof said:

Jcbrown put it perfectly….there’s no “there” there.

Where is the competition?

They practiced recipes at home countless times and then do the same recipe in “competition”….not once, but twice each episode.

I wanted to like this, but I’m totally out…this is boring as all heck.

Yeah the challenges aren't interesting. It's like the same thing every week. They still have to entertain people but TV can't seem to figure out how avoid fake drama without making the show as dull as dishwater. 

[mertensia]

I'm not surprised Brian went. He seems to have done what he liked rather than specifically what was asked for. Wings as a walk and eat snack?

I did appreciate Dan and his pronunciation of provolone and explanation.

[Driad]

I had wondered if the contestants would stick to their own ethnic cuisines all the way through, so I was pleased that Tony tried something different.

The judges wore less unusual outfits this week, but from the promo we may see a doozy next week.

[MartyQui]

Another show where I wish the longhaired contestants would tie back their hair!  My mother would have been horrified.

[bioprof]

Just curious….why do the stylists on this program hate the female hosts?

Breathtakingly unflattering outfits from one week to the next.

No need to comment on the cooking…..it’s the same boring stuff from one week to the next.

[Phebemarie]

I finally realized Dan sounds just like Emeril Lagasse. It’s been pestering me every week.  

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, Phebemarie said:

I finally realized Dan sounds just like Emeril Lagasse. It’s been pestering me every week.  

That's because Emeril comes from Fall River, MA, which is in a part of the state that's close to Rhode Island, where Dan is from, and the accents are pretty much the same.  I've known people from both areas and instantly recognize that accent.  Years ago, when I first met a good friend's father who was living in NYC at the time, I told him he sounded just like Emeril, and then found out he was from that area.

[EllenB]

On the British shows, I want to hang out with most contestants! I care about them as people by the second or third episode. This show, I barely remember who they are by the time the episode is over.

I still don't get the concept, or lack of it. I thought they'd each come into the show with a handful of ORIGINAL recipes and tweak them to suit different occasions. This is just... food. A lot of "This is what my grandmother used to make."  Maybe they could have done a week of main dishes, same recipe used casually and more formally (or gussied up for holidays or parties), then a side dish recipe doing the same, and a dessert recipe doing the same. Or tweak the recipes throughout the competition, by adding ethnic touches to turn, say, an Italian dish into a Mexican one and a German dish into an Indonesian one, but with the same core ingredients. Something to show the universality, and versatility, of their special recipe.

This is just so generic in every way, although they tried hard to bring diversity in the contestants and judges.

[ShelleySue]

On 7/18/2022 at 1:24 AM, Yeah No said:

On 7/17/2022 at 10:51 PM, Phebemarie said:

I finally realized Dan sounds just like Emeril Lagasse. It’s been pestering me every week.  

That's because Emeril comes from Fall River, MA, which is in a part of the state that's close to Rhode Island, where Dan is from, and the accents are pretty much the same.  I've known people from both areas and instantly recognize that accent.  Years ago, when I first met a good friend's father who was living in NYC at the time, I told him he sounded just like Emeril, and then found out he was from that area.

I am originally from the the the midwest and now live in the Boston area.  I realize that I must have lived here for a long time because I don't even hear the accent. When I first moved here it used to hurt my ears. For anyone not from the area, that accent is not a sterotypical "Bawston" accent which is more of a "Southie" accent, not to be confused with the Kennedy/Hahvahd upper crust accent. Confused yet?

Typical conversation with TIffany Derry:

Contestant: My granny used to take spoiled milk, mix it with moldy bread, bake it with rancid beef, and cook it until it tasted like shoe leather. 

TIffany: So for you, this is home.  This is family.

Contestant: Yes, this smell of rotting food that makes you queasy brings me back to my childhood because Granny cooked with love.

Tiffany:  That is what it is all about. That is love.

[BusyOctober]

I can’t label exactly what is ‘off’ about this show.  It just isn’t enough of…something.  Cooking your childhood favorite or your grandma’s “famous” whatever from the old country isn’t enough.  I get they are emphasizing that American cuisine is literally a melting pot…generations on immigrants have built the collective cookbook.  It is nice to hear their connections to family and food, but…so what?  Most of us have that same experience.  But one thing that irks me about some cooking shows is repeatedly hearing these cooks explain why “their” family recipe is the most authentic representation of <insert dish here>.  Mostly because NO ONE recipe can represent authenticity for an entire population.

 My grandmother came to the US from Sicily in 1922.  She lived in an Italian neighborhood in Boston and had neighbors who were also from Sicily…3 miles from where my grandmother was born.  When the neighbors would share meals, my grandmother said her mother would eat a little of what the neighbor made to be polite, but once back home she would say,  “that woman doesn’t know how to cook!  Onions in the sauce?? BAH!”My grandmother told me the neighbor’s kids said their mom had the same complaints about her mom. Recipes are extremely unique and personal.  No Italian I know makes sauce (not ‘gravy’) the same exact way…even within my own family.  I watch these shows to learn about food and cooking techniques and ingredients I haven’t tried, not to be convinced of the only way to make a dish according to someone else’s Nona/ Papi/Mama/Uncle Rupert.

[Yeah No]

5 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

 My grandmother came to the US from Sicily in 1922.  She lived in an Italian neighborhood in Boston and had neighbors who were also from Sicily…3 miles from where my grandmother was born.  When the neighbors would share meals, my grandmother said her mother would eat a little of what the neighbor made to be polite, but once back home she would say,  “that woman doesn’t know how to cook!  Onions in the sauce?? BAH!”My grandmother told me the neighbor’s kids said their mom had the same complaints about her mom. Recipes are extremely unique and personal.  No Italian I know makes sauce (not ‘gravy’) the same exact way…even within my own family.  I watch these shows to learn about food and cooking techniques and ingredients I haven’t tried, not to be convinced of the only way to make a dish according to someone else’s Nona/ Papi/Mama/Uncle Rupert.

My grandmother was Sicilian too.  Her family came here in 1904 through Ellis Island.  She was born 2 years later in Brooklyn.  Her first language was the old Sicilian dialect.  She would never put onions in sauce or gravy either but she would never criticize someone for putting onions in there.  It just wasn't her preference.  I'm not being biased when I say that she was a phenomenal cook.  I used to wonder why all the relatives used to invite themselves over all the time on Sundays.  They loved my grandma but in retrospect they loved her cooking even more.   The relatives from Montreal used to invent reasons to visit NY just to have her cooking.  At one time my husband's boss was of Sicilian descent and when my husband would bring some of my grandma's cooking to work and let him try it, he went NUTS for it and wanted more, so my grandma made him her special meat calzone, which was more like a stuffed pizza and he went even more nuts for it.  So anyway I tend to feel that it wasn't just my family that loved her cooking and she was certainly doing something right. 

I've had other Italian Americans cook for me and have loved it even if it wasn't exactly like my grandma's cooking.  But then I've also had bad Italian American cooking too.  One high school friend that I reconnected with about a decade ago used to brag about his Sunday Gravy so he arranged to make it for me once when I was visiting NY.  OMG, it had a funky off taste I couldn't put my finger on.  I asked him what that taste  was and he told me it was pigskin.  I had never heard of putting pigskin in a gravy.  I wouldn't be against it if it tasted good, after all my grandma sometimes put all kinds of things in the gravy like non-smoked pork hocks, but pigskin is something that can completely take over the flavor of the dish and not in a good way in my opinion.  It's not the kind of taste most people would expect from a red sauce.  He told me that's what he grew up with so that's how he makes it.  I of course was polite and didn't let him know how much I hated it.  I actually think that the gravy wouldn't have been half bad without it.   When I got home I told my husband it tasted like someone's funky old sock was in the gravy, LOL.  At this point my grandma would have said, "Not my taste, but to each his own", and left it at that!

[mertensia]

Bye, Tony! I was rooting for you.

My guess is Nikki goes next. 

They need some desperate revamping. Like everyone cooks entrees, or desserts or whatever.

[MBayGal]

Does anyone else feel like they have already decided Sylvia is going to win?  I think her food is the least interesting, all her dishes just have stereotypical Mexican ingredients.  The others have prepared much more varied dishes, with a wider variety of ingredients. But the judges are/act so emotionally touched by her stories and her food. I can't help but feel it's fixed.

Edited July 24, 2022 by MBayGal

[Yeah No]

20 hours ago, MBayGal said:

Does anyone else feel like they have already decided Sylvia is going to win?  I think her food is the least interesting, all her dishes just have stereotypical Mexican ingredients.  The others have prepared much more varied dishes, with a wider variety of ingredients. But the judges are/act so emotionally touched by her stories and her food. I can't help but feel it's fixed.

I came here tonight to say just exactly this.  She is sweet but I can't help but think she is pouring it on very thick with the judges because she knows they're eating her shtick up.  It reminds me almost exactly of the Julia Child Challenge on FN this past Spring.  That South American contestant, Jaine acted similarly and the judges were so captivated with her I predicted she was the designated winner only a couple of weeks in.  And sure enough she was.  

[mertensia]

22 hours ago, MBayGal said:

Does anyone else feel like they have already decided Sylvia is going to win?  I think her food is the least interesting, all her dishes just have stereotypical Mexican ingredients.  The others have prepared much more varied dishes, with a wider variety of ingredients. But the judges are/act so emotionally touched by her stories and her food. I can't help but feel it's fixed.

Yeah, she's my pick, too. 

[MartyQui]

I wonder how much of Sylvia’s hair has ended up in the food?

[milkyaqua]

I felt like Tony was on borrowed time so I wasn't shocked to see him go.  I also would like to see them all either have to cook the same dish or at least the same type of dish instead of a mixture of entrees, desserts, whatever.  I can see Sylvia being the final pick but I'd like to be more surprised than that, lol.

[zoey1996]

I'm not a calamari fan, but I would have tried some of Foo's salad, it looked good!

I too would like to have them cook the same dish, be it entree, side, or dessert. Having said that, having Dan's cookies for the sweet ending (desser)t) seemed to work well. I thought Robin was too ambitious with her Kibbeh, since ordinarily that grain is soaked overnight. Since it was too dry, that was her downfall. I was sorry to see Tony go, but both his dishes were the least successful, so it was the right choice.

Oh, yes, I have to mention, I never eat veal or lamb, so I wouldn’t like those dishes either.

Edited July 27, 2022 by zoey1996

[DanaK]

At this morning's TV Critics Summer session for PBS, PBS chief said during her executive session that PBS is bullish on a second season and they are working towards a renewal

[ShelleySue]

On 7/27/2022 at 1:43 PM, DanaK said:

At this morning's TV Critics Summer session for PBS, PBS chief said during her executive session that PBS is bullish on a second season and they are working towards a renewal

I wonder how many cookbooks they've sold so far.  Am I just skeptical?

[Driad]

10 hours ago, ShelleySue said:

I wonder how many cookbooks they've sold so far.  Am I just skeptical?

I'll probably look at the cookbook because some of the dishes sounded very tasty.  Not enthusiastic about the competition, though. With competitors making different dishes, the judging seems more subjective than on most competitions.

[mertensia]

I knew it. Bye, Nikki.

Will it be Dan or Robin next?

[Salacious Kitty]

I thought Dan would go for being too simple. Nikki's dish was far more ambitious, but I guess her flaws were more glaring. But she should have gotten credit for trying.