Food Network and Cooking Channel: One is about food

[HyeChaps]

A lot of the discussion in Food Network Star--Food Network In The Media could go here, as well as discussion about the fate of Food Network.

[DownTheShore]

Other than Restaurant Impossible, I find those other restaurant reality shows, especially the one with the wannabe goodfella, unwatchable.  I want to see the cooking shows at night, when I have time to watch them - not more reality shows.

[HyeChaps]

Ugh.  The return of Penny---

http://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2014/10/curtis-stone-to-host-food-networks-kitchen-inferno.html#more

[Maverick]

Shut up, Blais.

 

Why the hell did FN poach him from Bravo?   Does he have a large fan base?   I think he's a whiney, pretentious douchebag.

[6 MeowMeowBeenz]

The horrid return of Penny is offset by the wonderful return of Madison! IDK why he doesn't have an actual show already. 

 

And I don't mind Blais. Hie's kind of an odd little duck but he can actually cook.

[jjj]

Is there a thread somewhere that discusses other foodie channels?  Was home sick this week and discovered PBS-Create -- with Sara Moulton, Lidia's Kitchen, A Chef's Life (which I had never seen -- coconut cornbread?!) -- no commercials, real recipes I want to try -- wonderful channel.  Maybe I am last to find this, but can't see where to discuss it. 

[BennyB]

 

Is there a thread somewhere that discusses other foodie channels?

 

Under Genre Talk there's a topic called:  "What's Cooking? Cooking Shows, That's What"

 

Hope this helps!

[jjj]

Will take a look at this thread -- thank you, BennyB!

 

Under Genre Talk there's a topic called:  "What's Cooking? Cooking Shows, That's What"

 

Hope this helps!

[HyeChaps]

Rats! No live Thanksgiving special this year!

Instead:

 

Thanksgiving at Bobby’s

Premiering Saturday, November 22nd at 12pm – THANKSGIVING SPECIAL!
Bobby Flay is hosting an all-star Thanksgiving with co-host Katie Lee and a feast of special friends including Alex Guarnaschelli, Michael Symon and Sunny Anderson. From appetizers to drinks, turkey to dessert, and everything in between, everyone is cooking up the classic Thanksgiving dishes that are the most personal and special to them. Helpful how-to’s and personal stories are shared, as all the holiday courses are prepared leading up to the most delicious Thanksgiving feast with friends.

 

[6 MeowMeowBeenz]

I wish they'd done Thanksgiving Live again minus Giada.

 

Problem SOLVED

 

Thanksgiving at Bobby's--WTH, where's Ina? Where's Alton? 

 

Not cool, FN

[imjagain]

I always look forward to Thanksgiving Live.

I'm disappointed we won't get it this year. I wondered if people's reaction to Giada was as bad as it seemed, last year? I guess I got my answer.

I noticed she wasn't on any Thanksgiving commercials then saw the Thanksgiving at Bobby's Ads.

Bobby's show will have to do, but I loved the live show.

Edited November 18, 2014 by imjagain

[Maverick]

 I wished they had kept Thanksgiving Live, Giada and all.  I love watching her show her true colors.  I imagine Tushie in the control room popping a blood vessel while Suz stood next to him, cartoon-style thought bubble over her head with dollar signs comically jumping off a cliff.  The best part was having Ina on with her, shooting her WTF looks.  In my dream TL, LBH (Giada), Alton, Stuffy Zakarian, Nancy Fuller, Scott Conant and Jeff Mauro are all seated at a table together.  Only 3 of them get alcohol and you can guess which 3 I pick.  

[annzeepark914]

 I wished they had kept Thanksgiving Live, Giada and all.  I love watching her show her true colors.  I imagine Tushie in the control room popping a blood vessel while Suz stood next to him, cartoon-style thought bubble over her head with dollar signs comically jumping off a cliff.  The best part was having Ina on with her, shooting her WTF looks.    

Oh me oh my...that was the Mother of All FN Live Shows, eh?  I can still see those huge dark framed glasses on Giada (she said later on, during the show, that Todd texted her to remove them--good ol' Todd); same with Bobby and his huge dark framed glasses.  That "special" will go down in history for all that was revealed during the broadcast (Giada's OTT flirtations w/ Bobby, Alton's vile mood and hissy retorts, the entire strangeness of it all plus poor Ina stuck in the middle wondering, "What the hey?")

 

Speaking of Bobby Flay...yesterday I saw that first cooking show he ever had and my God, Bobby was bumbling around his kitchen, forgetting things, repeating instructions, stuttering, fumbling. It almost looked as though they'd sped up the tape he was flying around the set and speaking so fast.  Truly hilarious and all I could think was, "And you have the nerve to critique contestants in Next Food Network Stars"?

[6 MeowMeowBeenz]

annzee, if you haven't read "from scratch", I highly recommend it. Those first FN shows were filmed on sets that didn't even have running water! And Bobby definitely improved with age, but the FNS feeder fish don't really get the chance. Heck, they don't necessarily even get a show *cough* Lenny

[Skyfall]

Well that was much better than the live show!

[imjagain]

I enjoyed Thanksgiving at Bobby's. Pretty obvious,  that Katie and Sunny were the networks picks and Bobby picked his bff Michael Symon and Alex.
The food looked great. I have to make that cauliflower of Alex it looked so good. I won't make it on Thanksgiving, it will get lost in all the "classics" and everyone's favorites. It really looked yummy and deserves to be a center piece.

I would have liked to see Ina. Didn't miss Giada or Alton whom I used to adore.
Katie didn't bug me much ;)

Edited November 25, 2014 by imjagain

[selhars]

Oh how Food Network has fallen from its heights. No posts about it since November. Yikes.

 

Just saw a FN promo for a new show called "Food Fortunes."

So is that how bereft of ideas they are -- coming up with  a "Shark Tank" rip off?....where people make a pitch for money.

 

FN prime time is now just all game shows or a competition shows. How lazy.

[lambertman]

To be fair, there's lots of FN/CC talk on the "Cooking Shows" thread in genre talk, and several shows have their own forums.  I don't think this thread is on most folks' radar.

[selhars]

I love Diners Drive-ins and Dives. And actually like Guy Fieri on the show.

But I've heard he can be an a$$ h...well, I'll say a jerk, at times. And tend to believe the show's producer who left about that.

 

Anyone know for real whether he's nice or difficult to work with.

 

And what's the deal with him not eating eggs -- and I think a read somewhen he apparently absolutely REFUSed to eat eggs.. because he doesn't like them. Eggs are NOT on the show that much, so unless he's allergic, he should suck it up, and it an egg once in a while. And taste the dish AS PREPARED.

 

And as for the idiocy of how he says his last name....in ITALY of course one would roll the "R" in Fieri (so it COULD sort of sound like fee-eh-tee). But he's NOT IN Italy, didn't grow up in Italy and I don't even think that was even his given real,  that he grew up with. He changed it. So the affectation of his Guy Fietty pronunciation is a bit much. I lived in Italy and speak Italian, and it's a bit phony for me.

Edited March 13, 2015 by selhars

[howmanywords]

And what's the deal with him not eating eggs -- and I think a read somewhen he apparently absolutely REFUSed to eat eggs.. because he doesn't like them. Eggs are NOT on the show that much, so unless he's allergic, he should suck it up, and it an egg once in a while. And taste the dish AS PREPARED.

I've seen him eat eggs on DDD so its not like he WONT eat them. The breakfast pizza with the fried egg on top comes to mind.  I actually give Guy a lot of credit because he has definitely eaten things that looked like he wanted to gag just looking at.  I caught a rerun last week where they showed him at a place that offers once a week some pig intestine dish and after much prodding he ate it, and while he made it clear he hated it he sucked it up and ate it. The owner even laughed and said "I hope this wasnt the first thing you actual hate that you had to eat".

[selhars]

So is Food Network all Guy Fieri all weekend now.

Last weekend every time I tuned in DDD was on.

I think they want it ALL day Sunday....16 hours of a TT viewing schedule day is damned near all day.

[smiley13]

Not sure what is in the water at FN.  

 

Giada is still denying being involved with Flay, and now Alton too?  Oh well, but the network dumped Paula and is keeping all of them?

[selhars]

The new show "Guilty Pleasures" -- is different from the old show "Best I Ever Ate"......exactly how?

 

Talk about a retread of an idea, premise and format of a show.... geez.

[Maverick]

 I think that's been recycled more than any other idea at FN.  Best I Ever Ate, Best I Ever Made, Best. Ever. and Guilty Pleasures are all essentially the same. 

 

 I saw a commercial for summer shows and there was a quick glimpse of something called Cake Wars.  It looks like it's on the Halloween Wars set.  So we had Food Network Challenge, which morphed into Challenge which was all over the top cakes all the time, which was replaced by Cupcake Wars which has now been replaced by Cake Wars, which is essentially what Challenge was.  Since we're regressing maybe we'll eventually get back to the Challenges that covered everything from pies to pumpkin carving.

[ParadoxLost]

Wasn't there a spinoff to Cupcake Wars somewhere in there?  I'm thinking it was the Cupcake Wars set and format but it was Ice Cream Wars or something.  I just remember watching it once and it being a total bore because making the competition about ice cream or whatever it was had removed the presentation/visual element of the show which left this particular reality competition show with nothing to 'care' about or root for.

[Maverick]

There was a Game of Cones series last year but I think it lasted like 3 episodes. I never saw it and they never aired the dozens of repeats they usually do so it must have been a bigger dud than Sugar Dome.

[selhars]

I'm more out of the loop on Food Network than I though I was....

 

It has a show that's been on for more than a year....that I never heard of...."The Kitchen"...I think it's called...a sort of food prep/recipe/demonstration with Geoffrey, the girl with the last name Lee, Sunny somebody, I can't remember her last name. And another guy, who won one of the season's of Food network Star.

 

I happened to stumble upon it one morning...it was BORING as hell. ANd it's been on for more than a year.

 

I also stumbled upon yet ANOTHER southern cooking show....with a very blond, southern accented Food Network winner.

And I saw another show with an older (in her late 40's maybe), average-sized woman...she's a caterer, home chef or book author, I think. I don't knwo WHO she was. Never heard of her. Never seen her before.

Edited June 10, 2015 by selhars

[Rick Kitchen]

 

And I saw another show with an older (in her late 40's maybe), average-sized woman...she's a caterer, home chef or book author, I think. I don't knwo WHO she was. Never heard of her. Never seen her before.

 

Ina Garten?  The Barefoot Contessa?

[selhars]

No.  I'm not THAT clueless:):):)

 

I think it was Farmhouse Rules with Nancy Fuller.

I've looked her up since then...but when I stumbled onto the show I was like...."Who the hell is THAT?...never heard of her. Boy am I out of the loop."

 

There were three shows in a row that I'd never even heard of...I had no clue.

[CMH1981]

I was thinking after watching another abysmal episode of the Pioneer Woman where she made "7 Can Soup"...you have to check out the recipe.

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/7-can-soup.html

 

I would love to see a summer series where every Food Network personality w/a current airing show competes agains each other and the loser has their show cancelled.  It could be a four or five hour live event where each personality get's their share of screen time and we watch them cook, but the last hour there is a blind panel who decides who the loser is.  Ratings gold I tell you....ratings gold.

[xaxat]

I was thinking after watching another abysmal episode of the Pioneer Woman where she made "7 Can Soup"...you have to check out the recipe.

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/7-can-soup.html

 

 

Damn, I think that's lazier than even Sandra Lee!

[Bastet]

Wow.  The few FN/CC hosts I watch all have had some clunkers for recipes, but that canned monstrosity is on its own level.  If that's typical of her cooking, I can’t believe she has a show.

[annzeepark914]

I would love to see a summer series where every Food Network personality w/a current airing show competes agains each other and the loser has their show cancelled.  It could be a four or five hour live event where each personality get's their share of screen time and we watch them cook, but the last hour there is a blind panel who decides who the loser is.  Ratings gold I tell you....ratings gold.

Excellent idea!  Now who could serve as the condescending, obnoxious, know-it-all judges?  We gotta have them included, asking those stupid questions ("why didn't you reveal more about your personal life, struggles, what your dreams are, show your personality through your food", etc., etc., etc)...all questions accompanied by those smirky smiles.  And it must be timed so they have to gallop all over the studio trying to put their dish together while someone intones, "2 minutes, 1.5 minutes, 55 seconds...".    Poor ol' Giada wouldn't have time to show her grid.

[Totale]

 If that's typical of her cooking, I can’t believe she has a show.

 

If you have the coin to film and produce your own show and present it to FN all tied up in a bow (including promotion which you handle yourself online) so all they have to do is insert commercials and press "Play", I bet you can have one of your own, too, if you want it.  She has the coin and did want it.

[pandora spocks]

Usually I see Cooking Channel when Dish has a preview month. There's this segment called "You're Eating It Wrong" that makes me stabby. So far I've seen the proper ways to eat pizza, tacos, and spaghetti. The chicken wings eating expert was a competitive eater. Competitive eating dispenses with the niceties of etiquette.

Is "You're Eating It Wrong"satire? That would be the only reason how a glutton would qualify to give advice on the right way to eat anything!

Edited June 21, 2015 by pandora spocks

[MsFlibbles]

I remember when Racheal Ray had a show called $40 a day. She included tax and tips in the $40. Granted that was a few years ago. But, FYI has a show called Broke Eats What the Fung. Two asshats get try to budget $50 a day each. But, they don't include tax or tips. If you can afford to spend $50 a day eating out that's not broke eats. There's plenty of ways to save money on eating while on the road. I could only watch one episode.

[pandora spocks]

Daphne Oz was on "Not My Mama's Meals." She's just as insufferable on that show as she is on The Chew. Oh, how she crowed about being able to help Bobby Deen save 691 calories on the apple turnovers!

Edited June 22, 2015 by pandora spocks

[Bastet]

I remember when Racheal Ray had a show called $40 a day. She included tax and tips in the $40.

 

Which was easy to do, since every time I watched she tipped about five percent.

[ParadoxLost]

Usually I see Cooking Channel when Dish has a preview month. There's this segment called "You're Eating It Wrong" that makes me stabby. So far I've seen the proper ways to eat pizza, tacos, and spaghetti. The chicken wings eating expert was a competitive eater. Competitive eating dispenses with the niceties of etiquette.

 

I read an article on the right way to eat pizza.  It said to eat pizza with the topping upside down so the flavors made contact with the tongue.  That actually made some sense.

[pandora spocks]

Michael Symon will have a series called "Burgers, Brew, and Que." Great. We can never have enough shows with chefs doing road trips and eating at obscure eateries.

Has anyone noticed how over the top the promos are for "Guilty Pleasures?" Come on, you're eating a burger the size of a baby's head not committing bestiality!

Edited June 28, 2015 by pandora spocks

[xaxat]

That's an awful title.

[ariel]

That's an awful title.

It could be worse - it could be yet another show featuring Guy F.

[Maverick]

Burgers, Brew and BBQ. Triple B, baby. It's money.

[pandora spocks]

I watched the premiere of "Grubsessed." Think about it like a love child between "My Weird Obsessions" and "Best Thing I Ever Ate." I pray that the couple who were pancake obsessed never reproduce. The poor child would have to wear husky sized diapers!

[smiley13]

So I thought that the Cooking Channel would actually have real cooking shows, instead they have Tia Mowry, Tiffani Theissen and Hayley Duff?  And now they are adding Kimberly from Little Big Town who it seems has moved her show from GAC.  Cooking Channel is promoting her show as new, but it is not.  She has already done a couple of seasons.

[Automne]

FN is premiering a new show in August called "Great American Food Finds." It sounds exactly like an old FN show called "Food Finds" (with Sandra Pinckney) back during the golden era the network. I used to watch it in college when I had a few hours in between classes and just went back to chill in my apartment. I think it came on after Cooking Live with Sara Moulton.

[pandora spocks]

"And now they are adding Kimberly from Little Big Town who it seems has moved her show from GAC. Cooking Channel is promoting her show as new, but it is not. She has already done a couple of seasons."

Definitely won't be watching because Kimberly's accent grates on my nerves and I'm southern! Her voice has that quivery, grating quality that's like a cross between Dolly Parton and a goat. That's too baaaaaahd!

Valerie Bertinelli has a new cooking show slated for Sunday. If she's like most celebrity cooks watch out for guest appearances by her Hot In Cleveland co-stars and maybe McKenzie Phillips. McKenzie Phillips?...oh, what the hay! Celebrity guests bring a cooking show to a crawl. You're famous and you like to cook...yawn!

Edited July 31, 2015 by pandora spocks

[Automne]

Yeah, I'm getting really annoyed with all the shows being given to actors and entertainers that haven't been relevant since 1997. Why Tiffani Thiessen, Rev. Run, Tricia Yearwood, and Valerie Bertinelli over actual chefs and food professionals who actually have something to teach and not just trying to rescue a dying career? It's all the same sort of food, too. I would love to have somebody do African, Caribbean, and South American cuisines.

[Maverick]

I'm tired of all the kid cooks invading the network. They're like locusts. Now Rachel Ray has a kids cook off show coming. I guess she decided to dump Guy, which good for you girl but I still won't be watching.

[annzeepark914]

Sounds like Cooking Channel is going the way of FN...hardly any professional chefs but lots of celebs doing their cutesy routine while cooking OTT ordinary food.  Have to admit I did stop channel surfing and watched a Rev Run show.  His sister (or sister-in-law) was making dinner (while the celeb of the show, Rev Run, stood across the counter and made small talk!) and the vegetable dish looked good so I made it (Grilled Asparagus with Zucchini & Squash) and it is good.  The show itself was not interesting nor instructional (but then, why was I expecting an instructional show in the first place today thanks to all the non-pro's taking over these shows?)