The Kitchen - General Discussion

[captain1]

Just give me Ina and reruns of Julia Child 24/7 and I’ll be happy!

[annzeepark914]

3 hours ago, captain1 said:

Just give me Ina and reruns of Julia Child 24/7 and I’ll be happy!

I'll take reruns of Ina's show + reruns of Julia with Jacque Pepin (I loved those two cooking together).

[Door County Cherry]

If you'd like to talk about random Food Network personalities, there's a perfect thread in the Network forum to do just that. 

But it's another off topic tangent in less than a week for this thread. Go back to this show and its actual hosts.  

[LazyToaster]

I saw on FaceBook today that Sunny is returning to (inside) the kitchen. 

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, LazyToaster said:

I saw on FaceBook today that Sunny is returning to (inside) the kitchen. 

I just saw her on the Rachael Ray show.  She said "People are sick of me being outside, they're sick of it.  I'm going to go back inside.  I'm sick of it too, Rachael".

Well there you go.  No mention of when, though.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 9/18/2021 at 10:52 AM, buttersister said:

And everyone’s dear friend Bobby Flay on Zoom, hocking his new book, new season and taking a spelling test. I couldn’t make this shit up.

Speaking of spelling, it's "hawking."  Unless he's getting a loan against the book at a pawn shop.

I though the spelling test was funny.  And that he sent Sunny a gift basket...for her dog.  Consisting of items from his new pet products line.  Not exactly the invitations to dinner at his house that Katie Lee has mentioned. 

Back to previous episodes: This afternoon, Mr. Outlier was having a sandwich called the Porky, which is just a bunch of barbecue on ciabatta, just plain, with potato chips on the side.  I had a few bites, and a few chips, and suggested, "Have you thought about putting a layer of chips on the sandwich?" and he said, "I would if I were Jeff Mauro." 

He doesn't even watch the show!  I'm afraid that I may have spent some of our precious time together on this earth talking about Jeff's ardor for potato chips in recipes. 

[annzeepark914]

20 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I just saw her on the Rachael Ray show.  She said "People are sick of me being outside, they're sick of it.  I'm going to go back inside.  I'm sick of it too, Rachael".

Well there you go.  No mention of when, though.

🙄  Hey Sunny--a lot of people are more than sick of you (+ being outside the studio). So, here's a big-A tip: when you come in from the cold, bring along some interesting, **new** recipes with ya. Please!

[buttersister]

32 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

when you come in from the cold, bring along some interesting, **new** recipes with ya. Please!

It will make you stand out from the rest of the tired bunch!

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Speaking of spelling, it's "hawking."  Unless he's getting a loan against the book at a pawn shop.

I'm thinking it may have been said in the Yiddish sense of "hocking" which means loosely to bother or nag on incessantly about something.  It comes from the phrase don't "hokn a chaynik" which literally means "don't knock my teakettle".  My father used to tell me to stop hocking his chaynik when I was a little kid, LOL  Bobby, being from Queens probably grew up with that expression like a lot of New Yorkers.

[annzeepark914]

56 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

I'm thinking it may have been said in the Yiddish sense of "hocking" which means loosely to bother or nag on incessantly about something.  It comes from the phrase don't "hokn a chaynik" which literally means "don't knock my teakettle".  My father used to tell me to stop hocking his chaynik when I was a little kid, LOL  Bobby, being from Queens probably grew up with that expression like a lot of New Yorkers.

Hocking. I learned this useful Yiddish expression (among many good ones) from a college roommate many years ago.  "Quit hocking me!" 

[StatisticalOutlier]

2 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Bobby, being from Queens probably grew up with that expression like a lot of New Yorkers.

I don't recall Flay saying it, although it might be a refreshing bit of honesty if he did.

[Mondrianyone]

2 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Bobby, being from Queens probably grew up with that expression like a lot of New Yorkers.

He grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, not Queens.

[Yeah No]

4 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

He grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, not Queens.

Years ago I always heard he was born in Queens.  But it doesn't matter where he was raised re: his vocabulary anyway.  Or whoever said the phrase as most of them whether or not from NY, are familiar enough with its culture by now to know those expressions.

[Door County Cherry]

I removed some posts which went off topic.  Since it was the third time in about a week that an off topic subject became the main topic of conversation, the thread was briefly locked.

It is now being reopened to discuss today's episode.  Because of the thread's tendency to go off topic, please do your best to stay focused on what is happening on the episode or news about the hosts. 

Thank you!

[buttersister]

Katie making a plate of Cincinnati chili for Sunny = comedy gold! Didn't catch the other segments (Jeff + hunk of meat = click).

They seemed to be straining to get back to the old rhythm. 

[maggiemae]

I thought GZ was very serious about loving Katie's chili.

One thing I have noticed is GZ talks a lot about food growing up and when asked whether he makes it for his kids he vaguely says no.

Edited September 28, 2021 by maggiemae

[buttersister]

There are creative cooking shortcuts and there are hot messes. But unless Sunny was offered a FN sweetheart deal to be the next Aunt Sandy, there is no freaking excuse for her slider bake (at-home episode erroneously titled #kitchengoals). 1) Use the green can of "cheese" and 2) She'll be speaking at the next cardiologist convention that focuses on how to get new patients (as opposed to treating/preventing heart disease). 3) Apparently felt no responsibility for propagating this crap. 

[annzeepark914]

No one at FN should be using the green can of cheese.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 9/24/2021 at 1:17 AM, Yeah No said:

Years ago I always heard he was born in Queens.  But it doesn't matter where he was raised re: his vocabulary anyway.  Or whoever said the phrase as most of them whether or not from NY, are familiar enough with its culture by now to know those expressions.

To be clear:  Nobody on the show used the word.

I was surprised that nobody seemed to know what Cincinnati chili spaghetti is.  I mean I've had it, and I'm no food expert and I'm from Texas--nowhere near Cincinnati.  But then I realized that probably none of these people have ever been to Cincinnati, so why would they know?

I once had a free plane ticket that was fixing to expire, and I decided to do a midwest tour--flew to Chicago and rented a car for 10 days and did a big loop, going to all these places that I figured I'd never otherwise set foot in:  Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland.  I don't know how I figured out I needed to go to Skyline Chili for chili spaghetti (this was pre-internet), but I did. 

Everybody thought I was crazy for "wasting" my free ticket like this, but I thought it was worth it the time I was on a ski lift and doing the usual "Where are you from" and the guy said Cincinnati, and I said, "Oh, y'all have chili spaghetti."  But now I get to feel superior to various iron chefs and FN stars in my culinary knowledge.  I already bested Zakarian with my superior knowledge of parchment paper vs. wax paper, and now this. 

But speaking of Zakarian, I have to say that the beef on wex looked wonderful.  It's always a battle to find rare roast beef on a sandwich.

[bkathi]

17 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

But speaking of Zakarian, I have to say that the beef on wex looked wonderful.  It's always a battle to find rare roast beef on a sandwich.

If you are in the Northeast, Wegman's offers a premade beef on kwek.  I've had it a few times - not cheaper but cheaper than a trip to Buffalo :-)

[Mondrianyone]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

To be clear:  Nobody on the show used the word.

And not only that, but "hocking" his book makes no sense. I grew up with a grandmother who spoke Yiddish, and "hocking" doesn't mean to constantly plug or hype something. In English it means to pawn something. In Yiddish the expression that occurs most commonly is Hak mir nisht keyn tshaynik! (spelling varies--a lot). It means "Stop bugging me" or similar. You can't bug a book, but you can hawk it--i.e., try hard to sell it.

I agree that sandwich looked delicious.

[annzeepark914]

16 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

And not only that, but "hocking" his book makes no sense. I grew up with a grandmother who spoke Yiddish, and "hocking" doesn't mean to constantly plug or hype something. In English it means to pawn something. In Yiddish the expression that occurs most commonly is Hak mir nisht keyn tshaynik! (spelling varies--a lot). It means "Stop bugging me" or similar. You can't bug a book, but you can hawk it--i.e., try hard to sell it.

Well...maybe the word "hawking" was said *without* the good old New Yawk accent. Thus, it sounded like hocking (remember the discussion about Don and Dawn?).

[Mondrianyone]

😁 😁 😁

That's funny. I had (sometimes still have) a Noo Yawk accent. I was very conscious from childhood not to tawk like a Lawng Islander. (I mostly succeeded.) But no NYer would go so far overboard as to change "hawking" into "hocking." That's how midwesterners sound. But if you're up for a cup of cawwwfee, gimme a cawwl.

I see Sunny hasn't come in from the cold yet. I'll be sad when she does. It's so much easier to FF past her this way.

[StatisticalOutlier]

3 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Well...maybe the word "hawking" was said *without* the good old New Yawk accent. Thus, it sounded like hocking (remember the discussion about Don and Dawn?).

It wasn't said at all.  A poster here wrote that Flay was "hocking" his book on the show.

[Fostersmom]

On 9/12/2021 at 11:29 AM, Maverick said:

 I saw a commercial for her in a new Halloween show that looks like a riff on the Easter show she did.  I know we speculated that the Easter show might have been filmed pre-covid even though it was a year into the pandemic because of how FN tapes.   But this new has to be done post-covid.  So it makes absolutely no sense that she would do those shows but not The Kitchen. 

 At least they're tasting each other's food again. 

 

I've been wondering if the reason she's been outside is she refused to be vaccinated and the rest demanded the outside set and not the other way around. The rest have kids who may or may not be old enough to be vaccinated. She was still outside today. And I have to admit, my first thought when I saw a commercial for the Halloween show was how can she again do an extra show, just like the Easter show, be can't go inside? Make no sense.

As I normally do, I only half assed watched today's show. I have no idea what GZ made, or if he even made anything at all. I vaguely remember seeing Sunny's butter chicken, Jeff's beef whatever, and Katie's chicken whatever. The dessert Alex made, however, did look really good and simple enough to make. 

[Cozytea]

8 minutes ago, Fostersmom said:

I've been wondering if the reason she's been outside is she refused to be vaccinated and the rest demanded the outside set and not the other way around. The rest have kids who may or may not be old enough to be vaccinated. She was still outside today. And I have to admit, my first thought when I saw a commercial for the Halloween show was how can she again do an extra show, just like the Easter show, be can't go inside? Make no sense.

As I normally do, I only half assed watched today's show. I have no idea what GZ made, or if he even made anything at all. I vaguely remember seeing Sunny's butter chicken, Jeff's beef whatever, and Katie's chicken whatever. The dessert Alex made, however, did look really good and simple enough to make. 

Lol, i just watched today's episode and I can't remember if GZ made anything.  Wow i must not have been  paying attention. 

I'll admit to my obsession with butter chicken so I did  watch Sunny's segment.  It looked good....I want butter chicken 😋. Unfortunately I'm elbow  deep in tamales this weekend,  so butter chicken will have to wait.

I loved how easy Alex's dessert looked.

I don't think I've used onion soup mix for years and years. I remember it seemed like i always a had box in my pantry when I  first  moved in and eventually married my husband. 30 years ago ...😮

[Irlandesa]

All I know is that, after watching that fries segment, I want three of those dips, especially Alex's and GZ's.  I'm not a huge fan of mustard, but the sweetnesss might have helped.  Sunny's would be too spicy for me.

[annzeepark914]

Me two or three as I half-assed watched the show this morning. Katie's voice is getting worse... she's now warbling like an old woman. But Alex's dessert looked so good. I'm going to make it one of these days. I think I'd be tempted to put a *small* dollop of whipped cream (w/ a tiny bit of sour cream mixed in) on top. I'm also going to do the chicken stroganoff.

That last bit with the variety of French fries (getting cold on the plate) involved them creating dips for the fries. All I could think of was cold fries, no longer crispy. Blech.

 

[StatisticalOutlier]

Just now, annzeepark914 said:

That last bit with the variety of French fries (getting cold on the plate) involved them creating dips for the fries. All I could think of was cold fries, no longer crispy. Blech.

I guess when people make these things, they do all the various fries separately and keep them warm in the oven until serving?  When Jeff picked up the crinkle cut fry, it bent over.  Blech.

But it's weird.  When I'm served french fries, they're hot for only a couple of minutes, and I end up continuing to eat them even after they become room temperature, and I think, "If they served them this temperature in the first place, I'd think, 'Yuck. These fries are cold.'"  But if I get a few hot ones at the beginning, then the cold ones somehow become palatable.  Well, until I really think about it, and then I realize I don't like eating not-hot french fries.

[Maverick]

 The best part of today's episode was Jeff acknowledging that GZ gets trolled on the internet for using chopsticks.

 The worst part of today's episode was Eddie trying to put lipstick on a pig and sell the revamped Halloween Wars...and justifying why he's there.   This was likely filmed before the new season of HW premiered so they knew how bad it was going to be going in.

 Sunny couldn't even be bothered to make her sauce.  She just briefly lifted each ramakin as she rattled off the ingredients without even giving measurements.  Then she tells us it needs pepper, more pepper than you would think...but we can't even guess at how much because she just point to the pepper mill.

 

[annzeepark914]

I watched the rerun today (from last year). Sunny's fried chicken sandwich looked very good. I'm no expert at frying chicken so I guess I'll stick to buying them from Popeyes (or McD's). It's an occasional treat. The artichoke dip looked very good.

Edited October 4, 2021 by annzeepark914

[HyeChaps]

I actually made Katie’s chicken “stroganoff”. Had to buy the onion soup mix. It came out good.  However I wonder if it would make a difference if crimini mushrooms were traded out for some other kind of mushroom. 

[Mondrianyone]

Just curious: Did you use chicken thighs or breasts? I got pretty much exactly that recipe a week ago in an email from Food Network. I figured that's where she got hers as well. I'm planning to make my own onion-soup mix, because the store-bought ones are usually so high in sodium.

[annzeepark914]

13 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

Just curious: Did you use chicken thighs or breasts? I got pretty much exactly that recipe a week ago in an email from Food Network. I figured that's where she got hers as well. I'm planning to make my own onion-soup mix, because the store-bought ones are usually so high in sodium.

How do you make your own onion soup mix?  The ones from the store are so OTT salty. There used to be a brand called Mrs. Grass's onion soup mix that offered a low sodium and that was great.  I think they stopped making it.

[Mondrianyone]

3 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

How do you make your own onion soup mix?

I haven't made it yet, but I did find a recipe for it on a site I trust. Doesn't look overly salty, so I'm going to try putting it together after I get the one ingredient I didn't already have on hand, which is celery powder.

I remember Mrs. Grass! I didn't come across her when I went hunting for a premade mix, though, so I wonder if that brand is kaput.

[chessiegal]

Looks like there are plenty of recipes for homemade onion soup mix out there. I started making my own taco seasoning after reading the ingredients on the packaged seasoning mix.

[Mondrianyone]

There are, but I've made things from that site before and never been disappointed, so that's where I'm starting.

I've been pretty much making all my own herb and spice mixes lately: taco seasoning, rib rub, mocha steak rub, pork rub, Italian seasoning, pickling spice--I can't even remember all of them. Much better than the packaged stuff.

[HyeChaps]

I happened to have just bought boneless chicken breasts on sale. 
(Also, I admit, I like salty. )

[Mondrianyone]

I'm glad you liked it, @HyeChaps. I was going to use breasts as well, so that's encouraging.

I like salty, too, but there's a limit.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Mondrianyone

[HyeChaps]

I did use low sodium chicken broth. 

[Westiepeach]

N/M

Edited October 9, 2021 by Westiepeach

[annzeepark914]

I tuned in at 11:04, just in time to see Jeff leap into the air. It's a Halloween show rerun from 2019. I guess the staff hid something to scare him. What was it? Geez... they're sooooo loud (probably cause Sunny & Jeff are on the set)...I keep having to lower the volume. Carla's a guest. Does she have her own show? She'd be good on this show.

[Maverick]

 A hand came up out of the drain when Jeff went to wash his hands...and scared the living shit out of him.   Carla's on because she's a judge on the Halloween Baking Championship.  They had her on a new episode (on Zoom) a week or two ago for the same reason.

[StatisticalOutlier]

The identify-that-food-by-feel segment at the end reminds me of how much fun the show can be.  Sunny's clue:  "I would never eat it" and Zakarian blurts out, "Tofu!"  (But she added that she actually does like it.)

I remember this episode from when it first ran, mainly because of Katie's ruffled bell sleeves.   She hiked them up for the feel-the-food segment, but had left them dangling while making her (delicious sounding) squash things, and I don't think they made contact but good heavens, the anxiety while watching!

But the most interesting thing was that when Zakarian and Jeff were sitting next to each other at the counter, they were the same color!  I hope Zakarian watches it and groks.

Years ago, there was a local TV haircaster who got a makeover, and the biggest change was darkening her hair.  She'd been coloring it for many years, and it gradually got lighter and lighter--so gradually you don't even notice until you compare it to something earlier, and in the case of TV people, you have video you can use.  It wasn't even going back to her natural hair color, but just stopping the progression at a more reasonable point, and it made a world of difference.

Zakarian could use a similar intervention with his tanning, although I should probably just be grateful he let his hair go gray and didn't go the red-shoe-polish route that so many men who have the means to get decent hair color go (although Zakarian might be a little young for that). 

[novhappy]

I’ve enjoyed this show and only had issues with OTT sunny as a personality.  Obviously the recipes are not very interesting anymore. 
You guys talk about needing new personalities but I’m going to suggest the show needs a new network. The Food Network is so far down the rabbit hole of “personalities and brand management” that there is literally nothing left authentic on this network at all. 
This show in particular is just strung together hosts, each primarily focused on executing their dialogue and character.  Prepping, cooking and organically chatting are barely existent on this show. 
Maybe all new production team and management I don’t know. 
But an hour long, multi person stand and stir CLEARLY gets ratings so figure it out FN!  I want this show to be good!

[cameron]

On 10/9/2021 at 12:49 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

The identify-that-food-by-feel segment at the end reminds me of how much fun the show can be.  Sunny's clue:  "I would never eat it" and Zakarian blurts out, "Tofu!"  (But she added that she actually does like it.)

I remember this episode from when it first ran, mainly because of Katie's ruffled bell sleeves.   She hiked them up for the feel-the-food segment, but had left them dangling while making her (delicious sounding) squash things, and I don't think they made contact but good heavens, the anxiety while watching!

But the most interesting thing was that when Zakarian and Jeff were sitting next to each other at the counter, they were the same color!  I hope Zakarian watches it and groks.

Years ago, there was a local TV haircaster who got a makeover, and the biggest change was darkening her hair.  She'd been coloring it for many years, and it gradually got lighter and lighter--so gradually you don't even notice until you compare it to something earlier, and in the case of TV people, you have video you can use.  It wasn't even going back to her natural hair color, but just stopping the progression at a more reasonable point, and it made a world of difference.

Zakarian could use a similar intervention with his tanning, although I should probably just be grateful he let his hair go gray and didn't go the red-shoe-polish route that so many men who have the means to get decent hair color go (although Zakarian might be a little young for that). 

Reminds me of when I would see Robert Vaughn at my hair dressers with his hair definitely on the red shoe polish side.  Not sure why my hair dresser even agreed to doing it.

[HyeChaps]

As it gets closer to Thanksgiving, they are bound to do more actual cooking  

 

[Cozytea]

2 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

As it gets closer to Thanksgiving, they are bound to do more actual cooking  

 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I watched an episode over the weekend and Katie made a Thanksgiving pot pie, it looked so good . I love Thanksgiving food and will try most variations of it. I once had a Thanksgiving themed egg roll at a local bar/grill it was so yummy, dipped in Turkey gravy. 

[LemonSoda]

On 9/28/2021 at 9:40 AM, StatisticalOutlier said:

To be clear:  Nobody on the show used the word.

I was surprised that nobody seemed to know what Cincinnati chili spaghetti is.  I mean I've had it, and I'm no food expert and I'm from Texas--nowhere near Cincinnati.  But then I realized that probably none of these people have ever been to Cincinnati, so why would they know?

I once had a free plane ticket that was fixing to expire, and I decided to do a midwest tour--flew to Chicago and rented a car for 10 days and did a big loop, going to all these places that I figured I'd never otherwise set foot in:  Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland.  I don't know how I figured out I needed to go to Skyline Chili for chili spaghetti (this was pre-internet), but I did. 

Everybody thought I was crazy for "wasting" my free ticket like this, but I thought it was worth it the time I was on a ski lift and doing the usual "Where are you from" and the guy said Cincinnati, and I said, "Oh, y'all have chili spaghetti."  But now I get to feel superior to various iron chefs and FN stars in my culinary knowledge.  I already bested Zakarian with my superior knowledge of parchment paper vs. wax paper, and now this. 

But speaking of Zakarian, I have to say that the beef on wex looked wonderful.  It's always a battle to find rare roast beef on a sandwich.

Those are the best adventures. 
 

Katie’s voice seems different 

[annzeepark914]

I watched today's show. Big surprise--Sunny came in from the cold, at long last. Of course they had the scary stuff. They showed a tape from maybe last year where they all jumped onto each other when a hand suddenly emerged, and Sunny fell down. So she said viewers need to stop accusing Jeff of pushing her, that she fell down all by herself. I think the crew needs to quit the scare tactics.  Anyway...there were two good items that appealed to me: Alex's pumpkin pasta, and that red velvet cake that oozed "blood" (raspberry sauce). I'd make the cake & cream cheese frosting and forget about all the extra creations (altho' they were interesting: bones & skulls made out of meringue). I am making the pumpkin pasta tonight as it looked good.