discus

Sometimes I’m burned out on AB (too smug/clever), but 98% I agree. Def. the best on Food Network. He inspires me to actually get in the kitchen and cook something, which none of the other shows can do.

I don’t really care for all the cheeky, showy flourishes of the show, but Alton Brown seems to be the only person on the Food Network that actually knows how to cook. Seeing Rachal Ray chopping up frozen string beans like she’s never touched a knife makes me sad.

What I appreciate about the show is the semi-technical explanations of why exactly certain foods and cooking methods only work a certain way. It moves the show away from “learn recipes by rote” and into a real understanding of cooking.

Yeah, his message is great, but letting him star AND direct was a bad move.

Good book for AB fans:

Paul OTM.

I love Alton Brown, he is corny and annoying and just like me. Except he knows a lot about food.

yeh general consensus here OTM—his recipes and explanations are great and informative, but his persona can get a little tiresome. Like a BBC announcer, all of his phrases are delivered with the same, pat inflection.

i really wish he would send me some casseroles.

Good Eats is no Ham On The Street.

I like alton brown very much but sometimes his recipes annoy me with the things he devises to cook them like build a chimney to cook a fuckin piece of tuna.

I like Good Eats, although like many I burn out on the smug factor sometimes. HOWEVER his showing where he rode a motorcycle around to be a smug nerdy know-it-all to people in small towns all over America was INSUFFERABLE. Get back in the kitchen where you belong, pal.

WTF we have definitely had multiple threads about Alton Brown on old ILX, nicka.

The show where he rode a motorcycle around to be smug and sub-Mythbusters-y at people across America was GREAT. Granted, I only saw one episode and it was the episode in which Alton Brown BIFFED IT and broke his arm and the whole thing had to be called off.

But the one where he went to a pie auction and bought up all the pies was just embarrassing.

in the pro column, he is perfectly cast as the commentator for Iron Chef America.

Wait, pie auction?!

I only saw like one episode of that On the Road show and figured it was cancelled almost immediately...? it seemed like it was only on for a week or two.

but Alton Brown seems to be the only person on the Food Network that actually knows how to cook.

Watch Iron Chef much?

Shakey—it was more like a mini-series really. He made it across America, it was on I think for one month? JBR might know.

My favorite episodes of Good Eats are the ones that hit on really big, omnipresent food powers—like the egg special(s?).

The last episode of it this super-fatty-fat-fat cop made him eat all kinds of ridiculous shit with his one non-gimpy arm, it was beautiful.

Yeah, that cop made him eat like 47 different crazy ass things, all of which really required a second hand.

Sure the Iron Chefs are professionals, and Anthony Bourdain appears to be a competent chef when he’s not trying to be Globetrotting Lou Reed, but neither of those are in the same model as most of the standard cooking shows (in the Julia Child model of standing in a kitchen and showing you how to do something).

Food Network mostly creates shit celebrity chefs (emeril & rachal ray, the big successes). Among these sorts of personalities (shiver, ugggh), Alton Brown seems the most capable of actually cooking and knowing what he’s doing. I’m sure there are other competent cooks on the network I haven’t noticed, but I’m busy soaking myself in gin, waiting for primetime Julia Child reruns.

good eats is so great. i do wish he would stop using variations on the phrase “brings [blank] to the party,” though.

The next 7 slots on my Netflix queue are Julia Child and Jancis Robinson. Perfect for the holidays :)

Is Fatty McCop the same guy as The Hungry Detective? Did his appearance on the 4th episode of “Feasting on Asphalt” get him his own show?

Watch Iron Chef much?

Grrr, I still haven’t seen a Cat Cora episode yet.

Really? I see Royal vs. Cora on repeat alllllll the time.

but neither of those are in the same model as most of the standard cooking shows (in the Julia Child model of standing in a kitchen and showing you how to do something).

In the old days of the Food Network (back when it was called the TV Food Network) that is exactly how the shows were. David Rosengarten’s show Taste was the benchmark show for that... No stunt settings (let’s put Ming Tsai on a canoe!), no omnipresent Emeril, no idiotic Donna Hanover/Rachael Ray/etc. Just a lot of great cooking tips...

Of course when a network becomes popular it gets bought out and the format changed. EW Scripps bought out TV Food Network in 1997 and rebranded it vowing to “get rid of the cameras pointing down on a stove.”

I haven’t really watched the network regularly since, though I’ll occasionally watch Alton Brown, Giada De Laurentiis, or Ina Garten.

Did anyone see the Iron Chef America that featured Rachel Ray? WTF! E-V-O-O...

No, I couldn’t bring myself to watch that. It was her vs. Giada de Laurentiis, right? Who won?

I think I saw a tag-team Iron Chef with Rachael Ray, Giada AND Nigella (plus another woman). I would suspect it was a dream, but Giada and Nigella didn’t start wrestling in EVOO or anything.

milo that is made up. The tag team was Rachael + Mario Batalli v Giada + Bobby Flay. In a surprise to no one, Batalli’s team won. I think it was something like BATTLE CRANBERRIES and Alton Brown was sure to feature a slo mo replay of Giada jumping up and down hysterically. When she lost, she made the bitchiest face I think I have ever seen, and it made watching that whole episode very, very worthwhile.

Like, she literally rolled her eyes, grimaced, and then SLOW MOTION CLAPPED while rolling her head side to side. WTF! Amazing.

I’d like to see RR and GdL face off against each other with cleavers, and I mean “face off” literally. I can’t stand either one.

i was thinking on-face

c

http://youtube.com/watch?v=54dwljuMZpI

x-post

I’d really GdL if she didn’t (on her show anyway) refer to everything she cooks as “mmmmm.....nice, moist and chewy.”

Anyways, she is still much better than RR.

Giada rolling her head there looked a lot like Natalie Portman playing mentally handicapped in Garden State

OTM

Giada’s show is a lot of sub-Alton/RR-level remedial cooking IMO. RR’s show is not exactly geared to the audience that I imagine most of the thread is; ie people who are good to excellent cooks.

I actually like RR’s show (if she’d shut up), cuz I can’t cook for shit. Anything above and beyond steak and rice is adventurous for me.

Yeah, the actual food/cooking content is pretty good... hmm, she should make a variation of bubble & squeak called “giggle & squee.”

I recently realized that the only non-American Idol/Project Runway shows I watch are on the Food Network...and everyone’s totally overlooking the Paula Deen dynasty!!!!!!!!! C’MON!

Can we compile all the grebt RR catchphrases?

YUM-mo!

giada needs a fat sausage up her ass.

I watched this episode once of this show that was apparently Paula Dean’s sons driving around America eating stuff, the opening sequence I swear to god was them saying “hi I’m Delbert, and I’m Enus, and we’re PAULA DEAN’S KIDS, and we eat stuff!” or something.

i once saw a HBO documentary about people in the deep south, one of the kids was named Clintus. His 16 year old gf dumped poor Clintus and he crieed and put his fist through the outhouse and then listened to Metallica. Then he asked her to marry him, she said no. Clintus cried on his mothers housecoat.

those dang southerners! always good for a laff. you forgot the bit about the gf being Clintus’ cousin, tho.

the Dean clan is pretty much just good for laughs and not much else. the food they make is fuckin disgusting and the bros seem more like a gay couple and everything is made with lots of buuuuhhter and for god’s sake Paula’s favorite food/ingredient is the fucking POTATO

(not that I have anything against potatoes, but ya gotta wonder about any “chef” whose favorite cooking ingredient is a relatively flavorless and largely nutrient-free tuber.)

http://www.tvgasm.com/archives/food_network/001451.php

the answer: NO.

giada needs a fat sausage up her ass.

y’mean a lollipop stick. i don’t know how she carries that monster head around on that tiny little biafran child’s body.

I miss Padma Lakshmi’s Food Network show. OMG HOT WTF.