BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Personal Chef We're talking Food TV people!

Although I don't watch TV a lot, I do have to say that Food TV is amongst my favorite programming out there with 'Good Eats' being in my top 'fab five'.

What are your favorite food programs and why?

I love Food Network. Paula Deen is one of my favorites. I like all that southern comfort food.

Also on Bravo, the show Top Chef is one of my fav's because of the competition factor. You get that with Iron Chef on Food TV too...

I agree. Paula's shows are 'feel-good' shows that make the process look straight-forward and fun. Love her laugh and down-to-earthness.

Top Chef is another one I love as well as chopped.

Iron Chef is at another level. The original one grew on me and once it did I was an Iron Chef junkie, but I have to admit that Iron Chef America took a little bit of time for me to get with it. It's a good show, but I didn't think it had the same feel and flair of the original Iron Chef. I'm good with it now and love the dishes they come up with on the fly like that.

Anybody seen Dinner Impossible or Chef Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares? another one of my favorites. I think mainly because he goes into a pretty dim situation and most of the time does a complete turn around. It really speaks to the heart of people and their challenges with seeing and overcoming their fears.

GOOD STUFF!!!

I LOVE Food Network! I also LOVE both Dinner Impossible and Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. I'm such a foodie and I always wanted my own restaurant.

I also love Paula, Everyday Italian (Giada DeLaurentis) and Unwrapped. Good Eats is very informative, too.

Food Network has a great line-up with all of their shows. And I agree, Jason, Iron Chef America doesn't have the same feel of the original Iron Chef. Could it be the dubbed translations? And I like when people say, "This food makes me very happy." LOL. That is a great compliment. Ok, so the execution of the meal was technically correct but how does your food make the diner feel? That is art!!!

My guy Sakai on Iron Chef (the old series). According to one bio source, it said he knew at age 10 he wanted to be a chef as he never wanted to go hungry. That touched me. He also seems like a down to earth real person, too.

When someone can lose a challenge that I know they take to heart; and lift up the other person's arm in victory - that is one heck of a person in my book!

Iron Chef America was okay, but I agree - the old show had more "something" to it.

Paula Deen and Emeril Lagasse are my two favorite cooking hero people. Their personalities and talent go hand in hand.

Chef Ramsay - wow - I don't think I could ever cook for him....but I love watching him.

I miss Ready, Set, Cook! It was a show where people take $10 and buy some groceries. They introduced two cooks and then the people were paired up with a cook. They emptied their bags one by one and the cook had a few minutes to decide what to cook. The people who had bought the groceries were the sous chefs - YEAH - put me on that game show!!!

And the early cooking show with Graham Kerr as the Galloping Gourmet - my grandmother used to watch him. He kinda looked like the late Paul Benedict who played Bentley on "The Jeffersons".

And Julia Child - who knew she had been a spy???? Wow - now a movie about her life needs to be made!

I also miss Juston Wilson - I "gare own tee" (guaranty)!

Hmmmmmm.....I guess I like quite a few of them, huh?

I like Kitchen Nightmares a lot better than I do Hell's Kitchen. He is just a bit too abrasive for me on that one. I understand the need to teach them what it's going to be like, but belittleing doesn't sit well with me in any context. Kitchen Nightmares on the other hand I love...

I've never seen Chopped though I've heard it is pretty good.

I liked Dinner Impossible when it was still with Robert Irvine. I like Michael Seymons but I just can't bring myself to get into it without Robert! lol... Do you know what happened to him or why he didn't continue to do the show this season?

But "Iron Chef America" has Alton Brown - I love him!!!! I would have thought since you enjoy "Good Eats" you would have liked "ICA" as well.

I am addicted to Top Chef. I've been trying to get my brother to audition ever since the 1st season. He has the skills plus the *ahem* to make it on there. Although he would have to learn to cuss a lot more than he does now.

I like Alton Brown too... He's awesome. One of the things I find interesting about Good Eats are the camera angles. The camera that appears to be in the pot or the fridge or the oven is awesome lol... He is also very informative. I like him on Iron Chef America, but it's not one that watch every week.

EXACTLY!!! How does the food make you "feel". That's what it gets down to. I remember coming up in the kitchen under my aunt's foot watching all the things she used to do. She could cook everything and it was an effortless thing for her. No recipes, just 'FEEL'. Sometimes I think we've lost a bit of that and it's, if not thee most important part of the meal, one of them and in a MAJOR way!!!

And as far as the "ART" statement... I think if we approached food from that mindset that we'd always put our best 'food' forward and give it all it deserves.

GREAT COMMENT friendlygirl4u!

Thx

FLASHBACK!!!

Robin, Robin, Robin...

You just dived into my food memory archives girl! I love those shows and grew up on them.

By the way...

Looks like Julia put all of those information gathering techniques together to become queen of a booming industry! Julia Child is one of my all time favorites. She made it okay to mess up and not beat yourself up about it. Loved her accent too.

And as for Juston Wilson... I never knew what he was going to pull out of his bag of seasoning tricks, but I knew it was going to be "Onyun, Garlic..." I Guarantee!!! LOL

Awesome trip down memory lane!!! And great founders of the cooking TV world.

Does anyone remember Yan Can Cook?
PBS Junkie 101

LOL!!!
Well tell him if he speaks a different language, when it comes to cussing, he can always jump into the alternate language and say regular words but with an angry tone. They should assume he's cussing and he should fit in fine. LOL!!!

But definitely! Alton makes the show. Iron Chef America has grown on me, but it took a while longer. I initially looked at it as a cheap counterfeit, but not anymore.
Love Alton though. Great timing!

You know I got a chance to see the behind the scenes of Good Eats and it was awesome. I've produced programming for years and fell even more in love with the show when they did that piece on the making of it. There's a lot of time that goes into putting it all together before we see it.

I've gotta see if I can find that episode online or something. I want it for my collection!

One thing I loved about Julia Child is that she was an ordinary woman who learned how to cook. She wasn't a born culinary genius. She spoke about her early learning mistakes, and she even had the courage to admit her junk food weaknesses (peanut M&M's and Fritos).

Do you remember the Galloping Gourmet? What was his name? Graham Kerr, I think. Funny.

As far as my fav Iron Chef, it's Masaharu Morimoto!!! Next would be Chef Chen (was it Chen Kenichi? Sounds Japanese but he was Chinese! I can't remember!)

Yeah, Graham Kerr.

I thought he had a great sense of humor too. I loved the interaction that he had with his audience.

I like Masaharu too, but I have to say that on Iron Chef America I loved the challenge when Mario Batali and Rachel Rae teamed up. I got a lot of respect for Rachel and Mario on that one.

Does anyone remember the show Yan Can Cook?

Yes, I remember Martin Yan. You can still catcch him on some cable stations. He does a travel type show where he takes the viewer through China.

I love his energy and humor. And his accent!

Is he on PBS?

BTW...

New topic started Experimental Kitchen

Check it out and sound off!

I really liked to watch Yan Can Cook. He is great! I also like Jacques Pepin - I would watch him any time he was on TV. His "Fast Food My Way" was my favorite cooking show. I also like that chef who lives in Mexico and has his own resturant - darn! I cannot remember his name. He not only cooked on the show, but took his audience around to the markets and other resturants in Mexico.

Hey Phyllis!

I don't think I've seen that one. Let me know if you remember what the show or his name is? Now I'm really curious. Do you remember how long ago the show aired? or if it still comes on?

Let us know!

My favorites are - Top Chef (loving the all-stars). I also love Hells Kitchen, Chopped, The Next Food Network Stars, The Next Iron Chef.

Sometimes I will watch 30 minute meals. I like the Neely's but sometimes they are a little nauseating.
I tried watching the show about the worse cooks, but I couldn't get into it.

I fell in love with Hell's Kitchen in Canada. Ramsay use to crack me up. I do like The Neely's, haven't hit the nauseating part yet, but I don't get to any one particular show enough anymore to do that. Some of their recipes look great and, as with others, some I have to take and tweak a different way.

Martin Yan has a great show called "Martin Yan's Hidden China." I highly recommend it. Travelogue, history and cooking. He takes you to places that are inaccessible to the average tourist. Great respect for that man. The scenes are spectacular.

I prefer the chefs/cooks/culinary travel shows on PBS over anything on the FN which has (imho) really gone down hill since it first started. I wont get into that here but the one show that's semi-tolerable is Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten.

The PBS - Martin Yan Hidden China series was fabulous, he totally rocks -- one of the best knife skills of any chef ever!!