The Food TV list

[mr_fro2000]

Team Awesome:
Mario
Alton
All original japanese iron chefs (except italian)
The Ham on the Street
Guy's big bite guy

Team Sucko:
Paula "marshmallo and mayo sandwich anyone?" Deen
Mark "double dare" Summers
Emeril (duh)
Rachel "everything is 'mmmmm'" Ray
Sandra "dung on a bun" Lee
Cat "wow, i'm an iron chef?" Cora

what's your list?

[MRS]

My husband and I just want to die everytime we see Rachael Ray grossly undertip in restaurants when she's "on the road". She once left someone $1.69. For God's sake- give the waiter 2 damn dollars!!!

[olivergail]

I'm with Carb Lover on the lack of actual teaching on the Food Network. When the network first came to Canada (about 9 years ago), I was glued...there were the Two Hot Tamales, David Rosengarten, Michael Lomonaco, Alan Richman, and Emeril, of course. This was serious cooking and education. It's still important for the home cook to know how to wash spinach properly; the Tamales showed the viewer how. Try finding a cooking show nowadays that TEACHES the basics.

As a culinary educator, recipe developer and food/cookbook writer, I lament the deterioration of cooking shows and shows about food in general. It's all about the entertainment now and amusing the masses. As usual, the people with the real passion for real food, cooking and gastronomy are left unsated.

[sbp]

Well said. You must be thrilled with the latest offerings: The world's largest popcorn sculpture, the world's tallest sugar sculpture of a skyscraper, the world's fastest pancake maker.... I'll bet the Empire State Building tastes really good!

[Atahualpa]

The Two Hot Tamales were very good too. Thanks olivergail, I'd forgotten about them.

[Atahualpa]

Good:

Alton Brown
Mario Batali (but, I never find him on anymore up here in Canada).
Gordon Ramsay (Kitchen Nightmares)

Passable:

David Rocco (Dolce Vita)
Nigella Lawson (Any of the two or three series they're running up here)
Jamie Oliver (particularly for 'School Dinners')
Ina Garten
Bobby Flay (in small doses, and only recently -- he's less of an ass than he used to be. But, then again, I haven't seen him on this new competitve show (smash down?))
Original Iron Chef (I hate the Itallian one -- Masahiko Kobe -- too. I like Chen the best.)

Bad:

The rest. Particular mention goes to Rachel, Giada, and Emeril.

Old and good but gone:

I miss Steingarten and Ming Tsai a lot.

[chefthisguy]

Pretty much the food network lost its appeal. There are better shows on Fine Living, PBS, Discover Home...but as a chef:

Alton
Mario
Flay (only in small spurts)
Iron Chef (either one)

that's it...I don't want to deal with watered down Martha Stewarts (i.e. paula deen, the bare foot one, rachel ray, etc..) There needs to be a network with real chefs showing the public how to properly cook things...no hackers. no short cuts! the real way. I sa a show today with Marcus Samulesson (a real chef). We are a very interesting and entertaining group :)

[foodie in seattle]

Nigella Lawson is truly amazing
Mario Bataili also...

I honestly can understand why Anthony Bourdain chose to count himself out of the network... I mean, Rachel Ray... ugh!!

[rainey]

The only one left on mine is Alton and it's just not worth finding the times he's on so I rarely see him often anymore either.

The FoolsNetwork — once a fine resource, now a giant waste of bandwidth.

[Davwud]

In the US, Alton is on weeknights at 7pm eastern.

DT

[TexasToast]

In no order:

Ina
Gordon
Tony
Rachel
Tyler
Bobby
Nigella
Jamie
Daisy

Everyone else sucks!

TT

[KitchenAid]

I'm thrilled that Nigella is on Food Network now.

I despise all things Rachael Ray.

[Xericx]

I like:
Mario
Bobby Flay
Tyler Florence
Iron Chef and ICA
$40 a day
Rachel Rey's Tasty Travels
The Secret Life Of.....

that's it....everything else I don't really watch at all...not even for background noise....

[DiveFan]

You might want to append to this thread instead, same subject:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

BTW the above PBS channel is called CreateTV, only available via digital over-the-air.

[Carb Lover]

I still haven't seen Guy's show (no real interest), but I really can't take much of Ham on the Street. No real content, more about "entertainment" in a style that doesn't work for me. Did this Duran guy *really* have a show in France like his opener says??!!

Sadly, I don't find much "awesome" on the network anymore. There are some shows that are decent/tolerable, but they don't really teach like they once did. Alton is the only one that goes into any depth. I don't count Mario because he's cancelled and I haven't seen his show in forever. The American Iron Chefs (aside from Morimoto) don't have nearly the range or finesse that the Japanese did. Their prime time evening "way more than cooking" line up makes me cringe...

I'll stick to PBS, but I really wish that someone would start a competing food-related network w/ better content. Anyone?

[Robert Lauriston]

It's called PBS Satellite.

[Carb Lover]

With food shows all the time?

[PrincessBakesALot]

We have a digital cable channel in Boston that is all PBS cooking and How-to shows. Lidia's Family Table is on all night tonight. There are also travel shows (Rick Steeves) and This Old House, sewing, quilting, etc.
In my area it is WGBXDT3, channel 237.

[Nancy Berry]

Having eaten at Cat Cora's restaurant and taken a cooking lesson from her, I really respect her culinary skills. The food that she cooked at Postino, her restaurant near San Francisco, was really, really delicious.