Bill Buford’s piece in the New Yorker about the Food Network has one central message: We’re all dumb apes who can no longer cook even basic meals. Sadly, he’s pretty much right. Rachael Ray grilling skirt steak isn’t exactly the sort of thing our grandmothers needed a manual for, let alone a 30-minute instructional video.
But you know what? Fine. So we don’t know how to cook anymore because we eat prepared food more often, either at home or at restaurants. Buford can moan about dumbed-down cooks like Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis replacing more traditional, gifted chefs on the Food Network’s programming menu or he can moan about how people don’t know how to cook anymore, but he can’t complain about both.
Even the Accidental Hedonist joins the dogpile, taking issue with the “food porn” surreality of the way Food Network shoots its cooks’ ingredients, with nary a pool of blood or dirt-covered tuber to be found. What horseshit. One doen’t expect This Old House to begin every show by felling a tree for the sawmill.
Perhaps the Hedonist would be happier with CSI: FCI?
Shows like 30-Minute Meals and Everyday Italian are designed to give folks a few ideas and inspiration to actually skip the drive-through for an evening and try cooking at home. They’re speaking to the skill level of the modern homemaker.
One concession: Rachael Ray, while boneable, is what harpies use to scare their children into behaving. Thank god Alton Brown makes up for her efforts tenfold. In fact, his two shows—Good Eats and Iron Chef America—are the best programs on the network, entertaining and informative.
TV Dinners [NewYorker via Kottke]
Not a big watcher of the Food Networker (except for the occasional Iron Chef) I may not be the best to comment on this, but here I go.
I think TFN is covering all their bases with their programming. A recipe for chicken salad from rachel ray starts with buying a pre-cooked chicken from the store with some already cut veggies. Where Alton, recommends hatching a chicken and raising him on Japanese breadcrumbs. Somewhere in the middle is Emeril (is he still on?) who believes anything can be made better with garlic, booze and/or bacon. True. Somewhere in in the FoodTV lineup is a recipe anyone should be able to handle.
The key to becomming a better cook is to do it. A lot. Starting with simple Rachel Ray recipes and going from there would be my recommendation. A
And keep the number for the pizza place handy cause your going to botch something up someday.
-PS, stay away from the squid ink icecream.
Nicely said, Joel. I’ve said before in other places that, while I don’t think much of Ray as a cook (and she has, herself, said out loud that she’s not a trained cook and just basically does what’s fast and appeals to her), she does have a decent grasp of the basics. And hell, if watching her gets some previously kitchen-ignorant folks to learn their way around a sauté pan and a knife, what harm does it do.
As for the “food porn” accusation…what a bunch of pretentious bullshit. Of course they show the ingredients pre-measured and set out nicely. Number one, it’s good TV. Number two, these people have limited time in which to accomplish their tasks. Number three, I’m starting to suspect that the Accidental Hedonist and friends are the kind who go to a Ruby Tuesday and complain that the meals don’t look just like they do in the advertisements. Get over yourselves.
I have to agree with the assertion that these shows are there for ideas. My wife loves both 30-min meals and everyday italian. I believe she likes them b/c as an untrained/novice cook she can get ideas. We have both mused at how simple some of the ideas are but at times they both do things we wouldn’t think or know to do.
From my perspective the hotness factor doesn’t hurt either, although i do love Good Eats and NOT for the hotness factor.
sweet mother of pearl I love Rachael Ray (or as my buddy’s 3-year-old says: “Wachael Way!”)
When a show comes on this guy doesn’t like, he could just change the channel. They make a TV Guide so you don’t have to watch something you dont want to – expected or unexpected.
I can also say that most older/elderly people _DO_ need a manual for a lot of things. Baking? Usually no. Casseroles, muffins, cookies, biscuits, etc. grandma can normally cook like a champ. Burgers? Steaks? Chicken? If it’s not in a casserole normally mom/grandma/dad a) cookit to death, b) press down on it on the grill or c) way over-season it.
AB has taught me more about
grilling meatcooking than anyone on the planet.It’s too bad he sold out to Maytag and I have to watch him pimp their wares every time I go into Frys Electronics. He kinda lost some cred to me when he did that.
As for Emeril – I find his show entertaining at least. His recipies? Normally a little too complex for the average cook (or too buttery/lardy for every day). He uses special ingredients like Martha Stewart uses some special tool for cooking (like when she’d bring out some hand-made steaming pot or something you could only get at the tip of the Alps).
First off, is that REALLY a pic or Rachel Ray? Wow! She looks…. different. I feel all funny inside… :)
The think I like about Food Network is that they have stuff that appeals to the whole spectrum of at-home-chefs. Rachel, Giada, Alton and Tyler Florence are for more of the “every day” kind of things, where Emril gets a little more exotic and Batalli’s show is good for insomnia. :)
I would LOVE to see Morimoto with his own show, if for no other reason to watch a TRUE MASTER work, but I think the cultural differences would be too much.
Personally, I like Paula Dean, but her recipies are just so heavy! I think if she has a show on making ice water the first step would “Getcha self a pound of butter…”
Ha. Paula Dean is the real deal. I once saw her cook cinnamon rolls with the trademark pound of butter, drizzle them with a recoculous amount of icing, then tear one off and slather it with butter again. Consider I can’t eat like that anymore with my sedentary lifestyle, that’s the real food porn.
First off, is that REALLY a pic or Rachel Ray? Wow! She looks…. different. I feel all funny inside… :)
Yeah, she did a rather tame spread for FHM or Stuff magazine about a year ago. Pics are available online if you look.
All you need to do is watch an episode of Iron Chef America to realize why they hire people with more personality than training (like Rachael Ray). The Iron Chefs are usually pretty interesting, but then, most of them have shows other than Iron Chef as well. The real key is to look at the challengers. They have excellent skills, but they are incredibly dull to watch otherwise. There is a reason they focus in more on the hands doing things than the faces of the challengers. You simply cannot carry an entire cooking show based solely off of skills. You must make it interesting and entertaining, too.
And catering to the “everywoman and everyman” on the Food Network makes far more sense than putting up a bunch of snooty “I’m a master chef and you are a retard with a spatula” types of shows. No one wants to watch a cooking show full of stuff that they feel they will never be able to do. That would completely miss the point.
We watch a lot of Alton’s work – Feasting on Asphalt was a fun concept that I’m hoping they bring back for more. The nice thing with Good Eats, is that while he’ll say that the best way to get chicken is to hatch it from an egg and raise it on Japanese bread crumbs, he’ll always acknowledge that it’s not practical, and give alternatives leaning toward the organic/natural spectrum, and then he’ll usually grudgingly admit that even a mainline grocery store chicken can be good if you know what to look for, or do to it when you get it home. Using his tips, we’ve made the best Thanksgiving turkey I’ve ever tasted with a store-brand bird that was free with $100 of other grocery purchases…
And I have to agree with everyone else, that the purpose of the shows on TFN is (other than making the network money) inspiring people to try their hand at cooking… If not every night, at least once in a while, which is a big step in the right direction.
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First off, is that REALLY a pic or Rachel Ray? Wow! She looks…. different. I feel all funny inside… :)
Yeah, she did a rather tame spread for FHM or Stuff magazine about a year ago. Pics are available online if you look.
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My friends and I have a theory that she is drunk (or at least a little buzzed) about 60% – 75% of the time we see her on 30 Minute Meals. We also a contest to see how many times she does that little “tee-hee” laugh. We theorize that the “tee-hee’s” come more frequently when she’s tipped a few.
But I still love her! :p
I have to defend Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute meals cookbooks. Great starter books for moving out, and a couple of the recipies have headlined successful dinner parties for me (the cutsey named Jambalikya, and cashew chicken).
I will conceede that Rachel Ray does teach some skills to the totally clueless, even if every time I see her I want to rip her face off with my fingernails. However, the Semi-Homemade wench? She belongs on a midwest morning ‘news’ show doing weather instead of creating food abominations.
Paula Dean is love. AB is hot sex on a platter. Iron Chef America– for the love of GOD, blow up the ice cream maker!
In my estimation, there really aren’t many shows on TFN for those of us who, you know, actually understand how to boil water and want to expand our skills a bit without becoming a Master Chef. A show on plating and styling would be so cool.
And Seth, I think the absolute best starter cookbook is the Betty Crocker Cookbook– I taught myself how to cook out of the 1975 version and still use recipes out of my 1997 version at least once a week.
I agree with most of the above–yeah Rachael Ray’s no Thomas Keller but she’s not as crappy as most “foodies” make her out to be. I don’t watch her show, but I do like her magazine quite a bit–it’s full of easy, relatively healthy recipes for real life people with actual jobs who don’t have all day to hang out in the kitchen. She doesn’t recommend too many heavily-processed foods, and she focuses on reminding folks they don’t have to religiously follow recipes or be scared of cooking.
Plus–it’s TV for chrissakes. What exactly does Buford expect? Has he checked what’s on any other channel lately???
“When a show comes on this guy doesn’t like, he could just change the channel.”
And when a show is cancelled? Buford’s point is that the network’s programming is forsaking programmes. There was a piece a couple of years ago that focused on Sara Moulton, and the fear that she was going to be shoved aside for Yumm-o Days With Rachael Ray. And so she was.
Contrast that with the food programming across the pond, especially on Channel 4 in Britain. ‘The F-Word’ had Gordon Ramsay raising and slaughtering a pig; Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘River Cottage’ series looks at raising animals for food; Jamie Oliver slaughtered a lamb as part of his tour of Italy. There’s a deliberate attempt in the UK, even among celebrity chefs, to reconnect with the dirty and sometimes bloody origins of what we eat.
Who’s doing that in the US? Tony Bourdain, on the Travel Channel. PBS, to a lesser extent. The Food Network lineup is turning into the equivalent of televised sports: something for people who want to watch while sitting on their couches with takeout. And it’s pretty clear that 30MM and Everyday Italian are aimed at male viewers who gawp over their stars.
Buford can moan about dumbed-down cooks … replacing more traditional … chefs on Food Network … or he can moan about how people don’t know how to cook anymore, but he can’t complain about both.
Why not? Seems there’s a relationship there.
C’mon! Everyone has learned something from The Food Network… but who has all that time to burn watching TV? You don’t have to go to culinary school to be a great chef, just like you don’t have to go to art school to be a great artist.
I have been viewing Food Network for nearly ten years now, and being that this debate is centered around the educational (rather than sensational) program the station offers, I will focus on that.
There was something wonderful about the glamour and gloss of the haute programming that used to sit in the fore of Food Network’s programming: Ming Tsai’s ‘East Meets West’, David Rosengarten’s ‘Taste’, ‘Molto Mario’, Jamie Oliver’s smug ‘Naked Chef’, even Bobby Flay’s line of shows (I still watch, despite his relentless ego, ‘Boy Meets Grill’– for his over-the-top creative approach and perhaps also for the equally over-the-top setting in his Manhattan loft). There was a point when I actually really enjoyed Emeril (in his first program); hewas still new to television, incredibly boring albeit, but showcased his style in an entirely earnest way. What is basically gone from their programming is this earnestness; we have supposedly more accessible programming, but it has been dumbed down to the point where the entertainment is offered not from the luxury but from sensational television practices.
Alton Brown bridged the gap between the high-cuisine of the Food Network of previous years and the lower which we experience today. As a home cook, and a neophyte line cook (in catering) who never went to culinary school, I looked to Food Network not only for technique and basic skills, but for haute inspiration for pushing the envelope when cooking for dinner parties or designing menus in my previous jobs. I understand that there really isn’t any turning back for FoodTV now — there was no way they could build ratings from a set of challenging programs, inaccessible and ultimately uninteresting for the average viewer — but I nearly always smell defeat when I tune in these days. I am entirely embarrassed by Sandra Lee’s suburban fluffery. And I actually miss Martha Stewart.
I have nothing constructive to add here but I express a great deal of nostalgia for the archetypal, admittedly boring, cooking show. There was a time when you could actually get a read on current trends in high cuisine by simply watching Food Network, but this is no more.
If only Thomas Keller had a show; I’d take it all back.
Rachael Ray’s scratchy, loud voice aside, I wholly agree with you on this. I am so sick of hearing people dog the simple cooking on the Food Network – so WHAT if she’s showing you how to make a pasta, a vegetable and salad dish in thirty minutes? So what if she uses jarred sauce sometimes? Are these things really the food enemy or are just-add-water chemistry sets of meals in boxes and spinach so polluted it could actually kill you? I’d listen to the criticisms with a more open ear if people could do so without sounding like elitists. I miss Julia Child, too, but there’s nothing wrong with a few programs that better meet less elaborately-inclined cooks where they are.
Chris is so right (above) when he states “What is basically gone from their programming is this earnestness; we have supposedly more accessible programming, but it has been dumbed down”…
The Food Network once had shows for Food Enthusiasts. But then they figured out there wasn’t many of those people around, so they got rid of those programs to focus instead on programming geared to those who mostly buy pre-prepared foods; people who like the Idea of Cooking but have yet to shell peas or beans from their pods.
Racheal makes me want to claw her face off with my fingernails as well, but I don’t get all the Giada hatin’. She’s a trained cook, folks–graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. She probably could have rested on grandpa’s laurels, but instead she went to cooking school, worked as a personal chef for rich folks and made it good. She has good technique on her show–lots of hand washing, knows how to handle a knife, seasons everything. Just because she looks good doesn’t mean she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
Seconding m on not understanding the Giada hatin’.
Her recipies are cookable, and don’t call for prefab crap. I learned how to actually cook thanks to her, instead of how to just assemble stuff. Definite points for clearly showing technique – the camera work is very good for doing that. Yes, the camera work is kinda cinema-ish, the way it loves light and shadow, but that’s a bonus compared to the harsh tv-studio lighting Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee gets. Emril’s stuff is overlit too, which obscures how things are done by canceling out shadows that let you know how big stuff is.
She’s pretty too.
So, what’s the beef? Its a cooking show that, horrors, actually shows how to cook! Good heavens! You could do worse than to give one of her recipe books to a cooking noob – that stuff is dead easy.
I feek that Giada’s show”Everyday Italian” is becoming more Hollywood style everyday. Her clothes seem to show her cleavage–is this not a cooking show and not a style show. She is getting more and more affected. It is too bad people are not down to earth on these shows–sorry give me more of “Molto Maio”–He is not putting on a show–he is exactly what you see and his cooking is Italian.