Rating the Winter 2008 Food Shows (plus Spring Preview)
February 24th, 2008 | 
Author: Today I look at the latest new food and cooking shows of this winter season. Give a nod to some of the best shows that have been on a while, and look forward to the first signs of Spring. Seems Punxsutawney Phil came out of his burrow, saw his shadow made by a creme brulee torch, and predicted two of our top favorite shows will be returning in just a few weeks.
Oh and with this article, I start the first ever reviews complete a star rating system. That said, let’s begin with the latest crop of new programs. Are they feast or famine?
The New Winter Shows
Ultimate Recipe Showdown (The Food Network) 
Hmm. This show I’m ambivalent about. First and foremost … I love food competition shows. Iron Chef America is a never miss. The various “Challenge” specials (Ok, I’m personally not as interested in those candy design things. First because I’m sure as heck never going to make one. Second, I hate to watch someone make something for 12 hours and then it falls over and shatter in a million pieces). That said, both the chef ones and the “regular people” food challenges are quite enjoyable. And yes, the Bobby Flay Throwdowns, I enjoy those as much. And so yes, definitely when the home cook gets to compete, I love it. It evens the playing field, that is, you have ICA for the top top and the Ultimate Recipe Showdown balances things.
I also love to see that the average home cook can win $25 grand. Marc Summers isn’t bad and Guy Fieri is charming as always. I do have to say the show is in a variety of ways boring though. This could be cleaned up over time, not sure how, but it could. Mind you I see a lot of effort went into making this as least boring as possible. I recognize that, and yes in many ways this achieves that. In other words, this could have been a total sleeper easily, but it’s not.
Still, and again not sure how, but there is a boredom factor. And where it is is when the cooks come out to the kitchens. They all look as though they are moving in slow motion, avoiding the camera and are semi-comatose. I’ve never seen people stir things so slowly in my life. It’s no race but that said I know these folks wouldn’t be stirring things so slowly in their own kitchens. Again, I know, a good cook or chef is not a television personality. That said, could these people, I dunno, behave more real in the kitchen segment? Maybe even talk or acknowledge they’re on a television set, or even in their own kitchen, but not in a dream world? Again, a little work here is the only part needed. The rest of the show has decent if not great pace. The very necessary kitchen part though the show grinds to a halt. Btw, the recipes are on the website, which is more than I can say about the Iron Chef one’s which never get published.
For it’s giving the home cook a chance, the format, the hosts, the places where it’s done it’s best to cut out the boredom, and for it’s current boredom factor that is there. This show gets 3 stars. As the format is brand new, I can foresee this show might correct the boredom factor, or that I might grow to like this more overtime. So this has the definite possibility of rising to 4 stars down the line.
THE HEAT with Mark McEwan (Fine Living) 
While this is not as new as the others, I had mentioned previously that I hadn’t gotten a chance to see this show. So made the concerted effort and have now looked at several episodes. And I hate to say it. This show on the Fine Living network makes Ultimate Recipe Showdown look like an exciting hockey game. What’s the problems? First let me list the positives. The chef is charming and engaging. I like him indeed. (And the women think he’s a hunk.) And the show has slick, professional direction, editing, pacing, all that. Ok, that’s the end of the positives, alas.
There’s two huge problems with this show. One, it can’t hold a candle to Dinner: Impossible. Once you’ve seen Robert Irvine “MacGuyver” a meal for 200 out of sticks and chickenwire, or make 17,000 appetizers in six hours, or cook on a moving train from a kitchen smaller than a Manhatten efficiency apartment … and compare it to this show, it’s Snoresville. so sorry Mark, but having “problems” with being short a few waiters while working in a normal functional facility, well the “so called drama” doesn’t cut it at all. Oh my goodness, there was also the episode that revolved totally around “will the blue-tail tuna he promised the client get there in time” … gasp!? Will the opera house empty out 10 whole minutes early? This minituae while reflecting real life is still one major Yawn City compared to the trials and tribulations Irvine goes through where you hear him intone: “The guests are arriving by boat in 30 minutes and I have no fire to cook anything” or “I’m supposed to make 10,000 pieces of fried chicken but there are no deep fryers anywhere” or “I can get the meal done, but the reception area is a mile away on the other side of the campus”. You just can’t compete with that.
What’s as bad or worse. No recipes! Most of the time only a few of the dishes being served are ever mentioned by name, or briefly shown on camera. The bulk of the dishes aren’t mentioned nor shown at all. Forget what ever went into them. Uh, Hello? This is allegedly a food show, remember that? Apparently not. Sorry, there’s but a single food show on TV that can get away without showing recipes and that’s Ace of Cakes. We want to see the design and we want to see it get to the client in time. In fact, Ace of Cakes has sincerely more drama that “Heat”. When a speciality cake falls apart in the delivery van and the celebration is 45 minutes away and it took a week to make … Now that’s drama, baby. Heat can’t hold a candle to any of the things that go wrong for Duff or Irvine. And even were there no comparison to other shows this still would not change thngs; this is a boring show featuring very little food and zero recipes! That’s just insane. Come on. What’s the sense of watching? None. Oh, and just to see if maybe, maybe, to help give a couple of points here at least, that maybe the recipes might be on the website? A bit of a saving grace? Nope. Nada. Figures!
Sorry, but the so-called THE HEAT (yes the show has the tenacity to put this in big capital letters, just makes you want to heave) definitely needs to be renamed “the tepid” (in all lower-cased letters). For the magnetic host who could really shine in a very different television series, a rating of slightly better than a goose-egg, a single star.
Down Home with the Neely’s (The Food Network) 
Well, Lordy! Black people can cook! Hey hey, that’s not news to me, but it is apparently the new-found revelation of the Food Network. That’s right. Just why it has taken the Food Network until late in 2007 (Ingrid Hoffmann’s Simply Delicioso) to finally have a Latin cooking show? And not until 2008 to have a cooking show where the cooks are black? I mean, really! (No, sorry, Al Roker eating diner food does not count. I said cook, not eat.) Ok, let me chill. Past is past. Let’s just call it pasta water under the bridge for now. But I had to get that out. It’s been gnawing inside for way too long.
In any event the hosts and cooks, Pat (the hubbie) and Gina, make for fun watching. Mind you, they have big personalities and are totally wild. This might not appeal to a few folks, though I’d rather see someone’s personality “spice” up a show than watch the other extreme, the boring and the bored. Since Rachel and Paula also have big personalities I’m confident these two are likewise going to be a hit. It really is fun to watch them in a kitchen, and to be candid this is probably the first time I’ve seen a two-host, two cooks in the kitchen show actually succeed. They both are good on their own and together they have great chemistry. And you can tell the affection and fun they have is genuine; it’s just impossible to ever script this.
Do they get a tad too silly? Sometimes. Does it get a tad too sickening sweet? Almost, but a) they draw back from the edge and b) because you know they’re sincere, being themselves it works. Alright, so enough with personality, let’s get down to it: How’s the cooking? He and his brothers own Neely’s which has two locations in Memphis and one in Nashville, and I’ve seen their restaurant many many times over the years as among the best BBQ joints in the nation. In fact you literally cannot do an American barbecue show without mentioning them. So they both can cook and cook well. Two shows I’ve seen now and I definitely want to eat and make the dishes they’ve come up with. (Check further below where I talk about FN Dish to see a video of The Neely’s.) What’s the verdict? It took way too long, FN, but at least you got it right the first time. Neelys make delcious food and you have a fun time watching them do it too.
Last Restaurant Standing (BBC America)
Not sure why, but having heard the premise I didn’t think I would like this new reality competition food show. So much so it delayed my watching it, missing the first episode or two. I can report I was happily mistaken. Sometimes it’s in the editing, the pace, the coverage. Whatever, this show has it. For one, the completing folks here (usually married couples, but there are two twin sisters) have a real restaurant. I thought they were going to jam these people in “faux” restaurants, you know, the way they do the restaurant challenge segment every year on Top Chef. But these are real. And not even next to each other or stuck in one place. They’re 50-100 miles (I guess being Britain I should say kilometers) apart in some cases. As I said it’s real. And I was putting off watching this not expecting that, and delighted it is.
In short a famous French chef now in England, Raymond Blanc, who’s rolling in the dough gives nine sets of folks their chance to open a restaurant. We follow them each week. Besides how they do — do they loose patrons, do they make a profit — they are also given assignments, for instance this week it was “now that they are open, create cocktails and desserts and push them”. You see, this is where the money is made, not off the entrees as much. These are the things that keep restaurants in business and help them make a profit. We watch as the competitors each deal with their own struggling new business, new week problems, each other, and the new challenge. Each week a restaurant is closed down until one remains on which the main chef guy finds is worth his investing in. In short, they win.
Nice idea. Cameras in each restaurant. Case managers to check in. Well executed. It all comes down to, do I care to see what happens next week? And indeed I do. I’m looking forward to it. That’s the mark of any show, but especially the hallmark of a reality competition show. Another score for those folks across the Pond. If I find at the end of the season it stayed high, it could rank from me a rare five stars. As it’s new and I’m not yet addicted (and not sure if I will be or not) for now, a still excellent: 4 stars.
Not reviewed this time out: Everyday Baking on PBS from the folks (Martha Stewart actually) that bring us Everyday Food. Why? I keep missing it. Yeah, I know “Tivo it”. Soon as I get one. Will review this in the future.
One new show isn’t on television. It’s a weekly webcast. On The FN Dish (love the play on words) food blogger makes good. Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet, and now author, interviews various FN stars and takes us behind the scenes. (Btw, since it’s a webcast and an interview show, I’m skipping the rating system for this one.)
Existing Shows Mini-Reviews
: 5 stars : a sumptuous feast time and time again
: 2 stars : brown-bag lunch with stale bread
: 0 stars : I’d rather have salmonella
Note: This time ’round this isn’t a cross-sampling but a list of the best out there, ergo the high ratings.
Wolfang Puck (Fine Living) When this show first began the opening out-of-kitchen segment involved Puck going to his food sources: an artisan farm for tomatoes, La Bria bakery for fresh bread. Great idea … one that lasted only a few episodes. Since then, every opening segment is about the fellow celebs Wolfgang rubs elbows with; vignettes of him smoozing with fellow Austrian, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger or Whoppie Goldberg or whomever. In short, bring back the food segment, Wolfgang, cause it’s the only thing keeping you “down” to a four-star rating. The rest of the show is priceless and this is a must-see.
Iron Chef America (Food Network) It’s the grand dame, the Super Bowl-and-Spoon, the ultimate cooking sporting event. Overall they get everything right. No one but Alton Brown could ever look at the bizarre things the chefs out out on the counter and immediately know what they are. They even have their own “Simon Cowell” in the form of frequent and minuitae-picking judge Jeffrey Steingarten The fact FN makes this the single show they refuse (why?) to publish the recipes on the website is majorly annoying though.
America’s Test Kitchen (PBS) An excellent over-all job, great tips, I love the kitchen corner comparisons too as no one but they do it (though still getting hopped up over $150 dutch ovens as “bargains” makes me fell that they sometimes forget their audience is home cooks not Michelin-star chefs making Michelin-star money.) This show is great because behind the scenes they test things six ways to Sunday and then film the best. As a side note, the fact some of the recipes on their website they wont show you unless you pay them seems rather miserly.
Dinner: Impossible (Food Network) Super entertaining while it keeps the focus on food, see how it’s prepared, recipes are shown during the show (and found on the website). Chef Robert Irvine is an amazing talent he really does do the impossible. And he has a great sense of humor. There is nothing not to love about this show, and from a sometimes picky critic, that’s a lot to say.
Take Home Chef (TLC) While there are some fans who gripe about the new format — where he goes to viewers who sent in letters or videos — instead of randomly picking up folks from the same cities all the time, I enjoy that he’s now travelling to other places and therefore giving more folks a chance. Other than that it’s the same old show. Which in this case is a good thing. The women love hunky Curtis and more important to me, I love his cooking and style and variety. If only they would get the recipes up on the website more timely as well as lose that hokey listing by person’s name style (again on the website).
Simply Ming (PBS) Love the blending of east meets west defined by two pairing ingredients from each side of the earth .. and he’s entertaining as well, plus excellent guests (parents included). And he fills a major niche. Sure there are and have been other Asian cooking shows with top chefs, but often one is made to feel you can’t do that, it’s too out of your realm. Ming Tsai has a way of doing the opposite. Maybe some of the recipes are a bit strange, but that’s the idea, opening up your mind and your tastebuds. And he does it in a way that makes you feel (correctly) that you can do it too.
Throwdown with Bobby Flay (Food Network) Between the research segment (when there is one), his experimenting in the kitchen and one he’s going up against, you end up wtih two or three top notch variations on a recipe. Spotlighting a certain dish each week. Bobby is always entertaining, and the contest always interesting. Glad Bobby has changed his former style of answering every single challenge (and he was often losing at the time too) by adding blue corn meal and hot peppers. He’s won more contests by tossing that out and even though he still goes back to that frequently it’s not every week. How can you not love an Iron Chef who not only duels his contemporaries on ICA but also shares the limelight with home cooks and small restaurant owners?
Late Winter – Early Spring Preview
One new program and the return of two faves premiere over the next several weeks:
Rescue Chef (Food Network) premieres March 1st.
Expectation: High. Usually if someone can help others, he’s pretty learned. I still enjoy the reruns of Tyler Florence’s Food 911 where he showed great versatility. The host on this new reincarnation of the genre is Danny Boome, advertised as a hockey player, runway model chef. Yuck. Great promoting — Not. These commercials turn me off as they showcase what seems to be a guy who just picked up his spatula for the time.
Fortunately I checked out his resume and — whew — thankfully Boome has the food creds. One last thing, one part of the FN website says his show isn’t on until March 1st, another part of the site says it started two weeks ago. As I’ve said often before, the right hand never knows what the left is doing at this network. If it’s not the commercials and the shows don’t correspond with each other then it’s the website and the shows. FN continues to be the brilliant but nutty professor, 90% brilliant and 10% clueless. At least I can live with the percentages in that order.
The Return of Our Favorite Cooking Reality Shows
Top Chef (Bravo) Season 4 starts March 12th.
Here they come, with the four judges we know so well — Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Ted Allen — and 16 brand new contestants. The only reality show that has the unique talent of stretching itself out into six months. And now Bravo can do it’s usual, drop all it’s other shows and moprh into the 24-hour Top Chef Network again. If this falls into the pattern of previous years, expect the judges to tell the contestants each week that they’re not trying hard enough to think outside of the box and then belittle them for doing it and send them packing. (The greatest repeated stupidity of this other-wise fine show.)
So let’s see if the judges remains inconsistant again this season. If they get me fed up enough I really might drop watching and reviewing it; they really do get me that annoyed at times. I still find the fact that they filmed this last fall and yet won’t announce the winner live until something like August. Must be the only reality show where the final contestants have to wait something like eight months to know if they’ve won. Strange. And yet it works, for us the television audience.
Hell’s Kitchen (Fox) Season 4 starts April 1st.
Ironic date? One thing that is no joke, really, is every single time I watch a Gordon Ramsay show with my nonagenarian mother, the censors beep him and he curses so much and in such long strings that my Mom invariably asks if the phone is ringing! LMAO! That is 100% true.
Yes, it’s the return of one of the most famous chefs in the entire world. And I’m still not sure how much of it is for his cooking and not his notoriously foul mouth. The fact is, despite the flaws, we like Gordon. Not certain why, and yet I’m among those who like him. Maybe it’s because as annoying as he is, he speaks his mind in an age of politically correct people who all seem brain-washed into keeping their mouths shut. Maybe he’s the external avatar of the green demon inside us all yearning to be free.
All of that aside, this show has the best editing and pacing of any reality show out there. And we get interested in the people, from the short order chefs and home cooking divas who think they can be gourmet chefs, to the back-biting, back-stabbing, and in the midst of all this we get to see food dishes too. All I know is it’s a winning formula and for me, when it’s on, it’s the most addictive of all shows. I can never wait until next week. So get ready for the “big boys” and the herd of “donkeys”, the shining stars and the morons. I always like to figure out who will be the “Tom” or “Aaron” of this season. And will there be any sabotaging “Saras” in the bunch. We’ll know in roughly five more weeks.
I’m already awaiting my first course of “you burnt the bloody risotto” followed by an entree of undercooked “you could kill somebody” chicken.
Posted in Cooking on TV