cooking @ home

Time to go around the “dial” — remember when televisions had dials? or am I dating myself again” — and look at what’s happening and what’s worth watching in television food land.

The Next Iron Chef Finale

First to mention, as it’s a limited series and about to end tomorrow in fact is The Next Iron Chef. In two previous articles I’ve mentioned some of the “bad” or annoying that’s happened on the show. The behind the scenes and little known blunders created by the production team that put the competing chefs through hell as well as how later the judges seemed to think they were on another show where the idea was to change the essence of who each chef is. And while those were indeed valid revelations and criticisms, I probably wouldn’t have written about them unless on some level I cared. And indeed I do.

I’m glad they did it this way, that is, had a competition instead of just deciding behind the scenes and then announcing or crowning a new culinary warrior. Again, I think some things were stupid — what Iron Chef has ever had to run down aisles with frozen food to an airplane. Stupid, stupid. But I have to agree it made for interesting television, and that’s apparently what it’s all about — be it to the success or the detriment of the show. But again, I care. Doesn’t matter whether the chairman is an actor or not. Doesn’t matter if the chairman on the original Iron Chef of Japan was a quirky billionaire foodie or a producer with an imaginary alter ego and over-the-top sense of theatre.

Iron Chef America

The concept of the Iron Chef is excellent. It means something and it’s important. Anyhow the weird shenanigans that led to tomorrow night’s final episode aside, I am so looking forward to seeing Chefs Besh and Symon (the two I was rooting for) compete. And compete not in another insipid series of jumping flaming hoops, but where all of the contests should have happened – head to head in kitchen stadium. I’ll be happy for either of these two superlative chefs to win, and will feel bad for the one who comes in second.

Desired: Iron Chef World?

Meanwhile I have one hope — are you listening Food Network (FN)? — can somebody please figure out a way to have an Iron Chef World show? I would love to see America’s Iron Chefs compete against the original Japanese chefs from the 90s show. Or let’s say against an Iron Chef UK team of Gordon Ramsey, Michael Caines, Angela Hartnett and probably Jamie Oliver. Or against a Canadian team of perhaps Makoto Ono, Mark McEwan, Guy Richie and maybe Chef at Home’s Michael Smith. Would love it!! Now please FN, go do it!

Seriously. First, I know you don’t just own the Food Network here, but have the one in Canada. There’s two countries. Your Canadian show does deals with the BBC for programming, so you already have the UK “in”. What’s it take to talk to Channel Plus or the Sky Network and get into a cooperative sharing agreement? If television can do this for the Olympics, it can be done for the food olympics, right? So, you have your marching orders. Go make it so!

The Complete Pepin

So much more to say about different television shows worth watching, that I’ll have to wait and put them in to my next review. For now, since we started off talking about great chefs, let’s continue with two more shows involving great chefs, a redone new show of an old classic featuring a chef who’s contributions to the culinary arts are unparalleled, and another show that gets to show you over two dozen chefs who are making their marks today.

First, in the mid Seventies, Chef Jacques Pepin wrote a revolutionary book called La Technique and later La Methode, two seminal works on the culinary craft. How important is this? Wikipedia defines a seminal work as “a work from which other works grow. The term usually refers to an intellectual or artistic achievement whose ideas and techniques have been adopted or responded to in later works by other people, either in the same field or in the general culture.” Regarding the two books above specifically, I found these words somewhere to describe their importance: “Two books that present the principles of culinary technique and artistry and earned him a place in the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed each year on an author whose contributions to food literature have had a substantial and enduring impact on the American kitchen.”

Great, so what does this have to do with cooking shows? PBS is currently running: The Complete Pepin. On which his seminal works are updated and shown on video. To quote a description of this show: “a new twist on his 1997 hit series, Jacques Pepin’s Cooking Techniques. These thirteen half-hour episodes include his time-tested, classic teachings with brand new opens and closes from the culinary legend. To paraphrase Jacques Pepin, once you acquire essential cooking skills, your culinary repertoire is limited only by your imagination. Throughout the series, your viewers will learn the basics of everything from choosing and maintaining essential cooking equipment, to easy and fun ways to embellish your dishes. Both the novice and professional are sure to appreciate the solid lessons of the series, as well as the boundless passion and enthusiasm of the charismatic Jacques Pepin”

In short then, if you are missing this show and you seriously want to hone the fundamentals of your cooking, you are missing personal cooking lessons by one of the all-time great masters. If you’re interested in the accompanying book, here it is: Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques. You can also get the DVD: The Complete Pepin: Techniques and Recipes

Chef’s Story

The website for the program describes it this way: “These are icons, at the forefront of the American revolution of fine dining” and that comes from the show’s host, Dorothy Hamilton. And talk about creds, she’s only the founder of the French Culinary Institute. In case you haven’t figured it out, this is the cooking version of Inside the Actor’s Studio and Hamilton is our James Lipton. And the idea is marvelous!

Take 26 of the best chefs in America, place them in front of cooking students and an interviewed by a host with, as said, iron-clad credentials. And too, where the Actor’s Studio doesn’t give us the performers actually performing, Chef’s Story has the added bonus of the chef’s ending each session with a quick recipe as example of what defines them.

With an all-star culinary parade of guests that run the gamet from familiar TV faces such as Lidia Bastianich, Bobby Flay, Anthony Bourdain and Tom Colicchio to famous names (for their off-screen accomplishments not for their television appearances) such as chefs Michel Richard and Daniel Boulud. If you’re a foodie of any sort, or just interested in where and how American cuisine got so good in the past twenty years and where it’s at and where it’s going, then this is a must-watch show.

The book that goes with the series can be found here: Chef’s Story: 27 Chefs Talk About What Got Them into the Kitchen. While there is no single all-encompassing DVD for the entire series, each individual show has a separate DVD highlighting each interview and chef. Here’s the one for Chef’s Story Jacques Pepin and the other 25 are available as well.