What are your favorite cooking shows?
Submitted by dave on Sat, 2007-03-03 15:37.
You would think that with a whole cable channel dedicated to food, that there would be all sorts of choices of cooking shows to watch, but I rarely watch The Food Network anymore. Even Alton Brown is wearing a little thin.
I'm back to watching PBS for most of my cooking shows, with a few non-Food Network cable shows tossed in.
Of course, just about anything by Jacques Pepin would always be on the list, so his current show, Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way is going to be on the list. I've also started watching Daisy Cooks! with Daisy Martinez for some new ideas for Latin American food, and Simply Ming for Asian.
I rarely bother to watch TLC, since I really don't care about their usual brain rot, and I discovered The Take Home Chef with Curtis Stone. He's a chef that finds some woman shopping in a Whole Foods, and offers to come home with her and cook her and her family dinner.
He finds out the sort of food the people like, puts together a menu in his head, and goes home with her and whips up the meal. At least half the time, he makes creates at least one dish that he never cooked before.
What are your favorite cooking shows that are currently on?
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I have to agree with you
I have to agree with you about Alton - too much time is being spent on the show and not enough on the food. The first two seasons were definitely my favourite. I still watch the new shows once, but I will re-watch an old show just for the sock puppets. :-) I also agree about any shows with Jaques, so I will not list those here.
For stuff that is currently being aired:
Take Home Chef: Mary Ellen and I both enjoy this show. For us the best part is the expression on the face of the person getting the suprise at the door. It definitely feels more like a reality show than a cooking show, but it is fun for now.
Master Class at Johnson & Wales: I enjoy the regular classroom segments but the featured guest segments tend to be more about advertising the guest, or their restaurant, and not about the cooking. I would prefer that they leave that segment out and give more time to the classroom segments.
Sara's Secrets: Actually just about any show with Sara Moulton has been fun to watch and the recipes and techniques are clear and easy to follow.
Gourmet's Diary Of A Foodie: I started watching this one last month. So far they have been sticking to the food and its history. As long as they do not change formats this could end up being a good series.
Yeah, Take Home Chef has
Yeah, Take Home Chef has some of the appeal of a reality show without all the contrived angst. I like that the surprise is a nice surprise, much better than the "surprise" that they spring on people in the Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay. While you don't really learn a lot about the cooking itself, it has given me some good ideas. I wonder how he would do with a studio cooking show (PBS style, not FOODTV)
I caught part of Sara's Secret once, but it's on when I rarely watch. I'll have to make more of an attempt to catch it.
We have 2 PBS stations, and neither gets Master Class or Gourmet's Diary. I'll have to see if I can find them online.
Take Home Chef has gone way
Take Home Chef has gone way down hill this season. Now, people write in and ask him to make something for one of their special occasions, then he goes and "surprises them" in a locations where they already have some cameras set up.
We just stopped watching
We just stopped watching after the third week into the new season.
I forgot to mention the
I forgot to mention the local PBS cooking shows on KCTS. They make KCTS Cooks with recipes submitted by viewers and KCTS Chefs with viewer favorite recipes from local restaurants. The various recipes are put together in cookbooks that are used for fundraising. Granted, there are a lot of recipes that would never interest me, but there are a lot of good ones as well.
The best thing about it is that it is a REAL cooking show, where all they do is cook with their guests. The people that submit their recipes show up at the studio and cook it up for them.
I bought the KCTS Chefs
I bought the KCTS Chefs 2007. I am NOT impressed. Recipes too complex. Many with way too many ingredients.No pictures or examples pf the finished product whatsoever. I'm glad most of my $63 payment went to Charity. But there are so many other "Charity" Cookbooks I prefer.
No, I personally would not recommend this book.
Bummer. I've seen some good
Bummer. I've seen some good recipes on the show, it's disappointing to hear that the book doesn't live up to it. You would think that people working in a visual medium like TV would understand that pictures are important. If they can send out full color brochures begging for money, they could add a few picture pages.
Oh well, I'll still watch the show.
I was going to buy the
I was going to buy the cookbook but will wait for the next one. Thanks for the review. I would love the recipe for the Coconut Macaroon Cake from the Dakota Cafe that was on the show.
My personal favorite is Good
My personal favorite is Good Eats with Alton Brown. It's not just a cooking show that's why I love it. It's funny and I'm a big nerd so I love the scientific and historical explanations, as well as the trivia. I love Alton too, he's witty and doesn't come off corny or fake like some TV chefs. Not only is it my favorite cooking show, but one of my favorites period!
I agree about the Food
I agree about the Food Network getting a bit old. The two shows I still like to catch on there are:
1- Tyler's Ultimate
2- Jamie at Home (new. I think it's great.)
Actually, the shows I really like to catch (although not cooking shows) are Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. I feel like they should count though... they inspire and make me really want to try new things.
There's something about
There's something about Tyler Florence that just grates on me, so I can't watch his shows. It certainly isn't as bad as Emeril, and I'm sure he's a better cook, but just something about his looks or personality (I know, I'm shallow).
I'll have to look for Jamie at Home. I just saw an ad the other night for a new barbecue show that I have to check out as well.
Sometimes I like No Reservations, and sometimes I don't. When the focus is on the food and the culture, I love it. But sometimes the network seems to want to concentrate on some sort of dysfunctionality with Anthony or one of his acquaintances, and that gets old quick. Thankfully, even the "bad" shows always have some redeeming food.
Bizarre Foods is just plain cool when I'm in the right mood. It's probably done more to remind people where their food comes from than any other show. Though I suppose that most people just watch it for the shock value.
Haha, Emeril is a joke to
Haha, Emeril is a joke to me- although I'm sure he's a nice enough guy, I have never understood what the deal is with him. Tyler Florence is a peppy kind of guy, for sure. I always think that everything he makes looks simple and delicious, and I love how accessible he seems- it's like he's sure that you can make what he does and feel great about it.
I hear ya on the No Reservations thing.
I would try almost everything on the Bizarre Foods show, except for maybe the Durian fruit...
I'm not sure how it
I'm not sure how it happened, but I just realized that there is a food network show that has inspired more of my meals than any of their other shows. What's kinda embarrassing is that it's one of their stupid travel shows with an annoying host, instead of a cooking show. Then again, it should be even more embarrassing to the food network than it is to me. The show is Drive-ins, Diners and Dives hosted by Guy Fieri. It's not a cooking show, but there's a lot more cooking that happens than in most of their cooking shows.
I have also been enjoying
I have also been enjoying that show quite a bit. Probably because the places he ends up going to are run by people that seem to really enjoy food. Guy hams it up a bit too much some of the time which makes me turn off some of the episodes - but most of the time I can make it through an entire half hour.
It's not only that the
It's not only that the people really enjoy food, but they always show food that people really enjoy. It's rarely recipes where you need "the recipe" to get it pretty close to what they're cooking.