is a disaster and needs major face lift?! what a waste of a resources and air time. there is only a handful of shows(Molto Mario, Follow that Food) to watch, enjoy and learn from. the rest are runing on tums and peptobismol. whoever's in charge of this half baked programming, they need to go. i've had with them and these new cute shows like Dweasel and Lisa. how pathetic!

Free Martha!

You mean you don't like watching the same episodes of "Unwrapped" and "Top 5" over and over and over again?

Seriously though, you're absolutely right. And this is not the first thread on this BB about Food TV and its nincompoopy program scheduling.

They need more Ming Tsai and Mario Batali during prime time and they need to relegate the Unwrapped type shows to the early am hours. The only non-cooking show I like on their programming is "Food Finds".

And don't get me started on Emeril.

BTW, Martha's show on Food TV is pretty good and it's worth a better spot.

I think the best show on Food Network is Good Eats with Alton Brown. He is imformative very funny and witty, and makes 1 particuliar dish in each show. I have learned so much from watching him and try not to miss an episode. WED's @ 9pm est. Food Network has certainly dropped the ball when it comes to wine coverage. I think a wine oriented show would be a nice mix to the fluff they so thoroughly cover in their current programming.

i think the only cooking show worth watching is 'Nigella Bites' on the Style Network...

Great Chefs of the World is pretty cool too though... i think that's on Food TV

Alton Brown - what's his background? is he a chef? he looks more like a mad scientist and doesn't strike me as someone whose food really tastes that great. too much attention to details for my taste, i guess.

Free Martha!

Alton Brown is a TV guy who decided to become a cook of sorts, so he went to Culinary School (NECI - New England Culinary Institute). He's got damn good technique, even if he does have way too many gadgets.

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AIM: Drunken Mariachi

I can't tell you how many times in the last few months this conversation has come up in our house!! It's getting to the point that it's as unwatchable as the very early days, when the original "The Essence of Emeril" was repeated 477 times a day.

Sara Moulton is driving both of us nuts now; we've always liked Good Eats & Alton Brown; Batali isn't quite as annoying as we first found him....

But please, I'd love some new shows - Unwrapped MUST GO!!!

Those middle-aged Emeril groupies really creep me out.

I found Alton Brown's originality refreshing at the beginning. Now it's just annoying. And he comes accross as preachy. But I'd rather watch his show any time over Emeril's.

Good Eats is still my favorite (perhaps my only favorite) on food network. Alton Brown is entertaining and informative. I've tried many of his recipes and found them delicious, though a couple have missed the mark.

"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women!" --Homer Simpson

cheap skate Rachel Ray from $40 a day and 30 minutes meals is driving me crazy! i remember awile ago someone described her as "hot" she is such a giggling fake italian couchon! ban her from the screen! along with Emeril's mother and that duffus from Unwrapped!

Free Martha!

kumazam;
'round these parts, Great Chefs of (insert your locale/universe here) airs on The Discovery Channel. But I agree, it's a much better show.

Dare I say it - one can almost see a reasonable 'marriage' between WS, Food & Wine, and Food TV. I miss Spencer Christian's wine show...

"This wine should be eaten, it is too good to be drunk."
Jonathan Swift

The problems is the same that all networks have, too much time to fill, too little programing. Even the big networks have re-runs because there is just not enough good content to fill all the hours. It is expensive to produce TV shows, and even the cheapo types that the Food Network has (production wise) are expensive to make. That is why reality shows and those stupid cop chase shows are all over the place. They are very cheap to produce compared to drama and sitcoms.

Food network does need more quality programing, but the advertizing $$$ won't support the cost of producing the great types of shows that used to be on PBS etc. There has to be lots of cheap filler like Top 5 and Unwrapped in order to fill the time.

When in doubt, open another bottle.

The problem is that the FN caters to the Emeril heads it always has. So you are going to continue to have crap. Alton Brown is actually entertaining and I think it is important to show why ingredients react together. There are a lot of chefs and home cooks out there that do not have a basic foundation on cooking chemistry. He can be annoying but it's actually knowledge. As for everything else some good some bad. I just like to heckle while watching it so who is the bigger loser?

I am also a fan of Alton Brown; he's funny and informative.
Rachel is a hag - she always looks like she's hungover or something.

por vino

I like Alton Brown, but he did make one egregious error in a show. He said that 2% milk has had 98% of the fat removed. It surprised me that he could be so mistaken.

(Whole milk is about 3% milkfat, so 2% milk has had only about 1/3 or 33% of the fat removed.)

Up here in Canada (eh?), we too are subjected to the likes of Emeril and such, however there are a few shows that I'm not sure are available in the good ol' U.S. of A. that I find interesting:

1. OPENING SOON - documents the building of a restaurant from whatever it was before, to um, a restaurant. It's rather cool when it's a local site.

2. MADE TO ORDER - this show takes place in one of Toronto's finer eateries (RAIN), whereby the owners are asked to go way beyond the call of duty in order to 'seal that deal' or please 'please my wife'. My personal favorite is the latter, where hubby walks up to the owner and says 'Sunday is my anniversary and I had promised my wife a trip to Greece, but I can't leave work...ya gotta help me'. The owners decide to open up for him on a day that the restaurant is closed, with full wait staff and kitchen help, and deliver a package that must have cost $15,000 CA. Different courses were served at different locations in the restaurant - these guys literally had the place to themselves.

3. COOK LIKE A CHEF - hosted by various top end chefs, they wanna teach me how to cook? Good luck, but from a food standpoint, very interesting. Ultra cool background music - acid jazz, me thinks!

4. CHEF AT LARGE - a behind the scenes look at preparing gourmet food for large numbers of diners. Recently, a cruise ship, one of NYC's most exclusive large scale hotels, and Wrestlemania (the leftovers were delivered to shelters in downtown Toronto).

5. THE THIRSTY TRAVELLER - about the closest we have to a wine show. This guy used to be on Toronto's most popular after school kid's show, now he does the booze thing. Each episode is based on a particular libation - Stout, Vodka, Rioja, etc. How it's made TO what to serve it with.

All in all, we probably have a few chefs that you don't, and likewise. To a certain degree, it's the chef that makes the show (Nigella ROCKS, Rachel DON'T), but as one of our local chef-that-has-her-own-show says 'the food is the star of the show'. And Jamie Oliver is a gas! I could watch him make Tuna & Mayo sandwiches all day long.

Oh, and The Barefoot Contessa??? Please, save that till after dinner!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes they would put some good wine shows on FoodTV.

por vino

quote:

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They need more Ming Tsai

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Sorry andreasx, but Ming Tsai has let his contract with FN lapse, and will be moving to PBS. Don't know what will happen to the shows already in the can. I guess they will run in repeats. But you won't see any new ones unless you tune in to PBS, probably on Saturday afternoons.

They definitely need some regular wine shows, as well as a consistent schedule. I'd like to see a little more "Everyday Italian" and "Paula's Home Cooking", but they're always on at different times.

I'd like to see a lot less of the gimicks and more about actual food and cooking.

JimmyV,

I cought Ming Tsai's new show on CPTV a couple of times. Good show. I didn't know his contract expired with FoodTV. Too bad. They need shows like his instead of "Dweasel and Lisa".

Are you guys getting "SURFING THE MENU", a UK/aussie program?

It's on my list for the mest cooking show I've seen.

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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer

I think Alton Browne is the most annoying ! Ugh!

I wouldn't even consider watching Deezil and Lisa.

Andrea Immer's has a wine show on Fine Living (?)but I keep seeing the same three shows over and over.

I like Jamie Oliver even though you would have to translate from the metric system.

I find the FoodTV website a good source for receipes though.

quote:

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Originally posted by PURPLE:
I like Jamie Oliver even though you would have to translate from the metric system.

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The easy solution is to have the US join the rest of the world and use the metric system.


Is anyone going to watch the seriously hot Giada de Laurentiis host Chocolate week kicking off on Sunday?

As good looking as she is, she better be careful with her on camera antics. She's starting to turn into a Rachel Ray with all her oohs and aahs and mmms.

I completely agree that they need some major overhaul at the food network!
It seems that they made an effort to have different kinds of shows, as opposed to classic cooking shows. Now we are stuck with crap like Unwrapped, Top 5, and $40 a day. I also don't like All American Festivals or Roker on the Road. Not to mention, I cannot stand Alton Brown for a minute (yet I like the idea of the show).

A wine oriented show would have an audience if done right! Any ideas?

No one has mentioned Iron Chef. I personally like it and wouldn't mind another show like it.