Comments on: Taste Great, Looks Filling

By: OldYanksFan

OldYanksFan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:07:23 +0000

Between the stirring, mincing, dicing, cutting, browning, and everything else done to prepare one meal, has any one noticed the amount of utensils, pots and pans, dishes and cups, need to be washed afterward?. Being single, I don’t really cook much, but cooking and preparing can be enjoyable. However, a boat load of items that need to be washed afterwards is not.

On these shows, if they ever showed how much time it took to wash all the tools that went into a meal, no one might ever cook again.

I liked cooking Chinese (but never did it well as you need a wok that is far, far hotter then the average stove can produce) because I could use ONE knife and ONE pan (the Wok), If every Chef had to clean up after him/herself, I think we would see very different meals produced.

By: PJ

PJ — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:00:35 +0000

Some of my better learning experiences/recipes have come from chefs/cooks and their shows such as (in no particular order): Julia Child (The French Chef), Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet), Jaques Pépin (The Complete Pépin), Tyler Florence (Food 911, Tyler’s Ultimate), Emeril Lagasse (The Essence of Emeril, Emeril Live), Alton Brown (Good Eats), Giada De Laurentiis (Everyday Italian), Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa), Paula Deen (Paula’s Home Cooking, Paula’s Best Dishes), Mario Batali (Molto Mario), Wolfgang Puck (Cooking Class with Wolfgang Puck), and of course New York City’s own Sara Moulton (Cooking Live, Sara’s Secrets) and Bobby Flay (Boy Meets Grill, Throwdown).

Also, I have been known to post some of my old family recipes here from time to time whenever Alex jogs my memory. Stay tuned for more of those!

Here is one of our favorite “go to meals” from Tyler Florence’s Food 911…

Chicken and Dumplings

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_361967_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html

IMPORTANT: When adding salt for the stock (first step), use two TEASPOONS and NOT two Tablespoons! That was a misprint. Also, feel free to use a shredded rotisserie chicken for the meat and the boxed chicken stock from your grocer for the sauce. These two shortcuts will make it easier if you lack time to make the chicken stock from scratch.

Enjoy!

By: ms october

ms october — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:24:48 +0000

agree guys.

i couldn’t cook crap to save my life (except for baking chocolate chip cookies) until i got in my mid 20s and even then it was limited and nothing special.

but in the last handful of years i have learned a lot and gotten much, much better and more adventurous because i learned the basics from a couple of really good home cooks (one of whom went to culinary school) and old episodes of good cooking shows.
i like several of the food network shows to get recipe ideas from – but you really can’t learn to cook from them – you basically have to know what you are doing first, which is a lost art these days.

By: PJ

PJ — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:55:29 +0000

[0] “The BBC supposedly took “The French Chef” off the air because viewers wrote in complaining that Julia Child seemed either drunk or demented.”

Well that certainly explains why British Food still sucks! Although the fact that the title had the word “French” in it was probably equally to blame…

But seriously, I refuse to watch any cooking show that does not feature an accredited chef on it. Those are the people who teach you about cooking the most. And kindly remove any “reality based” cooking competitions not named Iron Chef or Iron Chef America from my living room.

Give me a real learned and expert chef who actually takes the time to teach us what he or she has learned and knows every time!

Once you master the basics, the world is literally your oyster!

That’s what Julia taught in any event.

Are you really surprised that corporate America took a really great idea and bastardized it beyond usefulness?

I’m not…

I mean, who wants to learn about MLB from Mike Francesa simply because he’s “been doing this 20 years?”

Not me…

Oh and as far as Jaques Pépin goes, peep La Technique!

: )

By: Shaun P.

Shaun P. — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:36:33 +0000

Along the lines of cooking less, if this paper is right, then maybe more people should spend more time in the kitchen doing some cooking. Food for thought, such as it is.

By: tsengsational

tsengsational — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:09:42 +0000

The shows on food network now and probably more about entertainment than education now, but I don’t mind. I like watching them anyways. I don’t have a problem with the music and the amplified sound effects. And, I think it’s inspired me to cook more, not less. Perhaps I’m in the minority, though.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:56:04 +0000

I love new cooking shows, and old ones. Watching the old timers, that’s where I learn how to do stuff. But I get far more inspiration from the new batch, where I just think, man that looks good, I wonder if I could make something like that.

My cooking discovery of the summer, thanks to Jacque Pepin: it’s amazing how much salt beef can take before actually tasting salty.

By: monkeypants

monkeypants — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:07:28 +0000

The problem with nearly all cooking shows, in my opinion, is that they (at best) show you how to make a specific dish, but rarely teach underlying cooking principles–food and herb/season pairings, heat types/sources for different cuts of meat, how to substitute, etc.

The one exception is Alton Brown, at least in the early seasons of Good Eats, but even his show has increasingly begun to center on single, more obscure recipes.