Have you ever seen a Food Network personality try something they didn't like?

[joebuck20]

The only time I've seen anyone on the Food Network actually express disgust was on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives where Guy Fieri goes to some greasy spoon in Indiana and they gave him a burger with peanut butter on it. He took one bite, made a face, and then put it down.
Most of the rest of the time they're like Rachel Ray. I haven't seen it in awhile, but on $40 a Day and all her other travel shows, she would always make orgasmic noises, no matter what the dish, even if you could tell it wasn't very good. Sometimes she would make a face and you could tell she didn't like it (there's one episode that sticks out where she had an eggs and guacamole dish in one of the mountain states), but she'll still talk about how great it is.
Have you seen any other shows (whether it be Fieri, Giada, Rachel Ray, whoever) where you they obviously didn't like the food and said as much?
Also has anyone here ever been in a restaurant while they were filming a Food Network program in there? And if so how did the hosts act?

[BrandonR]

On a few occasions of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, Guy was coerced to try something he didn't seem particularly thrilled about. I think I recall one either being an animal tongue or ear. While he didn't spit it out in disgust, he gave it a few pseudo-compliments and then declined eating anymore.

[Push You Down]

You can always tell when Fieri doesn't actually like a dish. He'll talk around it or he'll deflect it with an aside about the 'colors' or the presentation. I also like that I can tell when he genuinely REALLY likes something. His eyes really light up.

[Ferret Herder]

Happens fairly often on the Next Food Network Star, though that's almost to be expected. I remember one episode where everyone complained that something was (IIRC) too bland, but Sandra Lee said she liked it.

[Huerta88]

Andrew Zimmern (?) complained about a lot of what he had in the Caribbean -- I seem to recall he said the shark was okay but the goat trotters or whatever he just acted disgusted by. Of course that can be another form of hamming it up, too. He spent the whole show on Taiwan leading up to the dramatic reveal of stinky tofu, which I like and which he of course had to make act like it was gag-inducing, which even for someone who didn't want to eat it, it really isn't.

Bourdain, at least in his writing, will say things are disgusting. I remember one piece about going back to Mexico with some of his cooks/busboys, eating iguana, and describing it as nasty, bony, gross.

But no, you're right, when you have food porn, you have to act (just like in real porn) that everyone's enjoying it turned up to 11. Racheal Ray is shameless in the often-mundane and medicore places she'll rave about, but I almost give her a pass because I'm not really sure she even knows enough about food to know what would or wouldn't be good. She's never made much pretext about being a real cook or expert.

[capybara]

When Anthony Bourdain was in Namibia he wasn't hot on the boar anus.

[typoink]

Something of a cheat, but Alton Brown will occasionally express distaste at "regular" versions of a recipes before showing his "fixed" versions. Obviously it's scripted, but he genuinely does seem to be genuinely commenting on the food.

[enalzi]

Zimmern and Bourdain are both on the Travel Channel, not Food Network (except for A Cook's Tour). Bourdain's usually pretty honest about what he eats, good and bad. Which is probably part of the reason why he's no longer on the Food Network.

[GythaOgg]

Something of a cheat, but Alton Brown will occasionally express distaste at "regular" versions of a recipes before showing his "fixed" versions. Obviously it's scripted, but he genuinely does seem to be genuinely commenting on the food.

He also commented negatively on several items he tried during his 'Feasting On Asphalt' road food shows. He took one bit of a brain sandwich, got an odd look on his face, and put it down gently....IIRC the comment was "Those must be an acquired taste." I also recall him trying a gas station pickled pigs foot and Not Liking It At All. I'm sure there were other incidents....

[SaharaTea]

The Food Network shows like $40 A Day and Diners are designed to help promote the restaurants they feature, so it's not surprising that the hosts can't be totally honest. They aren't going to embarrass the restaurants on national tv.

[Labrador Deceiver]

He also commented negatively on several items he tried during his 'Feasting On Asphalt' road food shows. He took one bit of a brain sandwich, got an odd look on his face, and put it down gently....IIRC the comment was "Those must be an acquired taste." I also recall him trying a gas station pickled pigs foot and Not Liking It At All. I'm sure there were other incidents....

Actually, he neglected to say anything bad about the brain until he was out the door and on his bike again. That was one of the instances I came here to mention.

[Jack Batty]

I've always wondered about the judges on Iron Chef / Chopped / Whatever Cooking Competition Show Of The Week. There has to be stuff that these guys whip up that makes the skin on their pallette crawl.

Discolsure: I'm hardly a foody. I can't handle any recipe that does not include the following instruction: "Pour in contents of flavor packet," but I've recently developed an odd addiction to Iron Chef.

On last night's episode (or maybe Sunday's, can't remember), Kenny Maine (I think that's how it's spelled) of ESPN fame was an Iron Chef judge and he said something along the lines of, "If you don't mind, I'm going to skip the poached egg." He caught shit for it from the other judges, but I was thinking, "It's about time." Sometimes the stuff they serve up makes me think that they're punking the judges, just to see if someone will actually chew on and swallow braised octopus balls over a sparrow intestine infused pollenta.

Thanks to Kenny.

[CrazyCatLady]

The shame of the brain sandwich is that if they'd stopped an hour earlier they could have had barbecued mutton instead. Though I must say, I grew up just south of where he had the vile sandwich and had never heard of the things. They must be even more of a regional thing than mutton.

[silenus]

No kidding. Many is the time I've imagined myself on the panel of judges, and having to say "I'm going to recuse myself here, because all this shit's disgusting!"

Although if Bobby Flay cooked it, I'd still at least try it, no matter how disgusting the ingredient.

[CrazyCatLady]

I've always wondered about the judges on Iron Chef / Chopped / Whatever Cooking Competition Show Of The Week. There has to be stuff that these guys whip up that makes the skin on their pallette crawl.

Discolsure: I'm hardly a foody. I can't handle any recipe that does not include the following instruction: "Pour in contents of flavor packet," but I've recently developed an odd addiction to Iron Chef.

On last night's episode (or maybe Sunday's, can't remember), Kenny Maine (I think that's how it's spelled) of ESPN fame was an Iron Chef judge and he said something along the lines of, "If you don't mind, I'm going to skip the poached egg." He caught shit for it from the other judges, but I was thinking, "It's about time." Sometimes the stuff they serve up makes me think that they're punking the judges, just to see if someone will actually chew on and swallow braised octopus balls over a sparrow intestine infused pollenta.

Thanks to Kenny.

It's not that nothing disgusts them that gets to me--it's that there doesn't seem to be any ingredient/flavor that they just don't like. Even the foodiest foodies I know have things they don't like.

[D_Odds]

I've always wondered about the judges on Iron Chef / Chopped / Whatever Cooking Competition Show Of The Week. There has to be stuff that these guys whip up that makes the skin on their pallette crawl.

Discolsure: I'm hardly a foody. I can't handle any recipe that does not include the following instruction: "Pour in contents of flavor packet," but I've recently developed an odd addiction to Iron Chef.

On last night's episode (or maybe Sunday's, can't remember), Kenny Maine (I think that's how it's spelled) of ESPN fame was an Iron Chef judge and he said something along the lines of, "If you don't mind, I'm going to skip the poached egg." He caught shit for it from the other judges, but I was thinking, "It's about time." Sometimes the stuff they serve up makes me think that they're punking the judges, just to see if someone will actually chew on and swallow braised octopus balls over a sparrow intestine infused pollenta.

Thanks to Kenny.One of the early Iron Chef America episodes had Vincent Pastore ("Big Pussy" Bonpensiero from The Sopranos) on, judging Masaharu Morimoto versus Wolfgang Puck in Egg Battle. Big Pussy was just that on Japanese foods, including sushi. Morimoto didn't stand a chance because of Pastore.

[Bridget Burke]

Bobby Flay had a series in which he traveled & tried regional specialties. In Pennsylvania, a nice lady welcomed him into her kitchen & fed him scrapple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple). You could tell he was not pleased. But he managed to stifle the impulse to spit the nasty stuff out.

She was a really nice lady, after all. Yes, he's a bit full of himself at times. But he showed he was a true gentleman in that episode.

And he's a good sport in his Throwdown shows, where he does tend to lose....

[longhair75]

We have a local restaurant that features fried carp. The place packs the people in and sometimes there is a line out the door. Fieri featured this place on Diners and was pretty complimentary until they wanted home to try the pickled carp. He did eat it, but was honest about his dislike.

I have eaten there, and the fried carp is nasty.

[TruCelt]

Not the types of show you're looking for, I know but:

It's great when Tom Coliccio (sp?) gets one of those. I loved the other day (Top Chef "Camping") when he actually got up and spit the food out. . . Bwaaaa ha ha ha!

Also, an old Dinah Shore show where you could see her flapping her hand to signal "Go to commercial" and clearly waiting to spit the food out.

Evil? Maybe, but I like to see the wealthy earn their money.

[Harmonious Discord]

I've only ever seen one person hate food for a cooking segment on television. A show host was showing how to make something with pumpkin that gets poured into the shell. She had picked this herself and after pouring it into the pumpkin said something like this tastes like shit, and looks gross. It did look gross the whole time she was making it.

These food show people all seem to eat anything. I'm sure they just politely say it's good and don't eat anymore if it is bad.

[kenobi 65]

A few weeks ago, I was watching* "The Next Food Network Star"**, in which three judges were evaluating dishes made by the contestants. One of the judges was honest about not liking one of the dishes...and then pointed out that she'd found a long hair in her dish (the chef in question did, indeed, have long hair).

* Technically, my wife was watching, I was just in the same room as the television at the time.
** I think this was the show...at any rate, it's a show in which several contestants cook their way through different challenges.

[Dolores Reborn]

That was Chopped - I'm addicted to all the cooking challenge shows, except for baking and candy.

[fiddlesticks]

I seem to recall Alton Brown not doing a Rachel Ray orgasm every time in his Feasting on Asphalt series, but I can't recall anything in particular...

[Huerta88]

We have a local restaurant that features fried carp. The place packs the people in and sometimes there is a line out the door. Fieri featured this place on Diners and was pretty complimentary until they wanted home to try the pickled carp. He did eat it, but was honest about his dislike.

I have eaten there, and the fried carp is nasty.

Freshwater fish is not uneatable but is seemingly harder to get right. I cannot get around how many lionized carp and perch and catfish places I have seen that are just awful or (more mildly) non-events, consisting of vaguely fish-like stuff in a half inch of breadcrumb and frying oil batter. Asians seem to get river/lake fish a bit better though I have some mud-befouled, oily "banquet fish" at high-end Chinese restaurants too.

[MN_Maenad]

He also commented negatively on several items he tried during his 'Feasting On Asphalt' road food shows.
When AB did the River Run, he just had to try lutefisk in MN. No one in the crew had anything complimentary to say, IIRC.

Can't blame 'em. Yuck.

[billfish678]

When AB did the River Run, he just had to try lutefisk in MN. No one in the crew had anything complimentary to say, IIRC.

Can't blame 'em. Yuck.

I gotta agree . For something pretty normal, like fish, its pretty damn nasty.

[fluiddruid]

I seem to recall Alton Brown not doing a Rachel Ray orgasm every time in his Feasting on Asphalt series, but I can't recall anything in particular...The funny thing about Feasting on Asphalt was that he just didn't seem to find a lot of memorable food.

The whole trip went by, with planned and unplanned stops, and the best food (in his own words) was an authentic Indian curry at a motel. I'd guess the close second would be the meat loaf he made himself in the little mini-oven the truckers helped him find.

Time and time again, he put on a happy face but just seemed like he was waiting to find a real gem. I think he reflected what I feel about small town food: yes, in a blue moon, you will find a pretty good meal. Sometimes the food will be decent. But, unfortunately, big cities tend to have really good food and small towns tend to have shitty food, because there's no competition and people have lower expectations.

Believe me, I love the romantic notion that in every new town there's a great culinary experience. It's a wonderful idea. In reality, I've traveled through a lot of the Midwest and you can't find a lot of local places anymore (it's chain city) and the ones you can find are often just dreadful. The hubs are where the good food is -- more immigrant communities, more sophisticated palates, more just plain diversity of food so the bad stuff can be safely and easily ignored.

[Reelie]

It wasn't on the Food Network but I saw Joan Rivers twice in a row spit out food into her hand in a cooking segment on a show. Not that you can really trust her judgement about anything.

[pulykamell]

I gotta agree . For something pretty normal, like fish, its pretty damn nasty.

I personally don't get the all the flak lutefisk gets. It's just bland, gelatinous/mushy fish. I guess the texture can be offputting, but the flavor is mild. Then again, so says the person who's eaten pickled turkey gizzards at a bar in Wisconsin (and enjoyed them), so perhaps my taste buds are totally warped.

[Serenata67]

I've always wondered about the judges on Iron Chef / Chopped / Whatever Cooking Competition Show Of The Week. There has to be stuff that these guys whip up that makes the skin on their pallette crawl.

Discolsure: I'm hardly a foody. I can't handle any recipe that does not include the following instruction: "Pour in contents of flavor packet," but I've recently developed an odd addiction to Iron Chef.

On last night's episode (or maybe Sunday's, can't remember), Kenny Maine (I think that's how it's spelled) of ESPN fame was an Iron Chef judge and he said something along the lines of, "If you don't mind, I'm going to skip the poached egg." He caught shit for it from the other judges, but I was thinking, "It's about time." Sometimes the stuff they serve up makes me think that they're punking the judges, just to see if someone will actually chew on and swallow braised octopus balls over a sparrow intestine infused pollenta.

Thanks to Kenny.

Jeffrey Steingarten is never happy with the food. Okay, sometimes he is. But he's so damn cranky about it all.

But he seems to be the exception rather than the rule.