# Anyone remember Graham Kerr? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569 "2020-02-26T18:30:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/21 "2020-02-26T22:20:58Z")
It was a long time ago, and I’m not remembering the ribald stuff. I remember silly jokes and good cooking. I remember a zinger he gave the U.S., too. He opened a package of frozen crabmeat and pointed out that all the large chunks were on the outside, surrounding a core of little shreds and bits, and said “Typically American.” I remember one of the first things I ever tried cooking was one of his recipes. It was duck with a stuffing of prunes, apples and onions. Only I couldn’t find duck, so I used a chicken instead. It was extremely good, only my family didn’t like it because it was too fancy-foreign for them. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/22 "2020-02-26T22:36:22Z")
I used to watch it all the time when I was first starting to get serious about cooking in about 1970. His show always seemed to say “It’s okay to have fun in the kitchen!” The other one I watched for awhile later on was “Yan Can Cook”. It didn’t last long, but was informative. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/23 "2020-02-26T22:43:03Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I don’t know- as I recall Julia she always seemed a little tipsy on the air. My daughter (now 25) has Julia pegged. I was doing my JC impression one evening while I was cooking dinner (“Today, we’re going to make _Boeuf Bourguignon_, which comes from the Burgundy region of France…”) and she finished the line before I could (“…where they make that delicious wine!”). ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/24 "2020-02-26T23:01:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The other one I watched for awhile later on was “Yan Can Cook”. It didn’t last long, but was informative. I just ADORED Yan Can Cook. He made it look so EASY. A little ginger, a little soy sauce, a dash of wine - done! Unfortunately, even though I dutifully went out and bought all the ingredients and made attempts at Chinese cooking, it never seemed to turn out very well. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/25 "2020-02-27T01:00:45Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Somewhat related: > > There was a short-lived TV program in the early 1970s called [Arnie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnie_(TV_series)), about a blue collar guy who had gotten a promotion, and (I guess) his adjustment to going to white collar. > > Anyway. . . Charles Nelson-Reilly played Randy Robinson, the “Giddyap Gourmet.” According to CNR some years later, Kerr was. . . not amused. IIRC, the Giddyap Gourmet was revealed to be a bit overfond of his on-air tipples. That was probably what displeased Mr. Kerr. Fun fact: Herschel Bernardi (who played Arnie) for several years provided the voice of Charlie the Tuna, who either had a death wish or was seriously confused about the implications if the Starkist folks ever selected him to appear on the inside of one of their cans, rather than merely on the label. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/26 "2020-02-27T01:06:42Z")
I watched him when I was little, though I was too little to cook. He lives about 50 miles south of here. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/27 "2020-02-27T01:18:10Z")
Glad to hear he’s still alive. I had an incredibly hip friend in second grade (1967) who watched the show religiously. (He also turned me onto Dan O’Neill’s _Odd Bodkins_). I probably caught a few episodes, but I dont remember much about it. Never saw the born-again low fat version. One of my early influences on how it was cool to be able to cook. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/28 "2020-02-27T01:32:36Z")
There was a reference to the show on _ **Sanford and Son** _: Lamont was surprised one night when he came home and found Fred had cooked pork chops for dinner (I think he had a hot date coming over): “You made all this yourself?” “Me and the Galloping Gourmet!” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/29 "2020-02-27T01:35:10Z")
I used to love _The Galloping Gourmet_ as a kid. It gave me an exposure to real fancy cooking, as opposed to my mother’s (God Bless Her, meals on the table every evening while holding down a professional job) whose food was…there. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/30 "2020-02-27T01:52:13Z")
I do remember watching him as a teenager. He instilled in me the habit of eyeballing quantities, so my cooking tends to be an experiment. The one episode that sticks in my mind is when he told us that we would not cut ourselves with a good, sharp knife and later returned from a break with a bandaid on his finger. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/31 "2020-02-27T02:01:15Z")
Because he initially rose to fame in New Zealand, Kiwis my age and older claim ownership of him and so that’s my main takeaway I recall of him. I don’t think he’s even lived in New Zealand within my lifetime, but that is where he got his start. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/32 "2020-02-27T04:35:46Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Because he initially rose to fame in New Zealand, Kiwis my age and older claim ownership of him and so that’s my main takeaway I recall of him. I don’t think he’s even lived in New Zealand within my lifetime, but that is where he got his start. And because ‘Kiwis my age and older claim ownership of him’ is why we sometimes regard him as an honorary Australian along with our very own Sam Neill, Russell Crowe (when he’s not on the nose), Tim and Neil Finn and Jacinta. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/33 "2020-02-27T06:05:32Z")
One of my earliest memories. That and what I did 5 minutes ago. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/34 "2020-02-27T07:21:47Z")
You cause me to remember: Graham Kerr is who first got me started on cooking when I was just becoming old enough. He made it fun, so as a kid I enjoyed it enough to actually try it. We got him on network TV before there was a local PBS station to receive Julia Child. When we got PBS I watched her too. I thought she was fine for grownups, but the Galloping Gourmet had kid appeal. I thought he looked debonair at the end of every show when he’d take a woman in the audience by the hand and lead her onstage to dine with him. The audience was _all_ women. ETA: But since the '90s, I have known that Yan is the most fun of them all. Charismatic too. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/35 "2020-02-27T08:16:14Z")
I remember _The Galloping Gourmet_. The show was fun and entertaining, and though my Mom couldn’t cook (and when she did, the meal was, as another poster said, just … there), she had the good sense not to try cooking like Graham Kerr did. She did get a little more adventurous thanks to the show though, and such exotic things as garlic started to be nothing to be afraid of, and indeed, occasionally showed up in our meals. Heck, I still smash a clove of garlic with a knife, just as he demonstrated. “Now, let’s add some clarified butter…” ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/36 "2020-02-27T09:08:57Z")
Oh, by the way, yan can cook came back on about 10 years ago on PBS … they still show it tho its mostly him going through china and trying dishes there and then showing you how to make them here when food channel first started they’ed show his and Julias reruns at night … in an interview when his 90s show he said his wife had a heart attack and that’s when he went basically vegan until he said he was cooking and got tired of the smell and threw it all out and decided that all you needed to be healthy was balance and moderation in your cooking My favorite show on pbs was the frugal gourmet until he went to jail for molesting his interns … ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/37 "2020-02-27T11:07:02Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > Oh, by the way, yan can cook came back on about 10 years ago on PBS … they still show it tho its mostly him going through china and trying dishes there and then showing you how to make them here > > when food channel first started they’ed show his and Julias reruns at night … > > in an interview when his 90s show he said his wife had a heart attack and that’s when he went basically vegan until he said he was cooking and got tired of the smell and threw it all out and decided that all you needed to be healthy was balance and moderation > in your cooking > > My favorite show on pbs was the frugal gourmet until he went to jail for molesting his interns … The frugal gourmet never went to jail, in fact was never criminally charged. He did however settle out of court with a bunch of people. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/38 "2020-02-27T11:37:11Z")
I watched Kerr in the ‘90s on basic cable then PBS. I have several of his cookbooks. He still joked a lot but religion did change why he thought was funny. I read an article about him a long time ago which said that he was quite the rock star in the 1970s and ‘80s and before he became born again his tours were filled with sex with his female fans. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/39 "2020-02-27T11:37:50Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The other one I watched for awhile later on was “Yan Can Cook”. It didn’t last long, but was informative. I still use the method of prepping bell peppers I learned on _Yan Can Cook_. His show was great. We only got post-conversion Kerr shows in South Africa, but I still enjoyed them, he seemed nice. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569/40 "2020-02-27T15:49:39Z")
IIRC his show came on right after school. Lots of times I’d go to my grandma’s house after school (her yard and ours were connected by a path). We’d always watch it together. I remember it as being funny - things would always go wrong - something would fall over, he’d drop something, etc. That’s what sticks out in my mind. It was something funny to watch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-graham-kerr/848569.md?page=3)