I’ve seen Alton in person a couple times. In a Q&A session people asked him about Martha Stewart and Emeril. He had some wicked things to say about both of them, but in his clever subtle sort of way to avoid being booted off FoodTV.
And Jamie Oliver? How could you have a problem with that cutie pie??? Other than the fact that he’s married of course… Anyway, his and Alton’s cookbooks are the only ones I’ve ever bought and used!
I have to mention that saying “E-V-O-O” takes longer and is more clumsy than just saying “Olive Oil”.
JUST SAY OLIVE OIL, STUPID!
That said, she has some nice recipes, and I like her technique of using a bowl to put trimmings and garbage in, it’s much better than going to the garbage can every 30 seconds.
Giada De Laurentiis is cute, but has a bit of a weird look that turns me off. Like her features are too big or something.
Heh. That’s hardly <i>her</i> idea. 'Twas the first thing the instructor told us when I was taking cooking classes, long before Rachel showed up on TV.
Possibly, but I’ve been watching TV chefs for a long time, and she’s the first one I’ve seen where this technique was front and center. At least, her show is the one where I first noticed it and decided to use it myself.
Strike that “possibly”, it’s clear that she didn’t invent the techinque, not sure why I threw that in there…
Ah, but Extra Virgin Olive Oil is not the same as just Olive Oil.
The thing I like about Alton is that he’s not afraid to talk about the most basic of ingredients and techniques. He’ll talk about how to make toast or mashed potatoes or how to boil an egg. I like to see some fundamentals now and then. And he doesn’t go over board with the precious specialty ingredients. He can use a frigging apple in something instead of a “Lithuanian Tiger apple.”
My roommate is a graduate of the Vermont Culinary Institute and many of his teachers knew Emeril well. From what he was always told, not only was Emeril an extremely nice guy but he also had a repuation for being one of the hardest working chefs in the business. They said that nobody ever worked harder to get where he is. Supposedly, it was not uncommon at all to find him working 18 hour days and not even leaving the restaurant to sleep, preferring to curl up in a corner somewhere for a couple of hours.
Granted, this is all anecdotal, but it sounds to me like the guy paid his dues.
I loved him on “How to Boil Water”. He was very informative, without all the yelling. Now, his show is definitely over-the-top but but he is in the business of making money and it seems to be working for him. No need to diss the guy for being successful.
What irks me the most about Emeril on Emeril Live, and I know that this is really not a rational reason, is the vapid, mindlessly-adoring expressions on everyone in his audience. I’m willing to venture that a lot of them have been watching his show for years, but when he starts on about how pork fat rules and that he’s going to put in 4000 cloves of garlic or kick it up a mother-bamming notch, they all look as if they’ve found their moment of rapture. Emeril was entertaining for a month or so, and then it was just the same old shtick, night after night. Emeril doesn’t know a thing about that “w w dot com whatever”! Emeril likes Pork Fat! We have a little “Drizzling of the Olive Oil music by Doc Gibbs!” “Self!”
Remember those little “Executive Decision Makers”? Something like a Magic 8 Ball but more, um, upscale. I think they’ve created one to script his show. They just push a little button, some hummy little beepy noises and then “ding!” the light goes off next to “Kick it up another notch!” and the crowd goes wild.
You could make up an Emeril Drinking Game, but everyone would be drunk before the first commercial.
I’ll agree with everyone else that Bobbie Flay and Emeril are the worst of the lot. Bobbie Flay was an embarassment to this country on Iron Chef and should have had his passport revoked after that.
I disagree with the OP on the rest though. The cooks I watch are usually Tyler Florence (Yum!), Paula Deen, Giada Di Laurentis and sometimes Ina Garten. Usually because they are all on at the time of day I watch, however there are a couple other guys that are on about that time that I don’t watch, I can’t even name them, they’re just dull.
Tyler has some mannerisms that annoy me a bit, c’mon Ty you don’t need to stick the mushroom up your nose in order to smell it! But I still like him and he’s easy on the eyes.
Paula is a good ole girl and she’s just fun, I love her. She also doesn’t give a flying fig about low fat, low carb, low sugar or any of that healthy crap, when I watch food porn I want to see the hardcore stuff. I’d love to visit her and hang out, drink beer, cook and eat all day. Also she has her sons on every once in a while and they are cute.
With Giada it’s a love/hate thing. She really annoys me but I love Italian and I like her recipes. Personally, I think the girl is bulemic or she never eats except when she’s on camera. The reason she looks odd is her head is too big for her body. It’s not noticeable when she’s just sitting around talking about the food with her hair down but when she cooks she has her hair pulled back so you can see that big head on that skinny neck. She also looks like she may be heading toward osteoporosis. The other thing that annoys me is the way she has to have a big close up and toothy grin every few minutes. Then when she tastes the food she has to talk with her mouth full and use as many adjectives as she can to describe every ingredient that she can taste, “The lemon is tart and tangy, the lettuce is fresh and crisp and that just goes so well with the richness of the blah blah blah.”
Ina Garten does indeed seem to be on Prozac and she seems to amuse herself more than others but watching her is like seeing how the other half lives and she really doesn’t annoy me that much.
There used to be a show called Death By Chocolate, I have no idea if it’s still on but I loved that show. The chef was Marcel DeSaliers (?) and he seemed very mellow and lackluster but damn what he did with chocolate! Although I doubted he actually ate any of his creations because he would have been bouncing off the walls, unless he had eaten them and his normal state was comatose.
As for the handwashing, I have seen everyone of the cooks I mentioned wash their hands on their shows, especially after handling raw meat.
The The Food Network first started, the shows were much more educational and informative. Emeril’s first show was just him in a kitchen with no audience or band, and I learned a lot about cajun and southern cooking. I still use his shrimp gumbo recipe to this day.
My other favorite show was Taste with David Rosengarden. He was such a good teacher! From him I learned how to match wines with foods and about the differences between beer styles. It was also the first place where I could see how to do classic bistro fare, like onion soup gratin and frisee salad with a poached egg and bacon dressing.
Sadly, as soon as The Food Network started getting successful, programming committees must have taken over and ejected every show which did not appeal to the all-powerful 18-35 year old demographic. So now we have wigged-out, stylistic youthful cooks who yap and posture more than teach. It’s just like when the format of Gourmet magazine changed from an elegant, informative periodical to its current style - People magazine with recipes.
We used to watch Emeril more often before he went to that live audience format & became a Big Deal. He was so cute in his self-consciousness, and the way he’d joke with the cameramen. Those vapid audience shots, and the BAMming, do get old.
But you know, Emeril was also a musician. Something about his personality seems very loving. Loving’s not really the right word - engaged? Tuned in? Like the Queer Guys and their makeovers - they seem to adore their work (depending on the subject matter). Or YoYo Ma, that guy glows. Even Rosie O’Donnell’s show before she became a Big Deal, when she had on guests because she’d always genuinely admired them. People who shine with a real passion for life, that’s what I enjoy watching. And I don’t even like to cook!
What’s with this Alton Brown guy y’all keep talking about? Is he on the Food Network? Sounds like somebody I need to know about (perhaps he could help me overcome my incompetence). What is his show called?
He’s the host of Good Eats.
Alton’s show is called “Good Eats”. Instead of your basic cooking show, he really breaks down the science of cooking - why certain things work, what the chemical process behind a successful custard is, why you should cook things at a certain temperature and then gradually raise or lower, etc. He’s pretty much a cook for geeks, and his show is immensely entertaining. He gets down to the nitty gritty of things like what the best whisk is for which use, and he has recurring characters on his show like W (? I think it’s W) who are also entertaining and full of great information.
Alton is a cooking god. I love his show to death. Except for the bit where he insists on calling lobsters cockroaches.
I love Alton Brown’s show - I’m a geek who loves learning about the science behind the cooking process, and he really appeals to me. My sister has given me both of his cookbooks, volumes 1 and 2 of I’m Just Here for the Food. (I’m heartbroken because I appear to be missing the first volume, and she’d had it personally autographed to me through an old roommate whose sister works on the show. 
)
Yay! I’m not the only one who’s disturbed by the seemingly cult-like devotion of Emeril’s audience. I can’t stand the show because of that. If it’s on for a few minutes before something else comes on, I have to mute the sound, because this bothers me so much.
Note for those who intensely dislike Bobby Flay:
He’s going to be on the new CBS reality show Wickedly Perfect starting in January. What better entertainment than to watch him go up in flames of frustration and stress?
Damn. Never mind. I just realized he’s going to be a judge rather than a contestant. So he’ll just be his smug usual self.
Thanks for the info, Mr. Brown sounds quite fascinating! Saw a lot of recipes on that web page (duh, should’ve just googled myself). When Dopers wax enthusiastic about someone, it’s almost always a good sign 
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The only thing I ever liked about Bobby Flay’s show was when he used to be on with that old guy in overalls. The chick on there was annoying, but that old guy was cool.
The only thing I think might put someone off from him is that he tends towards slightly “wacky” or goofy behavior. His show is kind of a “Bill Nye the Science Guy” take on cooking at times - strange little anecdotes to create a story, mini-sketches, that kind of thing. Some shows are a little offbeat, some are more straightforward. I think it helps lighten up what could be rather dry topics otherwise.