I’ve had the misfortune of watching a few cooking shows. Not many, as every on I’ve seen have been boring and have taken uninteresting to whole new levels of expression. Then one evening, earlier this year, while channel surfing I stumbled across Good Eats. Of the list of words I can think of to describe this show, “brilliant” might be the best.
Alton Brown actually makes cooking look interesting. He gets into the science of cooking; why some things work, why some don’t; what effects to the individual components have and what are their properties. Compared to this, other cooking shows are even more blighted by the curse of being just recipes. You could replace Emeril with an ape and no one would be the wiser because all he is doing is following simple algorithms! Step-by-step, at no point does it become an excercise of the mind.
Not Alton, no way. From visiting food scientists, to food anthropologists, to the beautiful but evil W. who explains the ins and outs of kitchen hardware, Good Eats is an exploration of why cooking works.
With this benchmark now set, why would anyone watch any other cooking show?!
I agree that Good Eats is a great show. I love all the little informative bits he throws out. But, have you caught Cook’s Tour? This guy is really entertaining. If the food sucks, he tells you it sucks.
America’s Test Kitchen on PBS,
Which is full of insane people who care far too much - so far as I can tell.
They choose a recipe or two, and make them, but along the way they explain how they tried all of the alternative recipes and came up with needing exactly 3/8ths of a teaspoon of salt (1/4th was too little, 1/2 was too much) and then try out 16 different baking pans to tell you which one you should cook this recipe with, and then the cooking science portion where they explain the mechanics behind that cooking technique, and end up with the perfect (and it’s been scientifically tested, so you know it’s perfect) whatever it is they’re cooking.
I love that show.
Gotta love the Food Channel. Food Finds got me hooked on peanut butter from the Krema Nut Company. Iron Chef I only started watching on January 1, when they had a challenger’s marathon, but I try not to miss it now. Unwrapped would be fun for kids, showing HOW things get made.
Two Fat Ladies fan here…Alton Brown is just adorable. Not only is his show brilliant and informative, but he actually makes chicken interesting! Not an easy feat…The Food Network rules IMHO!
I hope I won’t offend anyone, but I find Emeril tiresome. Has anyone noticed he has no neck? I find it very distracting. Not to mention his incessant use of “bam” and “kick it up a notch”. He really must stop doing that.:rolleyes:
Also love Two Fat Ladies. That’s another show I can never seem to catch. The other English chef I like is called…damn. What is his show called? The Galloping Gourmet? I think that’s it. Whatever, he’s always the one nipping from the cooking sherry.
Don’t talk smack about the bam!, Shana! The bam and kicking it up a notch is why I love Emeril. Heh. He has totally become formulaic as of late, though.
Hrm, what else? Oh, I used to like The Naked Chef before they turned it into Oliver’s Twist. Sara’s Secrets is also pretty cute.
Now that I think about it, Emeril doesn’t have a neck. Disturbing.
I don’t get Food Network (damn you Comcast!), but a friend of mine who does goes on and on about how much she loves Emeril, but can’t stand “that geeky guy with the funny name”. I was finally able to see Good Eats, and I have to say although I love my friend dearly, she’s whacked.
Alton knows his stuff, but doesn’t take it too seriously. I like how he explains the science behind cooking and he’s also darn cute! What’s not to love?
I think one of the major problems with Emeril is his show lasts an entire hour. I’d much rather watch Alton Brown for that length of time. I loved watching his Squid Vicious.
Some of the British ones are rather good. To augment the ones mentioned above:
Floyd on Food - Floyd cooks lovely stuff food on 1986 bad film stock while getting drunk on red wine and abusing people. Two Fat Ladies - they reduce good food to unhealthy-looking grey stuff. One of them’s dead now, and it doesn’t surprise me. River Cottage - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall turns indedible crap he’s found, like fungus, bicycles, and dog poo, into food. Nigella Bites - she’s big and she’s gorgeous. You don’t just want to boff her and eat her food, you want to marry her too. She’s also quite annoying, but when she dips her finger into that sauce and sucks it off, looking knowingly into the camera, it’s not just the sauce she’s stirring: it’s also my trouser department.
