Every night I go to bed to 3 Julia’s in a row (on PBS U) which my wife hates, but she loves me.
The first recipe I ever mad off of a TV show was Tyler Florence’s Mediterranean Chicken; Food911 was on late one night and I thought “I can make that” , so I went to the store the next day got some sundried tomatoes (which I had never had – tomato raisins, mmm) and a can of artichoke hearts (again, I’d never had 'em). Delicious. Turned me into a Food Network fan, and a pretty good amateur cook, if I do say so myself.
Rachael Ray is a goddess and I’ve prepared several of her meals.
But Alton, well now, Alton is something special. I think the first thing that really turned me on to him was the science behind his method. When I learned he was an Atlantan like me, it sealed the deal. . .
. . . but then, I’m not a nutritional anthropologist. . .
I’ll agree that Alton Brown is the shiznit on “Good Eats”. I’ve made french fries using his method and I’m instantly transported back to the Ocean City boardwalk, enjoying my version of Thrasher’s peanut oil fried french fries. Along with Tyler Florance, I’ve got to nominate Ming Tsai as major eye candy. Very self assured and knows his way around a kitchen as well.
The missus and I are big fans of Food Network. Alton Brown used to annoy the Smiling Mighty Jesus out of me, but I gradually warmed up to his show. Nowadays, I make it a point to try and watch it (unless its that damned tofu episode or the fruitcake episode).
The wife likes the recipes on Everyday Italian. I watch it to ogle at the hostess, Jada DiLaurentis (sic).
Racheal is cute and fun to watch, but does her shrill laugh annoy the hell out of anyone else besides me?
For my money, ya can’t beat Iron Chef. I love it when they throw seemingly disgusting food combinations in the ice cream maker (something like a combo of sharkfin, birds nest, and mayonaisse).
The wife thinks Paula Deen is 'da bomb. I bought one of Paula’s cookbooks as a Christmas present for her. Good stuff- I recommend.
What I LOATHE are the following shows: Food Finds, Unwrapped, and that friggin Al Roker thing.
Final note: Tyler Florence grew up in my old neighborhood. His older brother and I used to play together when we were in Elementary/Middle school. They were good kids, and I’m glad to see Tyler do so well.
I like to watch cooking shows, but interms of cooking I don;t really learn much of anything. As far as Alton, I just don’t agree with him a lot of the time. Stuffing tastes better in the turkey. And sometimes he gets rid of the step I feel is important, and emphasises some step that seems unimportant to me. Plus he contradicts himself sometimes. Some episodes he says"only cook with a wine good enough to drink" and other episodes he makes fun of that notion and says cook with the cheep stuff.
I’m not entirely sure that one can defend the casserole (sp?) or pronounce hamburger as the American dish–then cook yummy goodies w/ it–and be a food snob at the same time.
We followed AB’s turkey cooking instructions from an article he wrote in Bon Appetite magazine (purchased at the newsstand when I saw AB’s name on the cover). Easily the best turkey I’ve ever had, and it looked good, too – brown like a Norman Rockwell painting.
How good? We went home for the holidays, and Ms. Undhow’s grandmother did her usual Christmas spread, including turkey. This used to the benchmark for good turkey. Ms. Undhow leaned over to me during the meal and whispered “this is a little dry, isn’t it?” Once you’ve done turkey the AB way, you can’t go back.
Hey I’ve made my own yogurt before. Very easy. I do occasionally really like some of Alton’s shows. Others seem like an exercise in anal retentiveness. Sometimes he just says things that are plain incorrect (like recently I heard him say that cast-iron is great conductor of heat).
But back to the anal-retentiveness. Have you seen the stock-making show? He uses two-strainers, cheesecloth, a giant cooler, tons of ice, preciseley proportined ingredients, etc. It’s ridiculous, and enough to make anyone incredibly fearfull of making stock. Back on planet Earth, though, making stock is very easy, just a few things to know.
