Archives for the 'TV' Category
Rising Food Prices Cause Anchor to Drop F-Bomb (Audio NSFW)
Because You Can’t Spell ‘Cheat’ Without ‘Eat’
Delia Smith, who’s basically the Sandra Lee of England, is helping create a nation of cheaters, according to Britain’s Daily Express (which modestly bills itself as “the world’s greatest newspaper”).
Britain is breeding a generation of lazy cooks who cheat at dinner parties with dishes they pretend are home-made.
Millions of us admit to cutting corners when it comes to entertaining at home in a bid to impress our guests.
We serve up ready meals and packet sauces and pass them off as our own, according to a survey.
Eighty-five per cent of people said they simply do not have the time to cook meals for friends from scratch using fresh ingredients.
The research comes as TV cook Delia Smith, 66, continues to be criticised for promoting easy-to-prepare meals, often using frozen foods. Delia’s quick-fix method in her book How To Cheat At Cooking and BBC spin-off has struck a chord with busy families who simply do not have the time or energy to waste over a hot stove.
Delia was criticised for recommending recipes using ingredients including tinned minced meat, frozen mashed potato and cheese sauce from a packet.
In his famously outspoken manner, fellow TV chef Gordon Ramsay described her cooking style as an “insult”.
In one of my favorite moments from the underrated Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Angelina Jolie’s Mrs. tells husband Mr. (Brad Pitt), after he criticizes her aim with a gun as being “as bad as [her] cooking,” that she’d always ordered out and had never, in fact, cooked a meal for her hubby.
Compare Sandra Lee’s spaghetti “recipe,” which includes a jar of Newman’s Own sauce and packages of pre-sliced garlic and mushrooms, with Delia Smith’s less unambitious penne with asparagus and four cheeses, which includes Sainsbury’s fresh four cheese sauce and pre-grated parmesan.
Thomas Keller on Charlie Rose
Bad Meatloaf, Good Meatloaf
If there’s anything more certain to give me a quick bout of indigestion while having my Morning Joe than the AT&T commercial featuring d-bag fake rocker Meatloaf, I don’t know what it is. (Unless, of course, it’s Joe Scarborough’s fellow travelers Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist.)
Unprecedented overanalysis and misplaced acclaim for the Meatloaf ad here. Recent Gourmet mag meatloaf recipe–featuring bacon as both a filler and a garnish–here.
Chicago Baseball Stadiums Move Beyond ‘Puny’ Footlong
As we already knew, and as Wednesday’s Top Chef served once more to remind us, Chicago sports fans can eat. As if the Fridge asked for manna, and heaven rained it down, both of the area’s Major League Baseball teams are now serving two-foot-long sandwiches:
At Wrigley Field, a two-foot-long Italian beef feeds two to four people and costs $18. Fans can find it at the Italian Hot Spot concession stand in the left field concourse.
Not to be outdone, U.S. Cellular Field is touting its $14 Doubleheader Dog, a 24-inch hot dog, as the first of its kind in the major leagues. It’s sold in the club level Southside Grill.
[…]
Also new at Wrigley this season:
• Tallgrass Beef hamburgers. The beef, named for Chicago broadcaster and rancher Bill Kurtis’ company, is from grass-fed cattle and all the rage among eco-conscious restaurants. The burgers are part of the Chef’s Harvest Table buffet in the Stadium Club.
• “Throwback” menu. Available in the suites, the menu offers comfort foods such as meatloaf with mashed potatoes, fried chicken and watermelon slices.
Get the lowdown on pretty much every ballpark in America, foodwise and otherwise, here.
More from Crispy on baseball food here.
Hey Brit Kids, Watch This and Click Here
A British law against showing ads for so-called “junk food” to kids on the telly is writhing in defeat, apparently, due to something called Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, a popular TV show in which ads play a central role. The problem, as the whining nannies see it, is that, though it’s an adult show, kids like Ant and Dec, too, and so the show should be relegated to showing only ads for celery, watercress, or barley.
A ban was introduced in January on adverts for foods high in salt, sugar or fat during programmes whose viewers were mainly under the age of 16. It did not, however, affect the programmes with an audience mainly made up of adults, even though many more children watch them.
Among the programmes affected was the children’s cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants, which attracts about 170,000 child viewers. But Saturday Night Takeaway, a family show watched by more than a million children, was not.
New research has concluded the number of times children watch junk-food adverts during these family programmes has risen in the past two years by 26 per cent. The figures come from Dr Will Cavendish, director of health and wellbeing at the Department of Health, who described the trend as “worrying” at a time when almost a third of 11-year-olds are classified as overweight or obese.
In a report to the Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum, Dr Cavendish said ministers could take tougher action. “We know large numbers of children are still seeing TV ads for high fat, sugar and salt food and drink, though in programmes not specifically aimed at children,” he wrote.
The figures will fuel calls for a total ban on junk food ads before the 9pm watershed. A private member’s Bill to that effect, introduced by the Labour MP Nigel Griffiths, will receive its second reading this month. It aims also to create “significant restrictions” on marketing on the internet.
Restrict this. And this, this, this, and this. More here.
Rock Stars Cooking in a Restaurant? How is This Not a Television Show?
Former Hard Rock Hotel restaurant exec Lou Carrier is opening 220-seat steakhouse Bokx 109 in Newton, a wealthy Boston suburb, in early summer. (Like all restaurants, its opening was delayed.) It’ll feature loud rock music** and cooking appearances by celebrity rock chefs. The Boston Herald reports:
“We’re doing a very hip, high-end, sophisticated, modern American steakhouse,” Carrier said.
“We’re trying to add an element of energy and flare that might not be present in the market right now,” he said. “It’s going to be a music-centric environment, and there’s going to be a good sense of attitude.”
Interactive dining is key to his plans. A six-seat chef’s table with an eight-burner cook-top and ovens will be front and center in the dining room. In addition to demonstrations, the likes of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, KC from KC and the Sunshine Band, Sammy Hagar, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Joan Jett will cook alongside Percoco, formerly executive chef at the Loews Hotel in Vegas.
“You’ll never know when you’re walking in who might be here,” Carrier said.
A Cape native, Carrier formed personal bonds with many celebrities while working as executive VP of the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas, developing Hard Rock’s San Diego hotel and opening its Orlando property as general manager.
It was at the Orlando Hard Rock Hotel that he created The Kitchen, from which he’s drawing some inspiration for Bokx. Guest rockers would visit The Kitchen, don chef coats with their names (which later would be framed and hung on a wall in the restaurant) and start cooking with Percoco. The sessions were often recorded for record label promos, the artists’ management companies, hotel guests’ viewing or visiting TV shows.
Visiting TV shows? That’s nice and all, but what’s going to make this place memorable–prior to its inevitable and fabulous and litigious flameout, of course–is rock stars. Cooking. Burning themselves. Burning food. Dealing with re-fires. And angry customers.
I bet Joan Jett is the only one of those listed above with the cojones to hang in the kitchen. She ain’t taking shit. But Dee Snyder? His makeup will streak with tears. Mark McGrath is already widely reviled as the world’s biggest wuss. He’ll make that culinary wonder duo Dweezil & Lisa look like those angry thrash-metal snacks in Aqua Teen Hunger for Colon Movie Film for Theaters. And Sammy Hagar? Have you been to Cabo Wabo? (Sadly, I have.)
C’mon, MTV! Christ! Here’s your chance to hop on the food TV bandwagon, for chrissakes, and give us some memorable programming for the first time in years. Please. I’m begging.
**The music will be played over Klipsch speakers. I note that because I’ve got a set, and they’ve been the nicest thing I’ve owned for nearly two decades. Klipsch rocks.
Letterman First to Ask Bourdain About That Whole Cobra Heart Thing
Not really. And as a result — despite Tony’s best efforts — Bourdain’s appearance on the Late Show last night was pretty boring.
It also followed the pattern any post-fatherhood Dave interview has taken: if a guest has had a child within the last 57 months, you can bet Dave’s going to bore his viewers by asking about the kid. When he wasn’t asking about Tony’s daughter, Dave really only seemed to be paying any attention when Tony brought up Eric Ripert. (It certainly wasn’t when he went to commercial claiming No Reservations is on “Mondays at 10 a.m.”)
Tony did manage to get in one good line. When Dave asked if he’d ever “been really ill” from eating, Tony talked about picking at “the business end of a warthog” in the Kalahari, and then offered up this truism:
Most of the time, if I find myself on a cold tile floor after a meal on the show, most of the time it’s alcohol-related.
No video up yet. Bourdain’s first Late Night Show appearance (requires Real Player) here.
Nigella Lawson’s Critics in Race to the Bottom
The NY Post gossip pages are reporting that producers for sexy Food Network commando Nigella Lawson will no longer show her on camera below the waist because she “has waaaay overeaten”.
“The result is a butt like a Budweiser horse,” sniped one detractor.
That would be a clydesdale, you devilish detractor.
All of this might be newsworthy — in that alternate universe where stories about the bum size of a woman approaching 50 is news — if it were not for the fact that London’s Daily Mail served up pretty much the same story (including the photo at right) in late 2007. It featured this quip:
TV critics claim her new series incorporates “scenes of gluttony not seen since the golden age of the Cookie Monster”.
Well bra-effin-vo! It’s a hell of a lot better than scenes of boredom not seen since the mythical age of Veggie Monster, let me tell you.
Repel the Nigella-hating by showing a little love to Nigella Feasts and Nigella Express.
Awesome Web TV: John Bull’s Reggae Kitchen
Chez Pim is hyping John Bull and his Reggae Kitchen as the best. web. cooking. show. evar. And she’s right.
The show is utterly amazing. John Bull looks at first a bit crazed — kind of like ODB (RIP), actually — but (as Pim notes) he’s very much like early Emeril — back when Emeril’s show was about mixing about 135 different spices together in a constant search for perfection.
Check out John Bull cook up some awesome-looking saltfish fritters below, and catch the rest of his shows here.
Rachael Ray Can’t Be Feeling Bubbly
Via Slashfood comes news Rachael Ray’s ABC talk show is on the chopping block. Ray’s not happy. From the NY Post:
A rep for Ray fumed that she’s not alone in her falling numbers: Oprah, who discovered the bubbly chef, was down 15 percent from February 2007 as were “Live with Regis and Kelly,” “The Tyra Banks Show” and “The Martha Stewart Show.”
In 2007, Ray’s syndicated show averaged a 2.2 Nielsen rating and has already dipped to 2.0 this year. An insider said, “Anything below a 2.0 is asking for trouble.”
[…]
A rep for Ray pointed out that the average age for Winfrey’s viewers is 54.6, and said, “Our show is renewed through 2010 - so canceling is not an option.”
If Ray is axed, a possible replacement is already in the works: King World is producing a chat show for Marie Osmond, which would be ready by 2010.
Ray’s also dealing with a whole bunch of stuff, including revived tabloid rumors about her marriage hanging on the precipice and questions about whether she went under the knife.
Update: I should have noted earlier, but Oprah didn’t “discover” Ray in any way, shape, or form.
Food Fight
Five and a half minutes of utter food-on-food carnage.
Thanks to Rogier for the tip.
Andrew Zimmern Eats Camel Toes*
On last week’s episode of Bizarre Foods, which I caught off the DRV box last night, Andrew Zimmern tasted camel toes.
Zimmern says camel toe is “an acquired taste” and has a “funky smell”. Camel toe recipe here.
*Technically camel paw, which is really just a whole lot of camel toe.
Bourdain in NOLA
Tonight’s No Reservations takes place in New Orleans. It’s Bourdain’s first trip to the city since Hurricane Katrina struck. The Times-Picayune, which was the world’s Pulitzer-winning lifeline to news of the tragedy, has a good interview with Bourdain here.
“I don’t really care what Alec Baldwin says about politics. Even when I agree with him, I think he’s sort of a liability to the cause, because the natural instinct is to say, ‘The guy’s on TV. He probably lives in a compound in Hollywood. What does he have in common with me?’ I’m pretty wary of that.
“In this episode we’re concentrating on people in the business, in the restaurant industry, and we’re letting people know their stories. We’re just asking simple questions like, ‘What was business like before? And, ‘What is business like after?’
I’m excited for the bit where he sits down with Emeril, who, Bourdain notes, “always had a sense of humor about when I called him an Ewok”.
Your chance to be on the show here. Show schedule here. Food Network is airing old episodes of A Cook’s Tour — that schedule is here.
Thank Heavens This Show Didn’t ‘Stay’
Today is the four-year-and-fifteen-day anniversary of the debut of the worst food TV show of all time. Let’s all celebrate Dweezil & Lisa — or at least relish in the fact that it’s no longer airing. Here’s a sample episode highlight:
Lisa and Dweezil visit with maestro guitar maker Bob Taylor who also can create his famous shovel burgers.
No kidding? Bob knows how to make his own famous burger recipe? Who knew? (Well, besides Bob).
The Food Network seems to have rightly purged all links to the show from its website, but a Google site search does the trick. The Today Show let Dwee-sa near a hot stove here.
Confirmed ‘Vic Chanko’ Sighting
During last night’s No Reservations, Tony dragged viewers (in a brief commercial interlude) into the dark world of his alter ego, Vic Chanko. Who’s Vic? Let’s let Tony, in an eGullet piece from Dec. 2002, explain:
I am now often referred to in internal memos (or when being difficult) as my evil, egomaniacal action film star alter ego, “Vic Chanko” — as in “Vic doesn’t want to come out of his trailer” (although we of course don’t have trailers). Or “Vic” wants front of the plane. “Vic is not pleased with the thread count.” If I’m unhappy, I will torment them by referring to myself in the third person as in “Vic doesn’t like this scene. Vic doesn’t understand his motivation. Vic is checking out and checking in to the fucking Sofitel down the road.” For episodes with a disturbingly homoerotic subtext (as in the coming Rio show), I become Vic’s porn star brother “Tad Chanko.”
It looks like Vic makes an appearance while Tony checks out the “evolving food scene” on the upcoming (1/21) Vancouver episode. Probably pissed off about the dual Starbucks thing on Robson St.
Check out Bourdain’s old (Top Chef) and new (No Reservations) blogs. Read the crew’s take on the Vancouver episode here. No Reservations iTunes extras and goodies here. My interview with Bourdain here.
No TV or Cafetorium Safe from Jamie Oliver
Who is the worst pop chef in the world? Rachael? Emeril? Tyler Florence? Paula Dean? No, no, no and no.
I’m tempted to say it’s none other than mushmouth Jamie Oliver — and it has nothing to do with the quality of his food. On the contrary. His eponymous early Food Network show (before the neon took over) was quite good. His cookbooks — including one he autographed for me at a book-signing — offer up simple and flavorful recipes. No harm there.
So what is it that makes Oliver so awful? It’s not what he cooks, but what he demands we cook. Oliver is on a crusade to have government stamp out obesity, and this burgeoning nanny-state obsession is turning him into a laughingstock, even as his own paunch grows.
Rather than following the mantra he established on those early episodes of the Naked Chef, or in his cookbooks — simple foods and good flavor, and a Gusteau-like “anyone can cook” mentality — Oliver is hellbent on using the British government to enforce his view of what his fellow countrymen should eat.
And so while English tabloids go gaga over meaty “broads” like Brooke “Hulk is my Dad” Hogan, here’s Jamie playing TV host to an obese man’s autopsy — apparently to shock people into eating better. But that’s hardly the worst of it, as Oliver is costing British taxpayers boundless sums they might otherwise have used to buy… I don’t know… Better foods? Treadmills?
Ministers have so far spent £220 million on improving school meals after bowing to the campaign led by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in 2005.
That’s close to $500 million! Thankfully, some measure of Oliver’s pontificating does come back to bite him. But it’s certainly not enough. Who’s waiving this study in his pudgy face, for example?
This man is a Huckabee-like menace to diners everywhere. If he wants to educate people about eating fresh foods, I’m aboard. But when Oliver crosses the line to cost taxpayers half a billion dollars, and pulls TV stunts that would embarrass even Geraldo, I say he’s an enemy of cooks, diners, and taxpayers everywhere.
Foie Cures ‘Brrrr’
How great a cold-weather food is foie gras? So good that it’s even good ice-cold, no matter what a donkey-castrating actress says. So good that it makes perfect picnic fare for crazy TV hosts on a little drive across… the Arctic.
Trying to prove Arctic exploration [in an SUV] needn’t be difficult involves, for the cabin-bound [hosts], copious amounts of alcohol, foie gras and aged cheese.
Since I know I won’t be enjoying foie ice cream or traversing the Arctic anytime soon, I lived dangerously instead on New Year’s Eve, where champagne chased foie spread on a New Skete dog biscuit (wheaty, minty, and creamy deliciousness all at once), a nod of sorts to this Parisian shop.
My homage to foie and to those fighting to keep it legal in icy Chicago is here.
Blogger Discovers Rachael Ray Heiroglyph, Wishes He Hadn’t
You’re welcome to debate the reach and power of Rachael Ray, or to compare her to other moguls, or to rank the pure evoo-lness of her catchphrases. Me? I’ve spent much of the last decade just trying to figure out what language she cooks in.
Thankfully, the nice folks at Rachael’s Every Day mag have published a list of “Rachael-isms,” providing a glimpse at the true meaning of her “fave expressions”:
YUM-O!
I say this if something is so good that “yum” just isn’t enough of an exclamation. The accent is on the “O” as in, “Oh! That is so good!”DELISH!
Extra Yum-O!
More brain-killing translations here and here.
