Food Network

I personally had a great experience with a Cooking Channel taping session, their attention to detail regarding the details about a recipe of mine was astounding.. Learnt a LOT.

But then the show was for cooking channel & not the Food Network.. The difference there is 'cooking' vs. 'Food'

Can someone tell me WHY that damn Guy Fieri is plastered all over TV? The guy is a moron, have seen him in his own home town, drunker than a skunk and rude as can be, at at golf tournament. Enough already!

I'm a baker and find the cake show, Ace of Cakes extremely annoying for many reasons. How do they get away w/ just wearing street clothes, no aprons and no head covering while preparing and decorating cakes??? I wish some of the cake shows on TV would post their prices because customers come into our bakery all the time w/ a picture from the internet or want a cake from a show they saw on TV and are shocked at the price. Just last week, a customer wanted an alligator-shaped cake with fondant, and only wanted to pay $45. And, she thought we could drop everything and prepare it for her that day-and did I mention it was Saturday!!!

Professionally, as a Chef, I've come to view The Food Network as both a bonus and a bane to my existence. The bonus comes in the realization that consumers are more educated and have higher expectations than they did even 10 years ago. They know more about quality, nutrition, safe practices, and environmental issues than ever before. They're also more likely to have at least seen other cultural influences on western cuisine and are more likely to be more adventurous in trying new things. These factors certainly seperate the professional cook/chef from the fly-by-nights that believe it's better to increase profit by lowering quality and standards.
Having said this, The Food Network is the bane of my existence for the reason you have pointed out; misinformation. It has turned certain factions of the consuming public into 'foodies', or worse, 'food snobs'. It's not even necesarily the fault of TFN or the celebrity chef involved; quite often it's the misinterpretation of the information by the viewer.

Sorry, I didn't mean to stir things up if the issue has been discussed previously. I've only seen a few minutes of his show but I took the comments I heard as critical of her in that regard.

As for the business issues, there are a great number of things in this world that don't make any sense to me…

It actually seems to me as though her family is very supportive of her. Her sons are spokespersons too. But I was less focused on her personal decisions and rehashing the diabetes controversy as I was puzzled, from a business standpoint, as to how his show makes sense.

Paula's family is furious with her for concealing her diabetes for three years while promoting just the type of diet diabetes sufferers should be avoiding while doing nothing to control her weight, the number one factor in combating her condition. Someone needs to tell her running off at the mouth does not count as exercise. (Then there's that little issue about being a paid spokesperson for a pharmaceutical company that markets diabetes drugs.)

One other thought: Has anyone bee surprised by Bobby Deen's show? He flat out knocks Paula's recipes and admits that they are terrible in the health department. How is this at all conducive to their production and marketing of her show?

Of course they're doing their best to make money, they're running a business forheavensake. You can hardly fault them for giving the public what they want to watch. But at the same time, you can't accuse them of not providing a variety of shows or trying new and different approaches, some of which have been great successes, some are bound to be great disappointments. "Bitchin' Kitchen"???

Anne Burrell is supremely talented and brings a boatload of experience to her show Secrets. I love Alton's depth of knowledge and understanding and his out-of-the-box way of thinking. Michael Symon's Cook Like an Iron Chef is another gem.

They all have their quirks. And I've caught both Anne and Alton making technical errors. Nobody's perfect.

Well, if anyone has watched the next food network star, the entertainment rather than food focus could not be clearer. I was shocked that most of the contestants could even make it on to the show, and the winners were always disappointing. The one contestant with promise, Whitney Chen, was eliminated for her personality, which the judges saw as lackluster (she now blogs for gilt taste). But the point is that they were looking for Guy Fieris. Sad. I grew up watching the Two Hot Tamales, Gale Gand, and Sara Molton. I do still appreciate Ina Garten. And even if Alton Brown had an informative show, I found his personality unbearable. Mario always comes off a bit pompous, which can offend some. I think he has this problem on The Chew too.

Well, if anyone has watched the next food network star, the entertainment rather than food focus could not be clearer. I was shocked that most of the contestants could even make it on to the show, and the winners were always disappointing. The one contestant with promise, Whitney Chen, was eliminated for her personality, which the judges saw as lackluster (she now blogs for gilt taste). But the point is that they were looking for Guy Fieris. Sad. I grew up watching the Two Hot Tamales, Gale Gand, and Sara Molton. I do still appreciate Ina Garten. And even if Alton Brown had an informative show, I found his personality unbearable. Mario always comes off a bit pompous, which can offend some. I think he has this problem on The Chew too.

It's also unfortunate that they felt the need to market kitchen tools/cookware/dishes, etc. It seems as though they're not even trying to hide the fact that the network exists to make as much money as possible and entertain, rather than educate.

I have the Food Network Kitchens Cookbook, copyright 2003. You can see that the spirit is alive, the recipes exciting -- it's a whole different 'network,' doesn't even have celebrity chefs. The tag line is 'fresh ideas. bold flavors. tips & techniques' -- guess that was the good old days. Too bad.

My current fave is Anne Burrell.

While I agree with most the comments above, in defense of the Food Network they have put on some fabulous and informative shows in the past. Two that come to mind are Molto Mario and Alton Brown's Good Eats. (though I suspect both are mentally blocked out because the hosts can be a bit hard to take.)

Food Network really outdid themselves with Paula Deens 'genius' recipe ( With due apologies to the fantabulous genius series on food52)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/english-peas-recipe/index.html

Warning: You'll split your sides rolling with laughter reading through the comments!

I've watched a little, and for the life of me I cannot place an Aida.........who is that?

I don't watch.

Now I'm even more curious as to what she said.

well everyone does it, especially the obvious rr or giada, but on this particular instance it was aida which was even more annoying than usual because the basis of her show is answering questions

Would you really want to live in a world where there was such a thing as Food TV Police? I would, but only if I were commissioner and I got to wield a twelve-inch skillet to whack nitwits over the head every time I disagreed with them. EVOO smoking in a frying pan? Bong!

For my own curiosity, can you elaborate on who you believe is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors (besides RR) and what they've said?

Brandon there is no such thing as no such thing as a Food TV police. About five or six years ago the producers of Food Network made the marketing decision to really dumb it down and make it all entertainment which certainly has helped its ratings. RR is the quintessenial example of inaccurate info because she just spins stuff off of the top of her head, much of which is not just wrong but screaming, hilarious wrong.