Comments on: Cooking a roast (and why Food TV sucks)

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:29:42 +0000

I was so glad to find this site. My wife and I are both excellent cooks in our kitchen and have special dishes we make. We have tried several recipes from the Food Network and frankly NONE of them have been worth the time or large sums of money it often takes for their dishes.

A couple of the recipes we've tried from different shows include a green bean casserole that was terrible. Stick with the traditional if you like that. We also tried aA pork chop dish with apples slices, ginger and a lot of other foofy stuff that was also terrible. I actually tried this one twice because I was sure I had to have done something wrong. Nope, the recipe simply sucks, Which pretty much sums things up in my opinion.

By: Stan Taylor

Stan Taylor — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:40:37 +0000

I have two words for you (and the only saving grace of the food network: Alton. Brown.

I have a man crush on him (plus, everyone says I look like him!)

By: Hal

Hal — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:33:25 +0000

I agree heartily with everything written above. We do loves us some Alton Brown. One cooking book we have enjoyed in the recent past is “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home” by Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. YMMV, but it catalyzed our return to ‘peasant food.’ So perhaps the book is more useful as a personal demarcation point of returning. We do still leaf through it occasionally…

By: Rafe

Rafe — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:31:30 +0000

I actually have read that article in the past, and I think it pretty much nails it. We were watching Sara Moulton's relatively new show on PBS today, it was a great reminder of everything that the network is lacking these days.

I do think Alton Brown remains one of the few exceptions to the lack of useful content that plagues Food TV these days.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:23:53 +0000

You should really check out Good Eats on food network, it exactly bucks the trend you are talking about. You may need to wait for the roast episode to cycle around, or figure out what is on youtube, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9QN0eFm_ps

By: Jackson Fox

Jackson Fox — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:57:41 +0000

Rafe, you should check the article "TV Dinners" from the New Yorker on how the Food Network evolved from a world of real cooking and trained chefs to charismatic TV personalities.

By: Josef J. Komenda

Josef J. Komenda — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:48:45 +0000

I agree. I love to cook and find almost nothing useful on FoodTV.

I can, however, heartily recommend Cook’s Illustrated: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/

It’s the Consumer Reports of cooking, and perfect if you are interested in the science of the kitchen.

For example – the roast you cooked? Enzymes in the meat tenderized it, and the slower you cook it, the longer those enzymes have to work. But only until the temperature reaches 122 degrees – after that, the enzymes break down and tenderizing stops.

By: zack

zack — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:06:31 +0000

I can’t agree with you more. Instead of FoodTV check out some of the public access cooking shows and ones that get syndicated on PBS.

Ming Tsai’s Simply Ming is great
Martin Yan (of Yan Can Cook) == awesome
http://www.kqed.org/w/jpfastfood/home.html

The only thing FoodTV has going for it in my mind is Alton Brown & Good Eats.

Oh, and the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook is a great reference for classic American recipes, conversions, general prep and cooking advice for just about anything.

http://www.bhg.com/bhg/store/product.jsp?catid=cat120006&prodid=prod590004