Pet peeves about cooking shows

karadekoolaid said:
Classic Table Etiquette in the UK dictates that one should use the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. You have your knife in your right hand because that is the "dominant" hand, a selfish decision made by right-handed people just to spite us lefties.:hyper::hyper:
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I'm a leftie but I naturally hold my fork in my left hand, so the muggles never know.
Still looking for a set of left handed chopsticks though.
 
My mother was strict about table manners and my father disliked it so there were occasional arguments as she tried to educate her children about the correct cutlery and etiquette involved.

One argument I remember when very young was about me being left handed and that I shouldn’t have to hold my cutlery the right handed way, my mother put her foot down and said I‘d be an embarrassment in restaurants if I started swapping the cutlery about. A concession was made for me holding a spoon in my left hand.

I found her a bit much on the table manners front (soup spoon must go from the back of the bowl to the front etc etc) but I have a line, when someone who wanted to us to date ate with their mouth open that was the end of it for me, I couldn’t countenance the idea of having to watch food being masticated like it was in a washing machine for a minute longer 😆
 
TastyReuben said:
That’s probably never going to happen, assuming you’re talking about a pan-fried egg. Too many people are in love with the visual that a runny egg yolk provides (the much-sought-after “egg bleed”).

I didn’t eat a runny egg until I joined the military and left home (you’ll hear me say that about a lot of foods). Mom, being a product of her generation, always cooked everything to death, and anything that was slightly undercooked was considered raw and poison to her.

Her normal fried egg method was to crack eggs in a skillet with a lot of bacon grease in there and immediately pierce the yolk with a jagged edge of the shell, so it could run out and get cooked along with the white. It yields an egg like what you see on a McD’s egg McMuffin.

That’s the only time I make an egg like that, when I’m making some kind of breakfast sandwich. Other than that, it’s a runny egg, always.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I do know some people are put off by that. 2/3rds of my siblings are. They want their fried egg just like Mom made it. I used to be on another forum (not a cooking one) where one of the members would get physically sick at the sight of a runny egg, so if one of us happened to post a pic of one, we always put it behind a spoiler tag and warned them not to click it!
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That is where those grey "green" beans come from!
 
A few people have hinted at it, but I'll come right out and say it- the main problem with cooking shows is that (for TV) there basically aren't any these days. David Rosengarten, Sarah Moulton, Jeff Smith, Jacques Pepin, Julia Child... all gone. Now it's stupid "competitions" or Guy Fieri mugging at some craphole takeout place. At least we still have YouTube, but my days of wasted Saturdays seeing one actual cooking show after another are over.
 
Sara Moulton is on PBS stations and there are still reruns of Jacque's and Julia's shows. Craig had TV on Saturday and 1 of the Baking with Julia shows was on. They were making bagels and I learned a couple of tricks if I ever make homemade bagels again.

Jeff Smith, John Besh and Mario Batalli shows will probably never see the light of day again given the scandals, which is a shame because they all had a lot of info to give.

I always enjoyed Anne Burrell's cooking shows. I would love it if Alex Guarnaschelli had an actual cooking show, rather than a competition. We rarely watch the FN anymore, mainly just for the Halloween Wars competition, but the skills of the competitors are on a downhill slide the last couple of seasons and the creations are not as spectacular as they were in previous years. I can do better on cake decoration than what I've seen some of them do, and I haven't done hardly any decorating in years.

I do watch Top Chef on and off. I've become aware of various ingredients and how to use them because of that show.
 
The OMWC said:
A few people have hinted at it, but I'll come right out and say it- the main problem with cooking shows is that (for TV) there basically aren't any these days. David Rosengarten, Sarah Moulton, Jeff Smith, Jacques Pepin, Julia Child... all gone. Now it's stupid "competitions" or Guy Fieri mugging at some craphole takeout place. At least we still have YouTube, but my days of wasted Saturdays seeing one actual cooking show after another are over.
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We do still have real cooking programmes in the UK. There are still some that are quiet, thoughtful, well filmed and informative. Not sure if you can get them where you are though...
 
The OMWC said:
A few people have hinted at it, but I'll come right out and say it- the main problem with cooking shows is that (for TV) there basically aren't any these days. David Rosengarten, Sarah Moulton, Jeff Smith, Jacques Pepin, Julia Child... all gone. Now it's stupid "competitions" or Guy Fieri mugging at some craphole takeout place.
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...after my own heart!! Sarah Moulton taught me how to remove the tendon from a chicken tender (Via the Food Channel). David Rosengarten taught me how to make proper corned beef (although I never actually did it). And Emeril Lagasse introduced me to the Muffalata . I´d watch John Ash just for the sake of it!
Nowadays it´s unbelievable crap. I´m afraid I´ve stopped watching.
 
My main dislike of cooking programmes and particularly cooking segments in magazine type programmes is the instant cooing over how utterly amazing it is. Often before they can have barely had time to taste it.

If others (apart from the person who cooked it) eat it they usually gush so much you’re not sure what the foods actually like. They act like it’s the best thing they’ve ever eaten in their life and they can’t believe it - almost every time.
There’s rarely any discussion about what it tastes like finished or any conversation about what direction to take the dish from there.

The only exception was the celebrity Heston Blumenthal one where some of them were brave enough to say they didn’t like it and why.
Oh and that bitch fest where people eat at each others houses and rate each other to compete for a prize, can’t remember what its called but I don‘t enjoy it because often they’re looking to be nasty And you’re not sure about the food then either.
 
karadekoolaid said:
...after my own heart!! Sarah Moulton taught me how to remove the tendon from a chicken tender (Via the Food Channel). David Rosengarten taught me how to make proper corned beef (although I never actually did it). And Emeril Lagasse introduced me to the Muffalata . I´d watch John Ash just for the sake of it!
Nowadays it´s unbelievable crap. I´m afraid I´ve stopped watching.
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Back in 2001, I spent a delightful day with John Ash, an amazingly kind, articulate, and skilled person. A week later, an autographed copy of From The Earth To The Table showed up, so add "generous and considerate" to my encomium.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
My main dislike of cooking programmes and particularly cooking segments in magazine type programmes is the instant cooing over how utterly amazing it is. Often before they can have barely had time to taste it.

If others (apart from the person who cooked it) eat it they usually gush so much you’re not sure what the foods actually like. They act like it’s the best thing they’ve ever eaten in their life and they can’t believe it - almost every time.
There’s rarely any discussion about what it tastes like finished or any conversation about what direction to take the dish from there.

The only exception was the celebrity Heston Blumenthal one where some of them were brave enough to say they didn’t like it and why.
Oh and that bitch fest where people eat at each others houses and rate each other to compete for a prize, can’t remember what its called but I don‘t enjoy it because often they’re looking to be nasty And you’re not sure about the food then either.
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I have a hard time watching Heston Blumenthal. He's obviously talented, but his personality rubs me the wrong way, for some reason.

CD
 
Anybody remember David Rosengarten and Taste from the early FN?

There's been a discussion about making homemade corned beef on another forum. We use his corned beef recipe when we make it at home.

He gave LOADS of info on his show. He and Jeff Smith were my and Craig's inspiration to start branching out with our cooking.

ETA: Sorry, he's been brought up previously, I just forgot.
 
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