On Sun, 29 May 2011 19:38:05 -0500, "Herron"
> wrote:

>
> Yes, Food Network has gone downhill. I've been thinking this for ages.
>
> - Ina and her ridonk "Ask Ina" segments. Remember when BC was about rich
> white folks entertaining and eating awesome food? Back when Ina just did
> what she wanted to do and didn't pander to the editing monkeys with her
> faked taste-gasms and flustered laughter?? I do and it really ****es me
> off that BC has turned into "Let's Talk Down To The Viewers and Answer
> Non-Sensical Questions For No One In Particular"?
>
> - Paula and over the topness. Paula has always been an annoying
> down-home trainwreck personality-wise. However, I used to enjoy watching
> her show because it reminded me of cooking with my grandma when I was a
> kid. Lots of delicious comfort food, lots of laughter (my grandma didn't
> have a scary laugh like Paula)...Looking back, that episode where she
> made the heart-attack sandwich using doughnut buns was the real turning
> point for me. That wasn't cooking as much as it was attention-whoring
> and I don't care if you're a southern fried home chef, no one in their
> right freaking mind is going to use doughnuts as a substitute for buns
> on a sandwich. And who could forgive the travesty that was the butter
> sculpture? The heights of idiocy have been reached, folks, and there is
> no turning back.
>
> - TNFS? Ok. TNIC? Ok. ICA? Great, I love it. Chopped? Surprisingly good,
> but going stale after two seasons. All of the other competition shows?
> Who gives a rat's foot? Not I. I despise the challenges and I loathed
> The Last Cake Standing. Best in Smoke? Seriously, who cares? Cupcake
> Wars? Gah, words can't express my disdain for that epic disaster of a
> show...Bobby Flay's Throwdown? I like seeing Bobby getting knocked off
> his high horse as much as the next person, but seeing it week after week
> kind of ruins the fun for me.
>
> - Actual cooking shows... Giada has never been appealing to me and even
> less so in the later seasons. Rach? Lost her touch after netting her own
> talk show. Down Home with the Neelys...rarely bearable. Melissa? Never
> watched her show and probably never will. Guy's Big Bite? Why
> bother...no one watches it because DDD is the star attraction. Alton?
> His show got canned, which is a shame. Good Eats was always my fave show
> but now that he has lost weight and is a big-time host of ICA, he
> doesn't need his goofy little cooking show to get by, I guess. Anne? I
> really like her show, but it seems to be playing second fiddle to all of
> the dumbed down "add a can of X to the pot of Y and stir" type shit that
> has replaced all of the actual cooking shows on FN (I'm looking at you,
> Sandra Lee!).
>
> - Now we have Hungry Girl. What a crock of a show. She is even worse
> than Sandra Lee. Very little cooking...mostly food assembly and pithy
> weight loss advice from the 80s mixed with product promotions. Gah. FN,
> if this is the direction you're headed in, count me out of your future
> viewing populace.
>
I used to read about how wonderful FN was back when my city wasn't
wired for cable, so I glommed onto FN ASAP and was completely
surprised by how pedestrian it really was. I was looking for more.
Of course as soon as I could see that whatever it was I read here was
not so great (IMO), the talk started going to how wonderful everything
on FN was to how bad FN was "now". Bulloney. It doesn't suddenly
turn from good to bad in a matter of months.

As a matter of fact, I liked Barefoot Contessa then and still do
today. Didn't like Giadia at first but she grew on me and I like her
show now. Never did like Alton Brown. I tolerated him at first, but
he just got sillier and sillier. Love, love, love Anne Burrell and
Guy Fierri when he's doing his demonstration cooking show, not DDD and
all the other dreck. RR as a personality and sayer of made up words
has always appealed to me. Her on air recipes often appeal to me, but
I can't buy her books or Ina Gartens either for that matter... because
they just don't translate into print very well. I need to see their
recipes demonstrated first and *then* I will get a copy of it from the
FN site. Reading their recipes in a book without seeing it made first
on TV doesn't work for me.

Hungry Girl, ugh. 5 Ingredient Fix, YES. Melissa D'Arabian was good
on the competition show, but I think the guy she beat should have
won... don't watch or even particularly like her show. I do like
Brian Boitano a lot but they have him on at such a weird hour now that
I don't catch the show anymore.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.