On 2015-07-31, Dave Smith > wrote:
> On 2015-07-31 9:07 AM, jmcquown wrote:

>> Too true, Bruce! Years ago I was helping my brother out after he had
>> surgery. I stayed with him for nearly a week. I did the cooking, the
>> laundry, ran errands. That's the first time I saw 'Good Eats'. Yes, I
>> got the impression AB thought everyone is retarded. In one show he was
>> cooking fish so the set was decorated as if he was on a boat. (I'm sure
>> he could afford an actual boat.) He was wearing some sort of silly
>> Captain Kangaroo costume. And yes, there were toys and maybe even some
>> puppets involved. It was annoying.

> I agree that the sets can be a little silly. My problem was that AB is
> just too damned anal. He wants a very particular outcome for which there
> is a very specific method. It takes all the fun out of cooking.

Anyone really listen to what he's saying while attempting to educate
with his "silly" props and such?

I've actually learned a few things from AB, dispite his Sat morning
kiddy show approach. For one, I learned one needs to first add some
starch to a yogurt based curry so the yogurt does not break and
curdle. I used AB's pie crust recipe to finally master homemade
crusts and his apple pie recipe to make an apple pie that impressed
even me. I learned the fascinating history of the chickpea and why it
is so prevalent in ME cooking.

Yes, his sophomoric humor and sideshow manor can become a bit tedious,
at times, and he is not always on target with his facts and I don't
particularly care for his love of plastics, but I rarely fail to learn
something I did not know about cooking while watching his programs.
Isn't that what cooking is all about?

Or is it about what this newsgroup seems to have devolved into, which
is a mean spirited name-calling troll fest, where everyone has become
increasingly negative. No wonder so many old-timers have bailed. 8|

nb