I Love the Food Network

With my recent change in eating habits and a new focus on healthy eating, I have somehow become a little enamoured with The Food Network. It was offered on one of those free trials and now I have found myself watching it all the time. I have even ordered the station full time.

I haven’t been a real big fan of cooking shows before. I remember enjoying “Wok with Yan” as a kid but I think that was only because I found Yan to be a funny guy. As a kid I hated Chinese food (I was that kid that ordered a hamburger at the Tien Hoa) and I didn’t care about cooking. Hell, as a teenager I constantly burnt bacon, ruined Kraft dinner and couldn’t flip an egg. So where did a love of foodie type shows come from?

I can clearly state that I am not a “foodie” as they call themselves. I hate the idea of fancy food (I haven’t really tasted it) and I even get more upset when I hear some of these critics and their righteous attitudes towards food. There are a couple of food critic types that they show staring down the chef while they slowly eat their food. I don’t think I could take that kind of attitude. Just eat the damn food and don’t try and make yourself look important. But I still watch the shows.

I don’t watch every show on the Food Network; some of them are pretty crappy. The one with the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry women is terrible. One of them is so impatient and annoying that I had to turn the station. I think she believes people will find her habit of cutting off other people as they speak and her impatience as endearing. I don’t.

The only other show I don’t care for too much is Iron Chef. I think I am supposed to like it but I find the hour format a little long and the commentators don’t do much for me. I love the idea of the secret ingredient cooking contest but this show seems a little forced to me. I know the chefs are not surprised by the secret ingredient so it makes the idea of “quick on their feet” seem false.

Now….I do enjoy a few other shows. I have mentioned Guy Fieri before and I keep liking him more and more. I didn’t know he was the winner of The Next Food Network Star a few years ago. He was a nobody before and parlayed that reality show into a huge career. Good for him. What I like about Guy and specifically his show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, is that he shows real food that anyone can order. This isn’t food in some expensive French cuisine restaurant, it is home-made food found around the corner. I also enjoy Guy’s enthusiasm for the food he tastes. You can tell he really loves eating it and there is no pretence to his personality. He is what he is and I can take him at his word. I was lucky enough to get a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives book for Christmas and I think it is awesome.

Chopped is a show I didn’t expect to like. It can still irritate me but I enjoy it nonetheless. Much like the Iron Chef series, this show pits four random chefs against each and they must use some selection of ingredients to make dishes. I like this more than the Iron Chef because these people seem genuinely surprised by the ingredients and you can seem them figure out what dish they will prepare. On Iron Chef they seem to be working off of a pre-written recipe. I wouldn’t want to eat all the food I see on Chopped but I like watching the process.

I have written about Restaurant Impossible before and I continue to enjoy the show. I think it has a little more realism with the issues within the restaurant than Kitchen Nightmares and I like watching the owners try and learn to be better restaurateurs. I think Robert Irvine is a little bit of a jerk with his support staff but I think that is the idea behind the show. I also don’t care much for the $10 000 budget to redo the decor. Some of the transformations look like they are cheap and will fall apart after a few weeks or months.

There is a new Canadian version of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives called You Gotta to Eat Here. The host, John Catucci, is a little annoying. There has only been one episode but he is already bothering me a little. He acknowledges that he is not a chef so he antics in the kitchen aren’t funny. I prefer Guy since when they are showing the process to make the food, Guy can comment on why they may do something a certain way. I like the fact that this is showing Canadian places that I could go to (the first episode had Stratford, London and Victoria) and I hope they show some more. Perhaps the camera mugging will decrease as the host gets more accustomed to the show.

I have also watched a few other shows like Guy and Rachael’s Celebrity Cook-Off (Cheech Marin and Lou Diamond Phillips cooking!) and The Worst Chef in America. The more I watch all of these shows the more I want to cook and learn more techniques. I wish I paid more attention as a kid and I almost wish I took up cooking more seriously when I was younger. I have worked in a restaurant kitchen before and I always enjoyed what I did (even though it was pretty basic cooking but I did love tossing those pastas). The only thing that turns me off from cooking as a career is the hours. I like to be at home for dinner with my family. What’s the point of being a good cook if you can’t cook for your family?