TV Cooking You Love to Hate vs Guilty Pleasure

[vgpedlr]

My sister and mom love to watch cooking shows on TV, and cooking themed movies, so I've seen a bunch without even trying. For those that watch them, if only occasionally:

What show drives you crazy?

What show do you like to watch, but are loath to admit it?

As mentioned elsewhere, The Pioneer Woman drives me bat-poop crazy. Obviously, her cooking is unhealthy, but it isn't even interesting or creative. Her lifestyle doesn't look "pioneering" in any way. She has two very modern, updated houses a half an hour from town. I would be interested if it was based on historical research and reenactment of true pioneer cooking. Or if it was a contemporary spin by following modern homesteaders cooking and living off the grid. I do like her basset hounds though.

For guilty pleasures, I like Guy Fieri. His Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives finds some really off the wall places that have a lot of character, local flavor, and are often an interesting look at different local culture. His Grocery Games contest show can get pretty funny.

[AlwaysAgnes]

My sister and mom love to watch cooking shows on TV, and cooking themed movies, so I've seen a bunch without even trying. For those that watch them, if only occasionally:

What show drives you crazy?

What show do you like to watch, but are loath to admit it?

As mentioned elsewhere, The Pioneer Woman drives me bat-poop crazy. Obviously, her cooking is unhealthy, but it isn't even interesting or creative. Her lifestyle doesn't look "pioneering" in any way. She has two very modern, updated houses a half an hour from town. I would be interested if it was based on historical research and reenactment of true pioneer cooking. Or if it was a contemporary spin by following modern homesteaders cooking and living off the grid. I do like her basset hounds though.

For guilty pleasures, I like Guy Fieri. His Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives finds some really off the wall places that have a lot of character, local flavor, and are often an interesting look at different local culture. His Grocery Games contest show can get pretty funny.

I don't watch as much food tv as I used to (I probably watch more youtube food/cooking videos now to make up for it ).

I like Guy's Grocery Games. I watch that now and then. We like Chopped. Worst Cooks in America is fun. Once in a while I'll watch Beat Bobby Flay. Bizarre Foods is interesting and educational. I watch that once in a while. http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/biza ... l-episodes

I don't watch her, but I think the Pioneer Woman started out as a blogger. http://thepioneerwoman.com/confessions/ ... -the-rain/
Much like Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper. I saw Joanna's blog before I saw her tv show. https://magnoliamarket.com/blog/

These days we probably watch more of the home renovation-type shows on tv than we do the food-related shows.

[Lyndzie]

We don't have cable, so I watch YouTube videos. Maangchi is by far my favorite. On TV, I like America's Test Kitchen.

[spinner]

I hate to admit this, but we sometimes watch In the Kitchen with David on QVC. My husband and I worry about all the mac and cheese, cheesecake, candy, and meat he eats in any given show. The only healthy thing he eats is oranges in January. Often I am doing my Sunday veggie prep, watching tv from my kitchen, while he is trying to sell chicken fried chicken. He seems like a very nice person but we worry about his diet.

[Lacey]

My absolute, all time favorite cooking show is "You Suck at Cooking" on YouTube. It is hilarious. Another one I recently discovered is a series by Phyllis Stokes, also on YouTube. She cooks recipes from the 1950s and 60s and even though she is older than I am a lot of what she cooks are recipes for foods I grew up eating. Wouldn't touch that stuff now but it is fun to watch them.

A friend of mine had her restaurant featured on Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives a few years ago. She told me that the first time the show contacted her they decided that her menu was too healthy to feature on the show. But then they found a high meat, fried dish so that was what the show featured. I have watched that one a few times, but if they show too much raw meat it grosses me out and I stop watching it. I was flipping channels last week and saw a minute of Rachael Ray. Hadn't seen her in years as I rarely watch tv and I was shocked to see how much weight she has gained. (I am just making an observation, please no one bash me for that comment.)

[vgpedlr]

A friend of mine had her restaurant featured on Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives a few years ago. She told me that the first time the show contacted her they decided that her menu was too healthy to feature on the show.

That is sad, SAD, and funny. If it was deemed too "healthy" why show any interest? I'm sure there plenty of gluttony tests elsewhere.

I was flipping channels last week and saw a minute of Rachael Ray. Hadn't seen her in years as I rarely watch tv and I was shocked to see how much weight she has gained.

I noticed that too, watching the Bob Harper bulletproof coffee demo. Apparently all those low carb "healthy" dishes didn't quite work as planned.

I recently saw on Guy Fieri's DDD the curry restaurants in the Denver area owned and operated by Biju Thomas, which was cool. The chef worked with pro cycling teams a few years back with physiologist Allen Lim. It was from them I learned about the rice cakes. They Face Timed Santa Rosa pro Levi Leipheimer to share that the chef was as good as advertised. (Guy Fieri is also from the Santa Rosa area)

[CarrotTopsRGreen]

I can't get her in my area any longer (which is weird because I am in the Philadelphia market and that is where she lives), but I love Christina Perillo of Christina Cooks. I also like to watch Lidia Bastianich and have learned a lot from her about cooking.

[chrisv]

I like Chopped, Grocery games, Worst Cook, and Alton Brown's original show is pretty funny sometimes. There is one show I have seen a couple of episodes of, where they re-make an entree to be healthier. Would love to see more focus on healthy, low fat cooking, not very likely though.

[katgirl55]

The Food Network used to show actual cooking shows and I learned a LOT from them. Now it is all contest shows or glutton porn. I would love to see more instructional or alternative diet type shows but I guess that is not their brand any longer. I actually lose the desire to cook when I watch too much TV because there is never anything healthy or reasonable shown to eat. I like to be inspired. Therefore, I get most of my cooking show fix on youtube or from pinterest.

[CarrotTopsRGreen]

That's my complaint about Food Network too. It would be nice to have at least one or two instructional shows instead of all of the competitions they have. But I guess that doesn't get ratings. That's why I tend to look for cooking shows on PBS when I can find them.

[AlwaysAgnes]

Youtube stuff....

Food Wishes on youtube is instructional, but his sing-song voice can be a bit annoying. https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes/videos I've never liked horseradish, but if I did, I could watch this video and see how to make my own https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUo3txpYqM4.

If you like Indian food, Manjula's Kitchen is interesting and instructional. https://www.youtube.com/user/Manjulaskitchen/videos
Likewise, Vahchef is interesting and instructional. You can probably find more oil-free recipes on his site than on Manjula's. https://www.youtube.com/user/vahchef/videos Lately he's doing oat recipes. This one is for oats roti. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrQ0vkmYD3U

There are far more educational and instructional videos on youtube than there are on television channels. Lots of variety in content, good and bad. And if you're feeling nostalgic, you can even find some of the old tv cooking shows posted on youtube, like Galloping Gourmet and Frugal Gourmet.

Sarah's Vegan Kitchen is a pretty good channel on youtube. She has lots of interesting content. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAbKLY ... Biw/videos
Jeanne Schumacher has lots of good health-promoting info on her channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsudrj ... zSQ/videos


Okay. I think I got that out of my system. We return you now to your regularly scheduled tv cooking garbagefest.