Food Television
My TiVo lifestyle has constrained itself around crime dramas (fact or fiction), Nero Wolf, and cooking shows. I've discovered that I'm fairly picky about my TiVo choices, food shows in particular. Here's what's currently getting the Nikchick stamp of approval:
Good Eats: the classic. Alton Brown combines theater with science and comes out with good food. I like the formula he's settled into for his shows now better than the skit-heavy themes of the past. He still has a theme, he still pulls out the costumes, but the cast of characters is kept to brief walk-on parts and the focus is where it belongs: the food and Alton cooking it.
Nigella Bites: the sexiest food show on television. All of you fans of Rachel Ray? You WISH she was as sexy, sensual, decadent when she grows up as Nigella Lawson is already. Nigella doesn't shy from getting her hands dirty and refers to wodges of this, splodges of that. She eyeball's measurements, sticks her hands in to squish and squeeze and stir and sample, and purrs about how gorgeous and wonderful the colors or how pungent and heady the scents. Recently she fortified herself with bloody mary before "a day's casual labor in the kitchen." Ah, a woman after my own heart! Of course, sex appeal isn't enough if the recipes don't make the mouth water, but she's got my number where the food is concerned as well.
America's Test Kitchen: Cooks Illustrated in Live Action! Christopher Kimball is wonderful in his curmudgeonly skeptical role as host, occasionally busting out with a flash of wicked humor. It's always entertaining for me to see him won over by a gadget or technique. The test chefs, Julia and Bridget, know their stuff (as we would expect from anyone associated with Cooks).
That's it. Those three shows above are currently meeting all my food television needs. I've tried to watch 30-Minute Meals, but I fine Rachel Ray too phony, can't stand to listen to her talk. Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis is good, but after four years of marriage to a guy who was raised by a priest I just don't have the fondness for Italian food that I used to. It's not the sort of thing food that inspires me to cook. Bobby Flay's food looks good but he's such an arrogant cock, again, I can't stand to watch him or listen to him talk.
Good Eats: the classic. Alton Brown combines theater with science and comes out with good food. I like the formula he's settled into for his shows now better than the skit-heavy themes of the past. He still has a theme, he still pulls out the costumes, but the cast of characters is kept to brief walk-on parts and the focus is where it belongs: the food and Alton cooking it.
Nigella Bites: the sexiest food show on television. All of you fans of Rachel Ray? You WISH she was as sexy, sensual, decadent when she grows up as Nigella Lawson is already. Nigella doesn't shy from getting her hands dirty and refers to wodges of this, splodges of that. She eyeball's measurements, sticks her hands in to squish and squeeze and stir and sample, and purrs about how gorgeous and wonderful the colors or how pungent and heady the scents. Recently she fortified herself with bloody mary before "a day's casual labor in the kitchen." Ah, a woman after my own heart! Of course, sex appeal isn't enough if the recipes don't make the mouth water, but she's got my number where the food is concerned as well.
America's Test Kitchen: Cooks Illustrated in Live Action! Christopher Kimball is wonderful in his curmudgeonly skeptical role as host, occasionally busting out with a flash of wicked humor. It's always entertaining for me to see him won over by a gadget or technique. The test chefs, Julia and Bridget, know their stuff (as we would expect from anyone associated with Cooks).
That's it. Those three shows above are currently meeting all my food television needs. I've tried to watch 30-Minute Meals, but I fine Rachel Ray too phony, can't stand to listen to her talk. Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis is good, but after four years of marriage to a guy who was raised by a priest I just don't have the fondness for Italian food that I used to. It's not the sort of thing food that inspires me to cook. Bobby Flay's food looks good but he's such an arrogant cock, again, I can't stand to watch him or listen to him talk.
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