The Food Network

[Mutagen]

I tend to like the episodes where the contestants all have something in common (all food truck owners, all lunch ladies, etc.) but not so much when the food itself is themed. To me, there are already enough constraints on the contestants with the time limits and the bizarro ingredients that throwing in "and you also have to make a meatball in every round" is just irritating to me.

I have to admit I loved the viewer's choice baskets. The viewers are sadistic bastards.

[famvir]

Pioneer Woman is in the news. It is some years ago deal about making fun of Asian chicken wings. I am not a wing person, they seem to be a lot of skin and fat and sauce and ranch dip (chicken meat optional). I googled the vs. between Asian wings and Buffalo wings, and found, really nothing. Variances between the two samples are not as great a variances within each sample. (There is a science term for this...). Anyway, there are hot Buffalo wings, and mild Asian wings, so what am I looking at here? Why would the guys being punked to eat Asian wings (nearly barfing/scared) be afraid of if not the heat?

Next Pioneer Woman question, obvs (my son nearly spewed his lunch when I used the term "obvs" in conversation. That and cray cray. Says I am not allowed to say those things ever again...you see how well that works....) Obvs, I don't watch the show, but I thought it was about food Pioneer Women made. You know, heavy breads and game meat. What's the deal with Asian/Buffalo wings and ranch dressing?

[kateln]

Mar 12, 2017 10:52:01 GMT -4 famvir said:

Pioneer Woman is in the news. It is some years ago deal about making fun of Asian chicken wings. I am not a wing person, they seem to be a lot of skin and fat and sauce and ranch dip (chicken meat optional). I googled the vs. between Asian wings and Buffalo wings, and found, really nothing. Variances between the two samples are not as great a variances within each sample. (There is a science term for this...). Anyway, there are hot Buffalo wings, and mild Asian wings, so what am I looking at here? Why would the guys being punked to eat Asian wings (nearly barfing/scared) be afraid of if not the heat?

Next Pioneer Woman question, obvs (my son nearly spewed his lunch when I used the term "obvs" in conversation. That and cray cray. Says I am not allowed to say those things ever again...you see how well that works....) Obvs, I don't watch the show, but I thought it was about food Pioneer Women made. You know, heavy breads and game meat. What's the deal with Asian/Buffalo wings and ranch dressing?

I don't watch the Food Network, or the Cooking Channel, very much anymore (I LOVE YouTube for cooking stuff) but Rea Drummond is a big reason why I've stopped watching. Instead of actual professional chefs showing us how to cook, the shows seem to be the following;
Travel shows: Some guy goes to a restaurant and shows us how food is somewhat made, then takes an eating challenge. The boy loves him some Guy Fieri.
Cooking Shows Hosted by Food Bloggers: I like bloggers, but not on the Food Channel (YouTube) because it's always a basic sorority girl blogger. Or this crazy woman who is basically the Duggars on a farm.
Cooking Shows Hosted by Former Celebs: Valerie Bertanelli, Tiffani Treason, one of the Sister Sister girls....etc.

While I've seen Asian hosts and people of color on the Cooking Channel--their shows seem to be mini-series, or specials. Ching He Huang hosted "Chinese Made Simple" but that disappeared, Lorraine Pascal really is great at making cooking approachable, but her shows only last 6 or 7 episodes and then disappear. Luke Nguyen has done a great job of showing the Vietnamese and French cuisines influence on each other, but again--hard to find his show. There was a great, but brief show on Korean food, that I can't find anymore. Ming Tsai has moved to PBS. As someone who loves a lot of East Asian cuisine and would like to try more of it, I really hope this gets addressed. I hate that one of the best segments on Thai food I've seen recently was hosted by a pretentious white dude with a man bun and a receding hairline.

[Mutagen]

Mar 12, 2017 10:52:01 GMT -4 famvir said:

I am not a wing person, they seem to be a lot of skin and fat and sauce and ranch dip (chicken meat optional).

Well I'm glad someone finally said it!

With a few exceptions, FN's programming choices just baffle me. I wish they'd stop trying to make Geoffrey Zakarian happen.  He's fine as the fussbudget judge on Chopped, but that's about it.