Slow afternoon
Not much happening today at work, and much to my shame I've been perusing the Rachael Ray Sucks Community at LiveJournal. And while I do think she kind of sucks, I have only been able to come to that conclusion because I watch her show. Which means that I either like her, or am jealous of her, or something. Which means she wins. (But I will be the winner when I play 30 Minute Meals bingo later, when I hit the jackpot on her first mention of Grandpa Emmanuel.)
I am fully aware of my place among the people who "hate" her but who are also strangely "obssessed" with her; I want to read about how much energy the haters are willing to devote to the dot-com in the service of reviling her. My husband thinks this strange love/hate phenomenon makes her seem somewhat like the antichrist.
Anyway, the focus of this post is not Rachael Ray. The crap I was reading about her this afternoon got me thinking about how much the Food Network has changed since I started watching it nearly 10 years ago. I consider myself to be a decent and knowledgeable cook, and what I didn't learn from Mom and Dad I learned from late-'90s Food Network. David Rosengarten. Sara Moulton. Ming Tsai. Two Fat Ladies. Too Hot Tamales.
Sadly, the network now is a vast wasteland of insipid food competitions, poorly executed travel documentaries, cursory lists and cloyingly-written peeks into mass food production. Alton Brown is the lone guiding beacon on this foggy, craggy shore.
I would forsake all other TV (except "Lost") to see some of those 1990s shows again. There should be a "Food Network Classic" channel -- much like ESPN Classic. They could run all those old hour-long live shows that Sara Moulton used to do. Those were awesome. Sara finished a complete meal in a whole freaking hour, and did it without resorting to carrying around a delicately balanced tower of onions, unwashed celery and poultry seasoning to save supposedly time-sucking trips to and from the cupboards. They could also rerun...
..."Taste." David Rosengarten's brilliant mother show, which begat Alton Brown's nearly perfect but not-all-the-way-there "Good Eats." I beseech someone -- ANYONE -- to release the old "Taste"s on DVD. David, do you own them? Does some production company? How about the Food Network? PLEASE! That show was sublime, and did the absolute best job of devoting whole episodes to a single ingredient or dish. The pasta carbonara installment was especially great; David dressed up as a WWII soldier to enjoy the finished product (apparently the dish gained popularity among American GIs in Italy during the second World War). If I recall correctly, both David and Alton have theater degrees and also went to cooking school. Is it any wonder their shows are so similar in execution?
Attention, Food Network: people love Alton. They will love David (if they don't already). Rerun the old "Taste." Or release it on DVD. Or facilitate the DVD release, somehow, if you don't own the shows. Do something, I beg. It really isn't that much to ask.
Labels: '80s tv stars, alton brown, chefs on tv, cooking, david rosengarten, food, food network, rachael ray
posted by Dianne @ 3:50 PM
4 Comments:
TASTE TASTE TASTE!
I'd buy the whole DVD set, but TV Food Network has no interest.
(I'm pretty sure David has no rights, but you can write him and ask).
Zanne - If I recall correctly, we're both a little right here. "Carbonara" does refer to coal, but not to the coal miner. I remember David teaching me that the flecks of black pepper in the dish look like specks of coal, and that this likeness lends the dish its name. But I swear WWI soldiers had something to do with it...more research to come.
Anonymous - Thanks for your comment, and for your similar willingness to purchase the entire Taste series on DVD. There *have* to be enough of us to make it worthwhile! Meanwhile, it sounds like you've contacted Food Network about this matter before -- what happened?
We're both right. And it's WWII, not WWI. From Wikipedia:
Like most traditional recipes, the origins of the dish are obscure, and there are many legends about its birth. It is sometimes dated back to Ancient Rome. The name is derived from the Italian word for coal. Some say the pasta was first made as a hearty dish for Italian charcoal workers; others say that it was originally made over charcoal grills. Still others state that it is so named because the specks of bacon and pepper in the pasta look like bits of charcoal. It has even been suggested that it was created by the Carbonari ("charcoalmen"), the members of an Italian secret society.
The dish was unknown before Second World War, and it is not present in the classical book of Ada Boni La Cucina Romana, which was published in 1927. Its popularity began after the Second World War, when many Italians were eating eggs and bacon supplied by troops from the United States. It also became popular among American troops stationed in Italy; upon their return home, they popularized spaghetti alla carbonara (spaghetti with carbonara sauce) in North America.
Fascinating. I was just perusing the "Rachael Ray Sucks" community, and came across this:
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so i am winding down at the end of the day and I cue up on TIVO 30MM...and for the first time I had to delete it after i counted her saying smokey 10X in like 5 minutes. EVERYTHING was smokey...and what did it was her story about how her ppl who live upstate always have smokey tastes in their mouthes bc they hang over fires...I had to delte it. And the repeating of herself...when will this trend crash and burn
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How much can this person possibly hate her if s/he TiVos "30 Minute Meals" and watches it "winding down at the end of the day"?
Sounds like a pleasurable activity to me. The psychology of this Rachael Ray hatred is truly amazing.
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