Remember when the Food Network actually taught people how to cook?
Oh, I know that there are still quite a few shows on the Food Network that are still designated to teaching people how to cook (The Barefoot Contessa and Down Home Cooking with the Neelys come to mind).
But if you look at about half of the shows that are on the Food Network you’ll see that most of them are competition shows.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with television competitions. One of my favorite shows to watch every Sunday night is The Amazing Race.
Other than that, I plan my weekends around watching the Chicago Bears play as soon as the season starts. Competition gives any show immediate drama.
However, isn’t there a point where the competition gets a little ridiculous?
The answer to that question is a resounding yes, and the Food Network is the one who crossed the line.
I will give you an example. My parents love the show Chopped.
The premise of the program is that four chefs compete in making a three-course meal: an appetizer, an entrée, and a desert.
Each round someone is eliminated – or chopped (hahaha, get it?). By process of elimination, someone becomes the Chopped Champion at the end of the show. Fine. Good. Whatever.
Here’s my thing: the judging for these shows are so petty and pretentious that it’s insulting.
On one cooking competition – heck if I can even remember which one, there’s so many – a judge complained about getting a piece meat with fat on it.
The camera showed the chop of meat and there was a little fat on it, but not much.
My point being, if any regular person complained at a restaurant that their meat had fat on it, the waitress/waiter would probably laugh at said person and tell them, in that very faux-polite waiter/waitress voice, “I’m sorry sir/m’am, but it just comes that way.” You know why? Because animals have fat on them and when you eat an animal you are bound to come across that fat.
Not to mention all of these shows now come in the celebrity variety.
I love the comedy stylings of Chris Kattan. He’s a funny guy. But for the love of God, why do I have to see him alongside
Vanilla Ice and Florence Henderson, racing against the clock to make a dish for Guy Fieri and Rachel Ray?
If I went to a restaurant and the server told me that Shaquille O’Neal would be making the appetizer, Barry Williams from The Brady Bunch would be cooking my entrée and that I would be eating a brownie à la mode for desert prepared by the songstresses collectively known as Bananrama, I’d probably leave. Probably. I actually imagine Greg Brady makes one hell of a surf and turf platter.
At this point in my column – as I must do in most of my columns – I must admit that to an outsider I must appear like a raving lunatic.
These shows are very popular and, yes, I know I’m in the minority group in having a problem with them. And even I must admit I like some of these shows. (Chopped can actually be quite entertaining when the judges don’t sound like a bunch of elitists who have gathered to spit on the culinary skills of the little people.)
Take Iron Chef: professional chefs at the top of their game competing against one another simply for bragging rights. No money. No points. None of that. Simply competing for the joy of competing. Not to mention, you might learn something in the process of watching.
That’s what upsets me the most. The Food Network used to be a channel that was dedicated to culinary education. Now it’s like watching a food-centric version of the Game Show Network (no disrespect to the Game Show Network).
Brian Laughran
Senior Viewpoints Editor
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