When I started ranting on Slashfood about the terrible "recipes" on Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Halloween special, I delved a bit into her background. It turns out that Lee is a Food Network star without any foodie credentials; she got into showbiz, it seems, after developing a wide variety of home decorating and scrapbooking products for QVC.
Her "ingenious 70/30 philosophy" (70% storebought, pre-packaged ingredients in every dish, even if you're gutting perfectly good pumpkin pies from the grocery bakery) appears to have been created out of whole cloth. Sure, TV casting can place a bit more importance on cleavage than actual experience. But the rest of the stars on the Food Network have real culinary training, either from prestigious culinary schools or restaurants and gourmet food companies. We have some readers with industry knowledge: anyone know how a well-coifed QVC host made it onto Food TV?















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-03-2005 @ 10:03AM
Myron said...
Cleavage! Sounds like a promising show. Where's this heading? There's topless news, how about topless cooking?
Reply
11-03-2005 @ 10:18AM
none of your business said...
I know from an inside source working at Food Network . . . Sandra Lee's husband is a wealthy man in L.A. He paid for her plastic surgery, possibly a lobotomy, too, as far as I can tell. She's like a boyband/poptart in that the book, the magazine and TV show were created out of nothing and launched at roughly the same time (the beginning of Martha's troubles.) She's got no talent for cooking, decoration or homemaking, but she's driven, sadistic and well-funded.
I love the Food Network and most of the shows, but Semi-Homemade has no business being on TV with the consistently stomach-turning recipes and decoration. I once saw her use store-bought cotton candy in a dessert. STORE-BOUGHT COTTON CANDY. there is NOTHING more unappealing in taste, consistency and appearance on this planet.
Food Network is full of good people who are passionate about food, but the higher up you go in the ranks, the more passionate they become about making TV and hitting ratings projections than showing quality products . . . about a 70/30 split.
Reply
11-03-2005 @ 10:31AM
e said...
I can't stand her show. It is inconceivable to think that she eats the type of food that she makes.
Plus, she's scary-skinny.
Reply
11-03-2005 @ 10:44AM
Michael G said...
I want to know how many 'soft light' filter they shoot the show with? Some times you can barely see her.
I think she has all her own costumes and since it is 70/30 foodtv doesn't need a kitchen of cooks to bump up the quality of the food. What you see is what you get.
Reply
11-08-2005 @ 6:08PM
DWIGHT MOTTLEY said...
I have watched the show just to watch her. I guess
the cleavage does do it for
me. What she is talking about doesnt seem much
different than any other
food show
Reply
11-09-2005 @ 1:41PM
julie said...
She is very pretty, but she NEEDS A BRA. Her boobs hang so lowwwwwwwww. As far as her show, I never watch it anymore, Giada's recipes blow hers away!!
Reply
11-11-2005 @ 12:42PM
leew261 said...
As for her rich husband, who is Bruce Karatz, CEO of KB Homes, rumor has it he bankrolled the production of her show. Now that they are splitting up, the show may be coming to an end. While I derive a great deal of pleasure watching the show and laughing at the unintended humor, I won't shed any tears at its demise -- except that I'll miss snarking on it on certain web sites!
Reply
11-20-2005 @ 11:34AM
april said...
i believe the final straw to this debaucle of programming came just the other day when i caught a glimpse of SL setting up yet another one of her dismal 'table-scapes.' is there anything more stomach-turning in the entire free world as watching her stack plates onto bowls and calling it 'a festive cake platter'? this particular episode had a fall theme. she thought this one up all by herself i am certain: take a crystal stem glass from your local $1 store and a leaf from the yard. take a wooden clothes pin and attach said leaf to stem of 'wish u were crystal' $ store glass. voyla. you have a cheap piece of crap drinking receptable w/ a dead piece of vegetation clipped to the bottom by a clothespin. i laughed til the windows shook. let's face it. the only reason ANYONE watches is because SL is slyly sandwiched between other truly FABULOUS shows like paula deen and ina. interesting programming, no question.
Reply
11-20-2005 @ 12:06PM
april said...
i believe the final straw to this debaucle of programming came just the other day when i caught a glimpse of SL setting up yet another one of her dismal 'table-scapes.' is there anything more stomach-turning in the entire free world as watching her stack plates onto bowls and calling it 'a festive cake platter'? this particular episode had a fall theme. she thought this one up all by herself i am certain: take a crystal stem glass from your local $1 store and a leaf from the yard. take a wooden clothes pin and attach said leaf to stem of 'wish u were crystal' $ store glass. voyla. you have a cheap piece of crap drinking receptable w/ a dead piece of vegetation clipped to the bottom by a clothespin. i laughed til the windows shook. let's face it. the only reason ANYONE watches is because SL is slyly sandwiched between other truly FABULOUS shows like paula deen and ina. interesting programming, no question.
Reply
12-04-2005 @ 11:04PM
julie said...
I just watched her Holiday show (hey, I was bored) and she had on a wedding band and introduced her husband at the dinner table. This was filmed in late fall this year, in Canada. Are they really getting divorced? Will she stay on tv? And why the heck do I care?
Reply
12-14-2005 @ 1:29PM
John SMith said...
NO bra is exactly why I watch the show.
Reply
1-04-2006 @ 1:33PM
robert said...
The only reason that I watch SL is because i love to watch her jiggle when she wisks.
Reply