Posted Nov 19th 2009 2:30PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Top Chef
Okay, take the idea of
Shark Tank (or
Dragon's Den if you're a BBC America fan), mix it with the
Top Chef folks, offer a great grand prize and hope for the best. That's the recipe behind
NBC's new food competition show, United Plates of America. The network is turning to the Magical Elves from
Top Chef -- no, seriously, that's the production company's name -- to succeed in the food field where NBC has flopped in the past. Remember
The Chopping Block? Remember Rocco DiSpirito's
The Restaurant? NBC has more luck with the dieters on
The Biggest Loser.
This go-round is not about a single restaurant. It's about a chain of restaurants. To me, that's a questionable goal. Most successful chains start off with one great restaurant and then take off. This concept is go big or go home. Maybe it's more complicated, but it doesn't sound that way.
Continue reading NBC cooks up a new food reality show with a big prize
Posted Nov 18th 2009 6:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, News, Celebrities, Reality-Free
I watched Martha Stewart on
Rachael Ray last week and then Rachael on
Martha the following day, and both shows were interesting. I noticed that Rachael had Martha sit down and talk and take questions, but Martha got Rachael in the kitchen baking right away with little small talk. The funniest moment came from Rachael's show: when both came out of the elevator, Rachael tried to grab Martha's hand but Martha pulled it away quickly. Ha!
Anyway, they talked about the so-called "feud" that had been reported everywhere, and both dismissed it. I don't know how you can dismiss something that
Martha herself said on her own show (among
other things) but they said there was no truth to any feud rumors. I wonder what they'll say after Martha's appearance on
Nightline tomorrow night.
Continue reading OK, maybe that Martha Stewart/Rachael Ray feud is real
Posted Nov 10th 2009 4:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY
It was just a matter of time before Food Network showcased people who actually can't cook. On January 3, the new food competition show
Worst Cooks in America will debut. The winner gets $25,000!
Just so we're clear, the winner doesn't get $25,000 for making worse food than their competitors. No, the show will put the contestants through a boot camp where they will learn to take their skills (which probably consist of boiling water for pasta and microwaving Boston Market frozen dinners) and actually become better cooks. The food will be judged by a panel of food experts (of course) and whoever is the most improved wins. The two chefs leading the teams will be Anne Burrell and Beau MacMillan.
Continue reading If you're a bad cook then you'll love Food Network's new show
Posted Nov 9th 2009 1:35PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Vs.
The only things I know about umami comes from those Kikkoman commecials, the ones that talk about umami being the fifth taste (after sweet, salty, sour, and bitter). Last night's
Next Iron Chef was all about that, and they even had Iron Chef Morimoto as a judge.
What did you think? The show is down to its final three contestants. Can you picture one of them standing next to other Iron Chefs like Morimoto, Flay, Cora, Batali, and Symon in Kitchen Stadium?
Posted Nov 5th 2009 12:05PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Daytime, Celebrities, Reality-Free
This is either great news if you like Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray or a warning if you don't like them, but it's interesting news nonetheless: Martha is going to do Rachael Ray's show and then the very next day Rachael will be on Martha's* show.
Yup, Martha will appear on Rachael's show on November 12 to show Rachael how to make a Thanksgiving centerpiece, and then on November 13 Rachael will appear on Martha's show and Martha will teach her how to make a Thanksgiving dessert. Notice that on both shows it's Martha who will be doing the teaching?
Continue reading Coming next week: Martha on Rachael, Rachael on Martha
Posted Nov 4th 2009 5:35PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Some people say that President Obama has been on TV too much since he became President a year ago, but his wife is about to make a big splash on one of Food Network's most popular shows.
First Lady Michelle Obama will reveal the secret ingredient on the January 3 special episode of
Iron Chef America (I don't think it's the season premiere because we're in the middle of new episodes right now). There's no specifics yet on what the secret ingredient will be, but it
is something that grows in the White House garden and ties in with the First Lady's "Healthy Kids Initiative" to get kids eating better and exercising. Beyond all that, this sounds like its going to be a great episode of the show. It will pit White House chef Cristeta Comerford and Bobby Flay against Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.
You know what I'd like to see as the secret ingredient on
Iron Chef America? Ring Dings. Or how about Atomic Fireballs?
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 4:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, OpEd
Fox's master foodie is at it again.
Gordon Ramsay has conjured up a new show called MasterChef, only it's not really his idea. See, it's already been done in England and Australia, but Gordon will put his spin on this show. So for all intents and purposes, it's another Gordon Ramsay project. (Like the Alan Parsons Project without Alan Parsons and a small 'p').
In
MasterChef, amateur chefs will compete to master the perfect dish. These will be everyday people, not sous chefs or short order cooks, but backyard grillers and homemakers who have a specialty at which they excel. Sounds to me a bit like the
Food Network Challenge shows in which people try to make the best chili or the definitive hamburger.
Continue reading Gordon Ramsay cooks up new show
Posted Oct 27th 2009 8:04AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Daytime, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Mad Men
I'll admit it: I like
Martha (the show and the person). Unlike a lot of daytime shows that feature cooking and other how-to segments, it's not so heavily tilted towards women that men can't get into it. Unlike
Rachael Ray, which has way too many segments on makeovers, relationships, and what shoes you should wear.
Today she has
Mad Men's Joan Holloway herself, Christina Hendricks. It says in the summary for the episode that Hendricks is going to mix Halloween cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Whenever someone from
Mad Men is on Martha they make cocktails. Last season Bryan Batt (Sal Romano) was on and made Manhattans and Rob Roys.
Here's a sneak peek. It doesn't really show too much, except that most of the episode is all about spiders. I hate spiders.
Posted Oct 26th 2009 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Top Chef
If you're a fan of
Top Chef, there's nothing tougher for the contestants than desserts. Just this past week during 'restaurant wars,' did you notice that one team decided to have no desserts on their menu at all. They just didn't want to risk blowing it.
Well, Bravo noticed, not just last week but all through the
Top Chef series.
Bravo's creating a Top Chef spinoff called Just Desserts in which chefs will have no choice, they'll have to deal with sugar, icing, cakes and struedels.
Top Chef: Just Desserts is the second
Top Chef spinoff, after
Top Chef Masters. I'm anticipating
Top Chef: Maitre D's down the road, aren't you?
Continue reading Bravo orders from the Dessert menu
Posted Oct 20th 2009 11:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Interviews, Celebrities
Bravo's resident house flipper, real estate guru and OCD interior designer, Jeff Lewis, is a very complicated guy. When I spoke to him recently, I was actually a little concerned. If you've seen Jeff on Bravo's
Flipping Out, you've seen him lose it on occasion. Would he yell at me on the phone if I asked the wrong question?
In fact, Jeff Lewis was extremely friendly and funny. We had a great talk and he couldn't have been nicer. He was also really forthcoming about the past seasons of
Flipping Out, including this one that's concluding tonight.
What has it been like to be turned into a reality TV star?
Because of the reaction of the show, some people see me as a villain and that could be the way I do business. I handle my employees in a rather non-traditional way. I was concerned about how people would react in public, but it's actually been pretty positive. Overall, it's been a very positive experience. Many people are very nice and complimentary and supportive.
Continue reading Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis: An interview with Bravo's OCD realtor
Posted Oct 16th 2009 2:04PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Programming, The Simpsons, Children, Reality-Free
I visited the pumpkin patch last weekend and totally massacred a 30 lb. pumpkin and feasted on its flesh, so I am officially in the Halloween spirit. Luckily, there's a crapload of TV to help sustain my ghoulish mood. TV Tango has compiled a pretty comprehensive list of
Halloween-themed programming starting today and going through the rest of the month.
Some of the highlights include a
Moonlight marathon starting today on SyFy, as part of their "31 Days of Halloween" programming. On Sunday,
The Simpsons is airing their 20th "Treehouse of Horror" episode, while Monday has a some good kids' fare, with Halloween-themed
America's Funniest Home Videos on ABC Family, and
Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie on Disney.
Continue reading For the rest of the month, TV is all Halloween, all the time
Posted Oct 15th 2009 1:10AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E08) Well, things have certainly heated up on
Top Chef, haven't they? Oh, I'm not talking about in the kitchen; I'm talking about in the house. These chefs are getting testy, or some are. Eli mentioned in the open that there was a lot of "emotional stress." Well, he should know because he's behind some of it. Then there's motor mouth Robin. Could she really be as yappy as she appears to be on camera?
Continue reading Top Chef: Pigs and Pinot
Posted Oct 12th 2009 2:35PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Celebrities, Reality-Free
It has gotten to the point where I really don't care what the hell Anthony Bourdain cares about anything. I liked
Kitchen Confidential (the book, not the TV show) and some of his other writing, but this need to speak out on anything and everything in the food world he finds lame or disgusting or "evil" has gotten old. Now he (and chef David Chang) is speaking out on other things he can't stand, and
one of them is Food Network host Guy Fieri.
Personally, I wouldn't bleach my hair and wear those shorts, but come on, is it really worth bad mouthing his hosting and cooking? I love
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and
Ultimate Recipe Showdown!
Update: it's actually Chang who made the remarks, but
Bourdain doesn't like Fieri either.
Posted Oct 9th 2009 12:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Industry, OpEd, Reality-Free
When you're a cable network and you're only reaching 55 million households and want to reach twice that amount, what do you do? If you're Scripps Networks, you rebrand the channel and give it a new name. That's why
Fine Living will become the Cooking Channel in 2010.
The way I see this, since Scripps owns the Food Network, the Cooking Channel will be sort of a Food Network annex. Food Network 2.0. Food Network, Two. In actuality, a lot of the programming on Fine Living now is connected to Food Network. Old
Iron Chef episodes, Emeril LaGasse and Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck ... all cooking shows that were once on Food Network.
Now that it's going to drop the Fine Living angle and concentrate on cooking, all the overflow from Food Network will have somewhere to go.
Continue reading Fine Living will become the Cooking Channel
Posted Oct 8th 2009 11:26AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Ratings
Even though I watch a lot of programming on the Food Network, I have to admit I missed almost all of the
The Next Iron Chef in season one. Last Sunday, the second season of
The Next Iron Chef blasted off with the best ratings for a series opener in Food Network history. Over two million viewers, a 1.1 rating among adults 25-54.
Why the big jump? Well, I think a lot of other people are like me. On Sunday, before I switched over to watch pro football, I clicked on Food Network where they were showing a marathon rerun of the first season of
The Next Iron Chef. It only took half an episode for me to kick myself for not having watched the whole first season when it aired. It was terrific.
Continue reading The Next Iron Chef is sizzling
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