msmofet
🌹 Still trying to get it right. 🤷♀️
IMHO cooking shows now don’t teach anything. I learned how to cook watching PBS. Those chefs/cooks actually taught techniques. And the basics so you could move on and create wonderful food.
Cooking Shows
- Thread starter pocofan
- Start date
I agree. On a FoodTV show, many years ago, I remember Sarah Moulton explaining, then demonstrating how to remove the thin white tendon from a chicken tender. I still do it - thank you, Sarah!
janine05
Member
Jamie Oliver is good in the UK with teaching how to cook things. I always go to his Youtube videos for ideas, especially at christmas.
Janine
Janine
I've learned most of what I know from TV programmes. But I'm talking about UK cooking programmes which are on the whole very different from US. Rick Stein's Inda for example is literally one of the best series I have ever seen. It's filmed in India. I think Rocklobster agrees with me on that one. I think you can't have seen that karadekoolaid. I've also learned many new techniques from watching Professional Masterchef (UK), for example.
There are good, bad and very bad cooking programmes. I used to head up a practical film and video course at University and we specialised in factual programming. Many of my students went on to work in TV documentary. One in particular ended up as Exucutive director of food series which many of you will have heard of featuring Nigella, Rachel Koo, etc. They are beautifully made programmes which really do show how to cook recipes.
I agree with janine05 about Jamie Oliver. He is usually quite clear in how he shows how to execute recipes.
We just started his cookbook competition show. Haven’t really watched him before but I think we will checkout some of his cooking shows. I think Sara Moulton has been shown on our PBS channel recently. I forgot about her. One that really like, my wife not so much, is Kevin Belton.
Another one I can’t watch is Beat Bobby Flay. He goes up against a chef that is cooking his signature dish and Bobby has to make it as well. Of course he has every ingredient he needs readily available. And like all those shows, they all get done at the exact time the clock runs out of time.
JAS_OH1
Forum GOD!
I have to admit, I do watch it from time to time when there is absolutely nothing else to watch on TV. It's really kind of just background noise anyway unless they are making a dish that I find really interesting and I haven't made before (or it's being made a different way than I make it).
karadekoolaid want to see him get beaten with a stick...
GadgetGuy
(Formerly Shermie)
I only watch Chopped, The Kitchen & Triple D. Those shows that come on at night are mostly all challenge shows, to which I'm so sick to death of!! They really get on my nerves!!!! IDK why the Food Network resorted to this aggravating thing!!! 
Quite agree.
Life is always a struggle, everyone trying to get better every day, but we don't need to have it shoved down our throats.
Life is always a struggle, everyone trying to get better every day, but we don't need to have it shoved down our throats.
SandwichShortOfAPicnic
Forum GOD!
I just noticed something on cooking programmes or segments that annoys me every time I see it and I bet I’m not the only one!
It’s when they mix ingredients together for the briefest of time and you’re left thinking - Well that’s not going to be incorporated, it’ll come out all lumpy, or but all the spices are only at one end of the dish etc. Cut to a perfectly prepared (ie mixed) coming out of the oven!
My least favourite is where they adjust the seasoning or add final ingredients at the end and behave like two flips of a spoon will evenly distribute the boatload of whatever they just added. Then taste it and say yummmm.
I just look on thinking well your mouthful might have been nice but someone’s plate will have none of that ingredient and someone else’s tastebuds are in for quite a surprise
It’s when they mix ingredients together for the briefest of time and you’re left thinking - Well that’s not going to be incorporated, it’ll come out all lumpy, or but all the spices are only at one end of the dish etc. Cut to a perfectly prepared (ie mixed) coming out of the oven!
My least favourite is where they adjust the seasoning or add final ingredients at the end and behave like two flips of a spoon will evenly distribute the boatload of whatever they just added. Then taste it and say yummmm.
I just look on thinking well your mouthful might have been nice but someone’s plate will have none of that ingredient and someone else’s tastebuds are in for quite a surprise
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Been watching some of his shows on Tastemade. He does instruct. Does somethings I would never do but I like how he shows and explains everything
As soon as I see Guy Fieri, I change the channel. I am so sick of seeing him and his “ hey everybody, look how cool I am” crap.I only watch Chopped, The Kitchen & Triple D. Those shows that come on at night are mostly all challenge shows, to which I'm so sick to death of!! They really get on my nerves!!!! IDK why the Food Network resorted to this aggravating thing!!!
Barriehie
Veteran
I always liked Alton Brown on Good Eats. Explained it all, and the science, very well and completely.
I think I've done one, or maybe two live demos on local TV (or at Gourmet events), and in defence of those magnificent Chefs in Their Cooking Machines, doing something live definitely means "absolutely no hanging around". In other words, you have to have people's attention for every single second. If you can cut corners by stirring once (instead of about 50 times, which any normal human would do!), then you cut corners. No-one wants to watch you peel potatoes or chop carrots; they want ACTION!!!! 
Same with the seasoning - as SSOAP quite rightly points out, seasoning doesn't just fix itself because some Michelin-starred diva tosses the spices in with a silver spoon. Seasoning works with taste, taste, taste and taste, which no-one probably wants to watch. However, it IS very important to point it out while cooking the dish.
I'm not a huge fan of JO, but he's a good teacher. Same goes for Ramsay, believe it or not. On the Food Channel, many years ago before it was filled with idiot competitions, David Rosengarten and Sarah Moulton were nothing short of phenomenal when explaining how to cook a dish.
Anyone with a bit of sense can walk you through a recipe, and if they've got "stage presence", then all the better; but those little secrets to a recipe make the difference.I never forget Sarah Moulton explaining how to remove the somewhat unpleasant tendon from a chicken tender. "Secure the end of the tendon firmly with a fingernail. Now gently push the blade of your knife along the tendon, pushing the meat away from you."
I do it to this day, and that must have been 25 years ago.
Same with the seasoning - as SSOAP quite rightly points out, seasoning doesn't just fix itself because some Michelin-starred diva tosses the spices in with a silver spoon. Seasoning works with taste, taste, taste and taste, which no-one probably wants to watch. However, it IS very important to point it out while cooking the dish.
I'm not a huge fan of JO, but he's a good teacher. Same goes for Ramsay, believe it or not. On the Food Channel, many years ago before it was filled with idiot competitions, David Rosengarten and Sarah Moulton were nothing short of phenomenal when explaining how to cook a dish.
Anyone with a bit of sense can walk you through a recipe, and if they've got "stage presence", then all the better; but those little secrets to a recipe make the difference.I never forget Sarah Moulton explaining how to remove the somewhat unpleasant tendon from a chicken tender. "Secure the end of the tendon firmly with a fingernail. Now gently push the blade of your knife along the tendon, pushing the meat away from you."
I do it to this day, and that must have been 25 years ago.