Sadly, there are only a couple food television oriented shows worth watching these days. This is what you should be watching right now:
Jacques Pepin’s More Fast Food My Way . Its the continuation of the old series and still looks like it was filmed in the 1950’s. This man has done more for food television that most people who watch the Food Network will ever know. What he does in his kitchen will have you throwing shit at the television because you’ll rapidly realize that you’ll never be able to sculpt a mushroom into a fish.
Jose “Dis is Burry Niiiice” Andres’s Made In Spain. It’s the current top spot in the “Hey let’s promote the shit out of Spain because its hot right now” series. Features a jolly large chef of several restos in DC who is a really lovable guy visiting a region of Spain in a brightly colored shirt, eating his face off, and returning to his kitchen in DC to make these great tapas dishes from that region. What’s great is that he makes these things look so damn easy, but while conceptually and ingredient-wise these dishes are simple, it takes a seasoned hand to pull them off. So keep in mind when you try and replicate the dish at home you will probably create a horrible rendition of it the first time. The best part about this show is that he is wearing the same shirt in the Spain segments and the DC segments, so it looks he never changes shirt. I know, I’m not too clever, but it’s still fucking funny as hell.
The “Paltrow-Batali-Bittman-Smoking Hot Spaniard Actress I Would Gladly Die For’ show called Spain: On the Road Again. Who wants to watch a bunch of celebrities have awkward conversations driving around Basque Country in Nazi convertibles cruising around corporate wineries? Who wants to watch Batali eat various pork products, Paltrow make vacant comments about the scenery and Bittman repeatedly attempt to impress the Spanish actress ? No one, unless they are super bored and have a bottle of wine to put down and are cheese-less. Which happens.
http://www.spainontheroadagain.com/
Which brings us to season 5 of Bravo’s Top Chef. It’s based out of Brooklyn, the contestants are serious, competent cooks who seem pretty fierce and the foams, sous viding, and alginate caviars will be on the down-lo this time round. Even freaking Dave Grohl guest judges one of the challenges. Paddy and Tom are up to their usual schtick, and it looks like the Whole Foods setting is the one on Houston, according to various reports (see below). What’s good about Top Chef is that there is just enough (if not enough) actual cooking and the contestants know that even though other cooks don’t necessarily watch the show- they hear about it. No one wants to be embarrassed by other industry peers, so the pressure pretty much forces you to bring your A-game and not just putt about if you were on more of a reality show.
More ‘Bout Top Chef thru Various Reports: http://eater.com/tags/top-chef
Florida Top Chef Contestant Jeff McInnis’s website: www.chefmcinnis.com
“I will judge your food while maintaining this ungainly appearance”
Of course, keep watching Bourdain’s No Reservations re-runs and the occasional Bizarre Foods with the Zimmern guy.
Paltrow: Wow…this country-side is so…scenic.
Bittman: Sigh…it’s a good thing you’re good looking, Gwenyth.
Paltrow: My husband is in the band Coldplay.