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TV Poll: What's on the Menu?

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | November 24, 2008 | +

The Tuned In house is hosting Thanksgiving this year, for 18 people, so like many of you I’m combining work this week with back-of-my-mind menu planning and logistical calculations. And yet as much as people like to commiserate about the burden of Thanksgiving, I love it. I love cooking, but more to the point I love eating, and therefore I love the idea of a holiday that is not about gifts or costumes or any distraction other than food. (I mean, yes, thankfulness, religious freedom, blah blah blah. But basically food.) 

The folks at Food Network must love this time of year also—indeed, the entire American gustatory season that runs from here roughly through Super Bowl Sunday—and the TV currently turned on while I work is currently a nonstop parade of butter, celery and cranberries. If I weren’t a TV critic and required to watch TV more broadly, I’d watch far more cooking shows than I do now. And yet more and more often I get my food-TV fix outside Food Network—be it from PBS or Travel Channel or Bravo—so I thought I’d throw the question to the audience: what are your favorite cooking shows? Any new discoveries I should know about? And what’s for dinner Thursday?

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  • http://procrastinationchronicles.com procrastinator

    hmm, not much of a cooker or cooking watcher, we’re ordering a preprepared feast from Whole Foods, turning on the dog show, and opening a bottle or two of wine. plenty to be thankful for.

  • http://www.simonvinkenoog.nl/beeld/Yogi%20-%20Annelies%20Rigter.jpg yogi

    Everyday Italian, mainly for Giada De Laurentiis.
    -
    @Procrastinator, nice to see someone else watches the dog show, my grandma raised us to always watch that show seeing how its always more iteresting than the football games on Thanksgiving.

  • joethefinancier

    No new shows, but Anthony Bourdain’s: No Reservations comes to mind when talking about food shows. His snarky, I’ll try anything and like it (mostly) attitude, not to mention wacky foreign “friends” keeps the show fresh and relevant.

  • Lulu Lulu

    Giada, though perhaps for different reasons than yogi–I’ve made several of her recipes and haven’t gone wrong with any. Her rice-stuffed tomatoes are a favorite of mine. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/tomatoes-stuffed-with-rice-recipe/index.html

    Sometimes I find a good recipe or two of Racheal Ray’s, but that’s more hit or miss and I can’t watch more than one or two of her shows in a week.

    And does Food Network still do the Season’s Eatings theme? I was thinking that it might be time for a new winter-holiday catchphrase, because while obvious, that one’s just so tired.

  • jimatl

    I feel like Food Network has dumbed down the level of their talent – I guess it’s the Rachel Ray phenomenon. It’s more focused on “big personality” than how to cook interesting things. And someone please explain the Guy Fieri phenomenon.

  • euphrosyne76

    Kitchen Nightmares is my hands-down favorite food/cooking show. The American version on Fox (Thursdays) is good, but I really love the UK version on BBC America. Gordon Ramsay is just as brash as on Hell’s Kitchen, but he also shows a tremendous love of cooking and food and a strong desire for these restaurants to succeed. Just don’t watch the first half of the show while you are eating.

    Speaking of Food Network, I still watch Iron Chef (either version) and Good Eats. I always learn something from those shows.

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