Bubbe’s been around for a while but just recently “hit the big time” as she puts it. She was featured, for example, in the recent PBS Frontline program, “Digital Nation.” Since 2006 she and her grandson, Avrom, have been posting cooking instruction videos on “Feed Me Bubbe.” Bubbe (even if she’s not your own) teaching you how to make brisket? What’s not to love? She recommends three recipes/videos for your Super Bowl gnoshing - sweet and sour meatballs, Bubbe’s burgers and potato latkes.
Starting out as a “femcee” (think Vanna White), Frances Buss Buch worked her way up at CBS to become the first woman director of any network. No small accomplishment in the 1940s. One of her many credits was the cooking show “To the Queen’s Taste” hosted by Dione Lucas (a pioneer in her own right, see ch. 2 of WWWE) which Buss both produced and directed. Here she marvels at the changes in TV over the last sixty years:
We all know that we learn best from our mistakes. No reason you can’t learn something from other people’s mistakes, too. On “Worst Cooks in America,” the Food Network’s new show featuring a few skill-challenged recruits, you are invited to do just that. The self-proclaimed klutzes are there to get better at making crêpes and pasta - yes, from scratch - and to potentially win the Most Improved Player grand prize. How often do you make fresh pasta or crêpes or win a cool $25,000? All right then. The jury is still out, but it may be that this kind of anti-aspirational convention teaches us more than the scores of flawlessly executed ones we’ve been watching for years. And if you don’t know the first thing about using your stove, it may make you feel like giving it a go.
Like Rosalind Russell said, “Flops are a part of life’s menu and I’ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.”
As I was interviewing people and watching TV shows for WWWE, I tried to figure out why all these professional/celebrity cooks are so interested in having us all cook at home. I mean, the exhortations can be brutal at times, can’t they? Why do they care so much? It makes sense that they love sharing their passion, and of course, I suppose, what would be the point of most cooking shows if they weren’t inspiring us to cook? I came up with what I thought was an acceptable answer (see last chapter of the book), but I admit that the question still nags at me at times and most answers leave me wanting. One of the better set of responses I’ve seen so far is from Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, creators of the “crowd-sourced” cookbook project, food52. If you go to this page from their site and skip down to the list after “Because:” you’ll see what I mean. And see if you agree with me. If you want to start a conversation on this or any other food/TV topic, I exhort you to become a fan of WWWE on Facebook and post your mind.
As part of the NY Times‘ glance back at the decade, Anthony Bourdainwaxes about a few galvanizing turning points in 2007 (the same year I interviewed him for WWWE.) Among many saucy turns of phrase, he manages to expertly dis and praise Gordon Ramsay in one glorious compound sentence. And, of course, “The Next Food Network Star” is a prime target, symbolizing just about all that’s gone off the rails in food television.
My subjective, ambiguous end-of-year editorial comment: Here’s hoping that 2010 brings more good food TV, less bad.
Jamie Oliver’s been very busy over the past decade, especially the latter half, what with trying to make the world a more delicious and less obese place. He’s gone from charming to too-big-for-his-britches, many have argued, but such is the unavoidable fate of a celebrity chef/revolutionary. He’s just been awarded this year’s TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Prize for his good food works and activism. Along with a big chunk of change, Jamie (and 2 other TED prize recipients) will get to realize “one wish to change the world” which will be revealed at the TED 2010 conference in February. Whatever your take on the Naked Chef (as he will always be to me), it’s not a bad thing that food and health are in the forefront of wish-making. For more about TED, the Prize and past recipients, click here.
Reality + TV cooking shows is, relatively speaking, not new, but this particular strain just might be. D’Amico Kitchen in Minneapolis is baring it all online. Every night from 7:30-10pm, you can now watch this restaurant kitchen live in action - no production overlay, no intentional product placement, no hyped up interpersonal attacks - yet, anyway. Read more about it in this NY Timesarticle, or, if it’s between 7:30 and 10pm (CST), skip right to the live stream. Of course, we really want to see what goes on after 10pm, but maybe that’ll be next season.
Tivo those NBC sitcoms! Come and join me and Erin Culbreth while we talk about food and TV. We’re both alums of Bates College, but you don’t have to be. You’re invited just because you’re you. The Williams Club, 24 E. 39th St. NYC, 6:30 pm. More details here.
And while I have you, may I remind you that you better get on your holiday shopping? I have an idea. How’s about a copy of Watching What We Eat for that special someone(s) in your life? It comes in Christmas-y colors naturally. If you can’t support your local indie bookstore, click on the handy link to the right over there. And thank you!
For old school food show people like myself, the title “Dinner with the Band” may bring to mind Jamie Oliver and his mates tucking in and rocking out at the end of “The Naked Chef.” But this new cooking show on IFC is as much band as it is dinner. It’s more akin to the online “Cooking with Rock Stars,” but the “DWTB” host, Sam Mason, has some true chef cred. The names of the show’s guests are as unfamiliar to me as Major League Soccer players, but even if indie rock is not your thing, it might be worth a look for the actual cooking and recipes, like “Can I Kick It Curry with Control Cous Cous” and “Boom Boom Boom Buns.”
I am in the midst of a kitchen renovation and have relocated cooking operations - a toaster oven and a borrowed hotplate - to the bedroom. As such, I have been bolstered and inspired by the Hotplate Gourmet, Erin Culbreth. Erin lives in a tiny West Village apartment with a “barely-there kitchen,” which, as she notes, is not uncommon in NYC. It’s true, one does get used to working in small spaces and with limited resources. But Erin has not let square footage curtail her passions. She documents her maneuvers in her blog, Hotplate Confidential, where she shares recipes and photos of luscious meals that would impress even a suburban kitchen dweller. Erin’s also a featured home cook contestant on food52, an online recipe collective developed by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs.
If you live in the tiny kitchen capital, you’re invited to join Erin and me (both Bates College alumnae) for a conversation on Dec. 3 at the Williams Club.
