Q:  What makes you different from the finalists in previous seasons?

A:  I think I’m unique in that my show would focus on humor and fun in the kitchen as well as food science.  I like handmade foods, not necessarily fast foods.  I think that’s pretty obvious if you’ve seen the show.

Q:  What 3 things do you always have in your refrigerator?

A:  Eggs, cheese,and tortilla shells or wraps.

Q:  If you could have one comfort food at the end of a tough day, what would it be?

A:   It’s got to be a bowl of macaroni and cheese big enough to make me not want to move for several hours.  A really good bacon cheeseburger medium rare is a close second.

Q:  Who is your favorite Food Network personality?

A:  Alton Brown.  I love that he teaches food science and not necessarily recipes.  Cooking is all about the how and why.  The specific ingredients can vary according to your mood or what’s available to you as long as you understand technique.

Q:  If you could make dinner for anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

A:  I’m a huge Stones fan, so I’d have to say Mick Jagger.  Although I doubt he’d be into my kind of food, he’s pretty skinny.

Q:  What is your ideal BBQ sauce - spicy or sweet?

A:  I like a little sweetness to balance the smoke, but I love spice, garlic and tang (from cider vinegar or lemon).  I’m not a fan of most store bought high fructose corn syrupy sauces.  Dinosaur BBQ is probably my favorite semi-commercial sauce.

Q:  What makes a meal fun for you?

A:  The making of it is the fun.  The experimenting, the process, the satisfaction of being able to say, “I made this.”  The social aspect of involving your friends and family in the process (except my mother cause I make her crazy when I destroy her kitchen).

Q:  If you were making a special meal, what one ingredient would be showcased?

A:  Smoke.

Q:  How do you keep meals simple?

A:  I don’t.

Q:  Where would you go for the perfect Philadelphia Cheesesteak?

A:  Tony Luke’s on Oregon Ave.  in South Philly.  They have the best bread.

There are 3 finalists left:  Aaron McCargo, Lisa Garza and Adam Gertler.  You can see all of the finalists interviews here. 

Photo Courtesy of Food Network.

The cooking part of this week’s show was focused on each finalist preparing an over the top, Vegas style buffet.  Each finalist was to prepare something that displayed their culinary point of view and they were given $1000 to purchase the ingredients.  They were each given a previously elminated finalist as a sous chef. 

Lisa had everything planned out and it seemed to be going well while she was shopping until half of her fish order fell on the floor and she did not notice it.  But, as we all know, nothing comes easy in these challenges, and between the shortage of fish and the overcooked pork it was hard to determine if Lisa was going to make it past this week.  Her presentation was over the top showstopping!  She made up a simple song and sang it out to the audience.  What a way to start the evening.  Overall, her elegant presentation and “beautiful basics” were well received, in spite of the overcooked pork.

Aaron went with homemade crab cakes, which were a hit, however, with three pasta dishes the judges were under-impressed.  The salad he made with the chicken looked like too many things were going on, and based on the presentation, I’m not sure too many people would be digging into it.  It was too hard to figure out exactly what the intent was on that one.  His presentation was completely the opposite of Lisa - EXTREMELY uncomfortable.  As the judges said at the elmination discussion - you really want to like him.  Unfortunately, when someone bombs this badly, it’s hard to understand why he’s still hanging in there.  Perhaps the editing is done in this way to make the viewers ask these types of questions.

Adam was thrilled that he finally got the chance to really cook his specialty - smoked meats.  He called it the Adam Gertler Smoketacular.  He created a couple of extra smokers using large woks, which was really thinking outside the box and making the best use of what he had available.  Each item on his buffet looked incredible and Adam was knowledgeable about the dishes.  This was certainly a strong point for him this week.  The only disappointing part of this challenge for Adam was that his performance really was not up to par - his humor was just missing from it.  That’s what I had grown to enjoy about him over the last few weeks.  He explained his lack of performance was due to his complete focus on the food and wanting to really prove that he can cook well.

The judges were unable to come to a decision on who to send home, so for the first time ever in this series, three finalists will be going back to New York to compete for their own show on Food Network.  Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about that decision.  I really would have liked to see the judges choose the best 2 to compete, but that would probably not make for great TV.  At this point, I’d like to see either Lisa or Adam win it all.  I just don’t see Aaron’s on-camera personality coming through without a lot of coaxing.  One more week, and we’ll know for sure.

Photo courtesy of Food Network.

Are you a hopeless cook? Or is someone you know totally incompetent in the kitchen?

Food Network is looking for the most disastrous home cooks in the country to participate in a very different culinary competition show!

This is the opportunity of a lifetime — to work with the best chefs in the country and learn to cook like a professional. Seeking outgoing people with a genuine inability to cook, but a need and desire to improve!

NOMINATE YOURSELF

• Do your kids beg to eat out, after you’ve worked hard to make a family meal?
• Has your husband/wife told you it was probably better if you ordered take out?
• At the big potluck dinner, are you always asked to “just bring the napkins?”

NOMINATE SOMEONE YOU KNOW**

• Is someone you know constantly offering you food that you have to turn down?
• If you know a mom who can’t scramble an egg, a colleague who can’t convince anyone to try their culinary creations, or a friend who tries but can’t seem to get it together in the kitchen, this is your chance to get them the help you BOTH need!

**Nominators: you must attend the interview with the person you nominate

HERE’S HOW TO APPLY:
• Email us at hopelesshomecook@optomenusa.com
• Tell us why you (or the person you are nominating) is the most disastrous cook in the country
• Include name, age, hometown, occupation, contact phone number, and a recent photo of the hopeless cook

It is pretty much the same show, just different hosts. I had always been lukewarm to this show before. The businesses they highlighted were always great and watching Jamie and Bobby tour the processes behind the products was usually great fun. But then there were set-ups and the wrap-ups which were filled with a lot of forced dialogue, “Hey, brother, how about that coconut pie at the Pie Emporium?” To which the other would come back with something just as unnatural, “Oh, yeah, brother, that was good, but what about those pretzels at yadda, yadda, yadda?” No one talks like that while they through a park tossing a football. I had always thought that my misgivings about the show were the result of the Deen’s acting.

I now apologize to Jamie and Bobby; it was not their fault. The problem with RT, in my opinion, is not the hosts, the Deens were good and the Neeleys are good. The problem is the producing and the writing. They seem to force the feel of their set-ups. There is nothing wrong with just saying, “Hi. We’re Pat and Gina Neely and today on Road Tasted, we’re headed on a tour of the Sunshine State,” and then naming off a list of the businesses that are to be reviewed. Sure it isn’t cutting edge, but it also doesn’t give you an uncomfortable feeling when you watch it.

If you want to have a different approach, show the two at a computer pretending to read e-mails from viewers. But the sunset view of them standing on a bridge reminiscing about all the great food they had like it was their first visit to Machu Picchu just doesn’t wash. Gina is adorable and Pat has food knowledge that goes far beyond ribs and spice rubs. He also has a foodie’s thirst for knowledge. It is clear that when he is learning something new that he is downright interested in how it works. I suggest letting the personalities dictate the vibe of the show and leave the cheesy dialogue out. Then Road Tasted may go from pleasant distraction to full fledged hit.

There’s a new and wonderful cooking show on, in case it has passed your attention. It certainly may have, as it’s part of the new Planet Green channel on cable from the folks at Discovery. Unless you’re madly into saving the world from itself, are reincarnated hippies or a card-carrying member of Greenpeace, you might not watch this network, so it is very possible you’ve missed this new show. If that’s the case, you’re missing a good one.

I’m talking, of course, about Emeril Green, the first new show in over five years from master chef Emeril Lagasse — and his first ever away from the Food Network. I didn’t know what this show was going to be about. I honestly expected a version of Jamie at Home where Jamie Oliver grows his own veggies then walks into a shack and cooks. This is nothing like that actually.

What it is, is something like the cooking show genre called “help me” shows. You’ve seen those with Tyler Florence’s Rescue 911 or the current Rescue Me with Danny Boome or Take Home Chef with Curtis Stone. This is like those for sure, but it has two things going for it, one is unique twist and the second is obvious, it has Emeril.

First off, the entire show is in a supermarket, a Whole Foods store in Washington, DC to be specific. And this special supermarket has places set up for cooking — including an entire kitchen. So when Emeril wants to show the person he’s helping fresh diakon, he walks down the produce aisle and picks it up. (Aha, so that’s what it looks like, a friend of mine watching the show with me exclaimed). If he wants to talk about exotic ingredients, he walks down the Asian aisle and says, “let’s pick up some Sriracha hot sauce” (funny, I’d seen Tyler do this in something a week ago and I couldn’t remember the name; now I know the name and saw what it looks like.) In short, it’s the world’s greatest pantry: It’s an entire supermarket as a pantry!

Having viewed the first ten Emeril Green episodes, let me tell you this: This is an excellent teaching show. And I mean that from beginners to more established cooks too. Why beginners? Pretty obvious; it goes through the paces. Why more established cooks?  Because as the bunch of shows demonstrate, not everyone knows everything. The very first episode, “Fish Tales,” has to do with a very experienced home cook, but one who just had a block when it came to fish. And another episode was yet another experienced cook who wanted to make Southern food for her husband, but being she’s a seafood-vegetarian (whatever they call that), she didn’t know how to make a meatless yet full-bodied Southern meal. I know of people who are exactly like both those folks, experienced but don’t know everything. Well, except a five star chef, natch.

Does the teaching get in the way if you are experienced? Nope! I’m pretty good with fish, but not great; I learned a few things. I have zero problems with pork and from that episode I didn’t learn anything new, but it didn’t matter because I got to see some excellent dishes made. And that’s the beauty of this new show; in fact, that’s the beauty of any really good cooking show in my opinion: find a new recipe, get some new ideas, maybe learn a little tip or a new technique. If you know the ingredients well, the teaching is done in a way that doesn’t take anything away from it; and if you don’t know the ingredient well, you learn even more. Emeril Green nicely hits this balance. It’s a lot more instructive than Emeril Live was; it’s much more like Essence of Emeril and then some.

If there’s any gripe at all about this show, it was something that was apparent only on the two very first episodes, where Emeril was slightly nervous and a few hokey things came out of his mouth — like “we’re going to tackle her fish problem” and “we’re going to toss her in the deep end now” or “we help her come face to face with her foul fish phobia” — which thankfully all ended after the first two episodes and he didn’t do anything like that since. So we’ll dismiss that as a shake out of the concept or as opening show jitters. Hey, Emeril is a pro; it doesn’t take him long with his experience to slip more comfortably into a groove. And by episode three, he had it down.

In short, think of this concept — at first seeming a tad strange because it’s not been done before, certainly not to this degree — of cooking and gathering ingredients at a supermarket as the world’s ultimate pantry. I know I’ve mentioned this, but it’s worth mentioning yet again. How would you love to — as he did during the Asian meat show — in the middle of cooking say I want a radish and walk 20 feet and pick up radishes super fresh off the produce shelf and start slicing?! Wow! Cook’s dream come true. Same thing when he’s showing people fish or meat cuts. Entire whole fish, maybe 30 varieties sitting there. Need advice on meat? Emeril and the person he’s helping walk over to the butcher, and, of course, he’s laden with hundreds of “show and tell” beef cuts right there. A cook, a real foodie, can quickly fall in love with this idea. I know I have. The only bad thing is how do I go about figuring out how I can move into and live inside a supermarket too?

Among some of the highlights from the first group of shows: Emeril using lentils, definitely one of those foods you do not see used enough on television cooking shows. A woman showed Emeril (yes, it can happen, love the give and take) that for making Cuban beans, you need cloves, and he showed her how putting in ham hocks ups the flavor. Making a nice east makes west meal using bibb lettuce leaves instead of bread. And speaking of leaves, one dish was an entire snapper with citrus in the oven, roasted and poached in a giant banana leaf. (I think he has the “green” part down.) Or when he showed a firefighter how to make as a bit of a side a chicory coffee with orange peel studded with cloves.

In the end, the food looks sensational and you really want to both eat it and make it yourself. You learn some techniques, some new ingredients. He made a mojito with Jamaican ugli fruit — now I have to try that. It’s Emeril, probably the most comfortable chef to be around and one of the most knowledgeable, and all with a pantry as big as a supermarket. What’s not to love here? Both because I hate to give any show a five out of five star rating — I like to see how they do over the longer haul before crowning my top rating — and because I don’t have half stars, Emeril Green gets four out of five stars.

If you’ll be in NYC on July 28, 29 or 30, you could be a guest in the live audience taping of Guy’s Big Bite.  All you need to do is send an email to gbbshow@yahoo.com and tell them which day you’d like to attend a taping and why you’d like to be in the audience.  This is sure to bring a new level of excitement to the new season Guy’s Big Bite!

Photo courtesy of Food Network.

MOJO, an HD network that airs After Hours with Daniel, which is currently my favorite food show on the air (sorry Iron Chef: America), has also brought us Pressure Cook, hosted by chef Ralph Pagano.Here is how MOJO describes it:

Extreme Cuisine. Renowned chef Ralph Pagano is penniless in Prague, broke in Bangladesh and destitute in Denmark. Each week, Pagano is abandoned in an exotic locale and forced to earn money solely using off-the-cuff cooking skills. Dishing out meals for every culture, palate and occasion, find out if he can finance a plane ticket home before the week is up.

My thoughts on the show run hot and cold. Pagano is a fine host, humorous and knowledgeable, but some of the devices to make this show different from No Reservations or Bizarre Foods are weak at best and the “candid” scenes are ridiculously contrived. If the host is supposed to be surprising someone when he shows up, then why is there already a camera on site to show him walking through the door? Some of the randomly encountered people appear to be reading off of cue cards. I can live without the game show aspect of the show where Pagano either has to earn enough cash to fly back to the states or eat something really nasty.

At the same, it is an amazing food/travel show that goes to places other than Napa, Upstate New York, and Provence. I loved the trip to Iceland and because of the show, I am now hooked on visiting Belize. Pressure Cook actually does an exceptional job of introducing the viewer to the culture, especially showing the variance in US currency and the local monetary system. Like most shows shot in High Def, the visuals are breathtaking.

Season two is underway and airs on MOJO every Sunday at 9:30P. Season one is now available on DVD and is definitely worth your viewing time.

Photo courtesy of MOJO.

Lisa was paired up against Adam to prepare their 2 signature dishes.  Lisa’s Cassoulet was given high marks by all the judges, getting praise from Bobby Flay as the best Cassoulet he’s ever tasted.  It really doesn’t get better than that.  Adam’s Macaroni and Cheese with Lobster really took that dish up a notch Vegas style and went over incredibly well with the judges.  As for the questions and interview with Dayna Devin, Adam was very knowledgeable but really didn’t connect with the camera or welcome Dayna into his kitchen.  He hardly looked at her as he was frantically working to put out food that the judges would like.  Lisa looked a bit crazed as she was in her zone while cooking.  She did take time while cooking to speak to Dayna and some of her personality showed, but she still needs to work on combining her ability to work quickly and make friends with the camera. 

Next up was Kelsey’s Chicken Parmesan and Aaron’s Stuffed Pork Loin.  Aaron went with his usual big portions and very colorful presentations.  He was so wrapped up in making his signature dish the best it could be, he nearly forgot to make the Chicken Parmesan - until Lisa reminded him.  Kelsey opted to show that she has the ability to do fine dining presentation with her dishes.  Her portions were smaller and Paula commented that they could be considered appetizers while Aaron’s were hearty.  They all seemed to enjoy Aaron’s dishes over Kelsey’s, but her camera presence and ability to speak well while cooking sets her above Aaron.  He’s still struggling to show his personality on camera and combine actual cooking while talking.  He just stops doing anything while answering questions.  I keep remembering his comment that he’s just not good in front of the camera, which begs the question: If you aren’t good in front of the camera, what are you doing here?

Sadly, Kelsey was sent home based on her dishes this week and from what they showed us of the judges discussions, her lack of life experience.  I don’t believe we have seen the last of Kelsey.  She has a lot of technical expertise and her viewpoint of showing the average home cook that it’s easy to get into the kitchen and make great food is appealing to many people.  She was very gracious as she exited, which I think showed alot of maturity. 

Photo courtesy Food Network.

This season of Hell’s Kitchen, which wrapped up last Tuesday, was different. In the finale, there were two likable people: the older gentleman Petrozza and the young recent-CIA grad Christina. No matter who won, I was happy.

Tonight, my husband pointed out an interview on Comcast.net, that just furthered that impression … apparently, an error on set led to not one but both doors opening during the finale.

Here’s what Petrozza told Comcast:

Oh, this freaks everybody out. You want to know something crazy? There was a malfunction [and my door opened too]. Crazy, right? But, it wasn’t like it was this horrible thing. It actually worked out perfect. Ramsay saw it was happening and he goes, “Petrozza,” and he grabs me and he pulled me towards him and kinda hugged me and held me at the same time. And I realized that my door shouldn’t have opened. And he said, “It’s ok, Petrozza. It’s alright, man.” I said, “I’m ok, I’m ok.” Ya know? And I understood what happened. It took me a few seconds to understand what was happening and I was a little confused as you can understand. But when her door opened and she went downstairs and then Ramsay and I went downstairs, I felt relieved that it was done. I felt that I had made some good friends and I was very successful at what I attempted. It was all good.

See? Class. He could have thrown a hissy fit on national television at that point … instead, he accepted it and graciously took his defeat in stride. I swear, he looked genuinely happy for Christina too at the end.

And I will let you in on a little secret: despite his foul, offensive mouth and overwhelming attitude, I would work for Gordon Ramsay in a heartbeat. I think he has a great deal of integrity and, yes, class. After watching the BBC America version of Kitchen Nightmares, I was hooked. My husband says working for/with Ramsay would be too, too much stress for him … but I think his raging presence would only serve to make me a more capable person.

Thoughts?

Photo from Fox.

Do you watch more cooking shows than non-cooking shows? 

Are you addicted to Food Network? 

If you’ve answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, then YOU are exactly what we need on Edible TV. 

We have a few openings for writers, and we’d love to have you join our team.  Interested?  Intrigued?  Don’t waste another minute … instead of just watching cooking shows and segments, come report on them with us.  Drop us a line at info@wellfed.net.  We’d love to hear from you!