PBS Sundays: Better than Food Network

Year after year, the Food Network gets even more watered down from its original cooking programming heritage.  Long gone are professional and celebrity chefs actually cooking and teaching techniques to home cooks. 

Instead, Food Network began to move their celeb chefs from one-on-one cooking demos in front of the camera to cooking in front of an audience.  This happened with Flay, Molto, and of course Emeril. Over time, these chefs (Emeril aside) were taken out of the kitchen and placed into food travel shows (add Ming Tsai and Anthony Bourdain to the above list) and replaced them in the kitchen with 30 minute meal home cooks like Rachel Ray, Barefoot Whatever, Giada DeLaSomething and worst of all, a show called Semi Homemade.  Food Network has gone from "learning how to cook at a high level" to "how to be an average cook and get dinner on the table quickly".   

Sure, I guess it makes sense from a pure numbers perspective.  Most people in this country don't even cook all that much, so the Food TV programming aims to get them into the fold rather than entertain and challenge you and I with interesting, inspired cooking shows. 

Rather than spending time dissing every hack show on the Food Network that I think should be discontinued immediately (i.e. The Secret Life of...and it's brutal host being #1 on the list), I will talk to you about why I think PBS Sunday programming has the best cooking shows on TV.

Pro Chefs - One on One

Depending on where you live, Sundays can have Ming Tsai, Lydia Bastianich (my personal fave) and Jacques Pepin on a regular basis.   In addition, and when we get extremely lucky, Charlie Trotter's Kitchen Sessions show a pro chef act very cranky and fussy just for you.  The Rick Bayless Mexican cooking show is also very good.  There are of course the Julia Child shows, my favorite being the Masters series, where you get a new episode with pro chefs from around the country.

These are anti-Food Network shows aimed squarely at people who want to learn and cook at a higher level.

Attention to Detail

Food Network shows are all very haphazard in the fact that Emeril skips steps, Jamie Oliver is very messy, and many other shows give instruction and head off to commerical.  PBS programs, like the geeky America's Test Kitchen (the show with the team from excellent magazine Cook's Illustrated), spend an entire show on the details.  They discuss different techniques and tips and compare them to  a range of others.  They are looking to provide insight and give you more information to be a better cook.  Again, this is not on the Food TV agenda anymore.

'Real People'

Their are some cooking shows on PBS that just down right suck.  They have a few bizarre no namers that make sauteed chicken breast and what not.  However, there are a few that are so bad they are good.  An example is the show Colamecco's Food.  It's so low budget that it's charming.  Somehow he gets to bring a cameraman into high end kitchens like Le Bernadin, Ducasse and French Laundry and then goes back to his 4 burner at home to make a meal he learned in the kitchen.  (He also fumbles a few of the dishes, which makes for good TV). You can't stop thinking to yourself how the hell this guy is getting to talk to Thomas Keller. It's not glamorous and lacks high end pro demo kitchens but it's real, insightful and inspirational.  Food Network has gone in the opposite direction.

Comments

[Unclebeef]

I agree completely Joe. Brings back memories of watching the original Julia Child show on PBS in the mid to late sixties, a dark time for cooking to say the least. This amazing big lady with an accent I had never dreamed of cut the head off an enormous fresh fish with a huge cleaver while giving out a war whoop! Making omelettes with real butter and using actual vegetables. Seditious behaviour in those days of canned everything and bland recipies. Couldn't even buy fresh white mushrooms of any kind in most parts of NYC then. Wow. I cried when I heard of her passing. A true pioneer

[jenblossom]

I agree for the most part... my DVR is loaded up with the PBS cooking shows (not to mention Karen MacNeil's wine shows!), but I do have to say I enjoy Giada's "Everyday Italian" on Food Network. I like that she uses so many fresh ingredients, that her meals tend to the light side (no godawful "Cheeseburger Salad" here), and that she makes it all seem really unintimidating. I think that perhaps people who are just starting to cook at home, or who want to try more advanced recipes, might look at her show and think, "hey, I can do that." Which is not, to me, a bad thing.

[MichaelMahle]

I have to agree with both of you. Colamecco's show is great fun to watch - and not overly produced which can really encourage people at most levels of cooking. I also happen to like the local flavor he adds to the show (trips to Newark produce markets, etc.).

[Beth Sprong]

I am trying to find the name of this cook. Male, and he likes to act like he is actually cooking in his own kitchen, he goes into his pantry frequently and gets out all kinds of spices and goodies, and used them right then, cooks his meal and talkes about his family. At the end of the show he sits down and eats the meal with his wife and his little boy. Do you know the name of the show, or his name and is he on the Food network, or on PBS. Thank you in advance. Beth

[JP]

I also agree, PBS is markedly underrated for the quality cooking instruction that they make available (and with minimal commercial involvement). Perhaps the time is right for a tv channel dedicated to the creation of high quality fare in one's own kitchen -- to satiate all the foodies out there who remain disgusted after watching the Food Network bobbleheads haphazardly compile ingredients and describe the resultant slop as "divine".

[Mia]

You are so right! My sunday late afternoon is PBS. If I have plans I tape the line up. In my area I start with everyday foods, head to Lydia, enjoy the detail of the test kitchen and then end laughing with Colemecco.

I pay attention to products, ideas and the restaurunts Colemecco visits.

[kmc]

The show about the man who goes into the pantry and has a little boy is Chef at Home on the Discovery Home Channel, not PBS.

[Debby Wang]

not just learning to cook for at a "high level," but food that you'd actually want to eat! I was a huge fan of the Food Network, but lost complete respect when "Semi-home made..... What?" was put on the roster. Let's not over rate the weekend, precious cooking shows on PBS, lest they decide to revamp their line-up to a demographic who.... wants to look at and swallow food, but not actually taste or enjoy it? A few questionable shows are already leaking in like "Everday Food." Ok, they are making tasty, sensible meals. But Food is about passion, taste, lust, desire, indulgence. I hope that in order to show us the way, the true essence of EATING is not left along the way.

[Johnny]

Too true. I almost never watch the FoodNetwork anymore, and I get the feeling that they are a lousy company to work for. Now that PBS has Avec Eric, I'm sold! I'll watch Jaques for his knife skills alone. Who cares that he often mumbles, rarely looks at the camera, and has generally low production values...to watch him dispatch an onion, or peel an apple with a pairing knife is simply amazing. Truly the result of years of being a real chef and not a fake personality.