I Still Loathe Sandra Lee: February 2008

It's been a while since I've thought about Sandra Lee.

But one Saturday morning, I couldn't sleep and found myself curled up on the couch watching Saturday morning Food Network shows.   Before I knew it, the queen of semi-homemade popped onto the screen in all her processed glory.    All of the cuddly goodness of this particular Saturday morning suddenly stood still in time, as I heard the dreaded words that sent my mind into a state of perplexed anarchy.   I can almost hear the shrill of her voice now:  "70% Semi Homemade and 30% creativity" and something to the effect of fooling people into thinking you actually made food from scratch.   Dupe your family!  Fool your friends!  Woohoo!

All of this reminded me how much I loathe Sandra Lee.    I get tons of love and hate mail around this subject, and I'd like to clear something up.   I don't loathe simple cooking.   Or meals that take only minutes to make.    What I do loathe is using processed ingredients full of chemicals, artificial flavors and passing it off as homemade cooking to fool your friends and family. 

It's almost like Sandra Lee is stuck in a food time warp circa 1985.    Sometimes I feel like the entire country is moving toward a local food, all natural, fresh tastes better, farmers market mentality.   But every time I feel assured about the food progress of our country,  I'm reminded that there's a single woman out there who encourages us to forget about eating  natural, healthy, local ingredients.

Beyond this, I couldn't help but notice her awful cooking technique. 

An example would be her recipe for "Chicken Scaloppini".   I'm sorry, but this has to be the worst technically sound recipe I have seen in my life.   She suggests that you should buy thinly sliced chicken breasts and braise them with a bouillon cube , Campbell's cream of asparagus soup, and frozen vegetables for 4 HOURS!!!  Not only does this combination sound horrendous to me, the technique for braising is unbelievably wrong.     One does not braise skinless, boneless chicken breasts for four hours! Ever.   No one likes tough, rubbery chicken.  Nor does one braise pre-blanched frozen veggies for four hours - they are already cooked! 

Read some of the comments from people who made this horrendous dish.   They speak for themselves.

This recipe embodies everything wrong with Sandra Lee.    She is literally setting the American food revolution back by 10 years every time she convinces a poor soul to listen to her shitty advice.

On February 18,  the next internet protest of Sandra Lee will occur on this little site.    I will post a recipe inspired by Sandra Lee's "Chicken Scaloppini" recipe.   The only rules:  I will not use processed ingredients or anything semi-homemade in my dish.   I will braise using proper techniques.   I will be more than 30% creative rather than buy bouillon cubes and Campbell's Soup to avoid thinking.

If you are interested in joining me and telling the world how much you loathe Sandra Lee, simply make a braised dish in the anti-Sandra Lee method outlined above.   Send me a photo of your creation by February 17 and a bit of description and I'll feature your protest of Sandra Lee alongside my dish.  If you have a blog, I'll link back to you in my post.

Related:   The I Loathe Sandra Lee Archives

Comments

[TBTAM]

Joe -
Just found your blog, and am loving this theme. Couldn't bring myself to make the dish, so I wrote Sandra Lee a song. I figured it was time someone did the obvious...
http://theblogthatatemanhattan.blogspot.com/2008/02/look-at-me-im-sandra-lee.html
Keep up the good fight!

[tami]

YAY ITS BACK!

I will do my best to make a dish for the event :)

I'm so happy :)

[Sarah]

I agree Sandra Lee is at least 30% full of crap and her "tablescapes" make me ill. That said, if you've ever heard her story she has truly made a success of a very sad, nearly tragic life story. I think she's gotten a lot of people in the kitchen, spending time with their families and interested in FoodTV where at least they might be exposed to some legitimate cooking technique. My 2 cents.

[Amy]

AMEN, brotha! I get it - she overcame a tragic life story... blah blah blah. i'm a counselor and, yes, i have empathy for her. BUT, that does not excuse the fact that she is now making a lot of $$$ by dumbing everything down in the world of cooking and poisoning us with her high-fructose corn syrup and preservatives! It's not just her - it's really the Food Network in general (I bitch about Sandy, Ray-Ray and more on my blog often, mainly b/c I need a forum to VENT)... the Food Network has slowly but surely been reduced one big 'hot' mess. i use the word 'hot' b/c it seems that is one of the prerequisites to working for the network (not really including ina and paula) - have you seen the cleavage action happening all over the place over there these days? Anyways, I've forgotten my point about Sandy... she sucks. I'm sick of people in small-town America getting pandered to w/ that channel. Teach people about food and food culture. Stop dumbing down everything and treating viewers like we're 15 and with 8 brain cells. Sandy Lee just epitomizes that whole idea. Oh, and I really like your blog... not afraid to tell it like it is!
- amy @ http://www.neverfull.wordpress.com

[Alejandra]

I'm excited about this...

[Jessica]

Hi Joe, Lon and I are in total agreement with you! We referenced your well written blog in ours. http://www.foodmayhem.com/2008/02/sandra-lee.php

[Maureen]

Preach it! Preach it! Oh, the HORROR that is Sandra Lee . . .

[Susan]

Hear, hear. Fooling your friends into thinking you made something homemade for them is akin to fooling them into thinking your cleavage is natural. I get that she has overcome adversity and congratulate her for that. But, like Sarah, I detest the idealogical niche she has chosen to promote. It isn't that hard to make quick and easy recipes using fresh ingredients. Sadly, someone's buying it, as she's still on the air.

[Pretty sure you're not making it all from scratch!!!!!]

Before you you start knocking someone for their cooking techniques, you better learn to walk the walk before you talk the talk. I am fairly certain that Sandra Lee's family and friends are aware that "SEMI-HOME MADE" means just that. I don't think they come over to Sandra's home, and ask her...I am sorry , thanks for this wonderful meal but is all this made from scratch? I don't think so! Do you create and roll your own pasta, create your own broth, churn your own butter? I doubt it. Before you start criticizing a show or it's host, for not being home made when it is actually called, "SEMI-Homemade" take a step back and look at your own cooking methods in all it's splendor. She calls it SEMI... as in "partially". She does not call it "COMPLETELY HOMEMADE" because it's not. If an individual wants to pass a meal off as homemade, they will, regardless of where the food or the recipe came from.

[Pretty sure you're not making it all from scratch!!!!!]

Before you start knocking someone for their cooking techniques, you better learn to walk the walk before you talk the talk. I am fairly certain that Sandra Lee's family and friends are aware that "SEMI-HOME MADE" means just that. I don't think they come over to Sandra's home, and ask her...I am sorry , thanks for this wonderful meal but is all this made from scratch? I don't think so! Do you create and roll your own pasta, create your own broth, churn your own butter? I doubt it. Before you start criticizing a show or it's host, for not being home made when it is actually called, "SEMI-Homemade" take a step back and look at your own cooking methods in all it's splendor. She calls it SEMI... as in "partially". She does not call it "COMPLETELY HOMEMADE" because it's not. If an individual wants to pass a meal off as homemade, they will, regardless of where the food or the recipe came from.

[joe]

clearly you dont read this site much. but thanks for the laughs.

[joe]

tbtm - great song! very funny!

jessica - loved your post and blog. will check in often.

[Bill from Temecula]

Anyone notice the number of times she uses the word "nice" in the program? I would like for the foodnetwork to keep track in the bottom right hnd corner of the screen how many times she she uses the term. My wife and I bet on how how many times she will use the term in one show! Last count, 15. Must be a new record!

[Helen]

I am so glad we are not subjected to the horror of Sandra Lee in the UK! I hadn't even heard of her until now but her food sounds truly disgusting.

[gg]

I'm sorry, but for as much as I cook (with hubby) there are certainly those nights when I just want to hurry up and throw something together, therefore Sandra's semi-recipe's are in fact useful. Let's stop the hate peeps, there is truly more to despise other than her using nice too often or her SEMI-homemade dishes. Thanks for something different Sandra!

[Stick of Butter]

Her recent "South of France" episode hit new lows....Biblos Tuna Nicoise....potentially a great recipe, but she destroyed it with CANNED potatoes...I struggled between laughing uncontrollably and wanting to punch the TV screen. And this was the first time I ever heard of haricot verts, but as soon as she pulled out those frozen green beans and put sour cream and Parmasean in them, I knew she had f@@ked up the recipe before it was done.

[NomNom2]

Regarding SL's "tragic life story" it's the same as Paula Deen's. Not as bad as the Chefographys made them out to be.

Those shows put such a horrendous slant on things. Watch them sometime and do the math. It is said that Sandra went to live with her grandmother and became the family cook at age (I don't remember the age) but the next thing the say is that in 1975 (don't remember the exact year) she moved to live with her father. Well, if you do the math, she lived with her grandmother for one year.

They also mention briefly that she then attended college, but make no mention of any hardship in getting there. She has said on her show that she went to Greece while in college. Many people have had it a lot harder.

Paula's story is the same. Many holes in it, slanted to make everyone feel sorry for her and happy that she succeeded. The math is all wrong for the events the way they present them as well. And there is a wonderful black woman who cooks for Paula. Paula had her on her "party" show one evening, saying that the woman had been with her from the early days at the hotel and still works in The Lady and Sons restaurant. I have a feeling that this woman is the one behind all the wonderful southern recipes that Paula is now making a fortune off of.

Don't believe all the hype surrounding all these "celebrities." I'm sick to death of all the "poor me" stories.

[Andy Cippins]

Currently, a disagrrement ensues regarding Sandra Lee's 2 completely different versions of her history. She tells two tales. On her wikipedia site referenced & sited by a newpaper interview Lee states her mother died when she was 10 years old leaving Lee to raise the family. In her memoir Lee states her mother beat her up and abused her when she was a senior in high school. Which story told by Lee is true? Is either true??

[Jeefus Lerot]

What I dislike about SL is that she is so PLASTIC. So fake. Her food is fake and her persona is fake. It is all about appearences with her. YUCK!

Plus, what kind of nut thinks that you have to completely remodel the kitchen and dinning area for every meal!!!!!

[Stick of Butter]

@NomNom & Andy: I've heard about the discrepancies regarding SCAMdra's bio, but Pauler is stretching the truth as well? OMG, am I gonna have to hate on Pauler as well?

Scamdra has been quite craptacularly entertaining this season; "Germanfest" had me effing falling on the floor laughing. Baked beans with root beer, anyone?

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[Donna]

I was just curious about something.........at the start of every Semi-Homemade show, she "narrates" that she's been "cooking and entertaining since she was a child". Now she's promoting the Share Our Strength program where she is now telling everyone that, "growing up, she sometimes didn't know where her next meal was coming from"...............are you kidding me? Which one was it? Surely you weren't hitting the food banks for all of the cooking and entertaining you were doing!! Now I see there's yet another STUPID show she has out. Great, get rid of Emeril and give her another show. UGH!!