The change in the CH community–with declines both in traffic and user content–has been sad for me and many others. To your point that it simply became less interesting because less advanced, I agree. It will be terrific if Hungry Onion can serve what’s gone lost at CH.
And it reminds me of something I thought about Food Network long ago. There was a time in the 1990s when I watched it perhaps more than any other single channel (I don’t watch much TV). Then all their programming was cooking oriented, and I myself was at a stage of learning where whatever Emeril LaGasse or Sara Moulton or Mario Batali or Alton Brown was doing was likely to add a bit to my knowledge.
But it came to pass that, because the station needed to maintain a role of addressing new home cooks, I grew out of it. I simply wasn’t learning much anymore. And I think that demographics are such that I’m hardly unique, and that the Food Network people moved to more of an entertainment model because people like me were disconnecting in quantity. Now when I see those channel line-ups–Oh, five hours of “Chopped” episodes in a row–I have a sinking feeling. (p.s.: I know “Chopped” might be on another channel, but the general point pertains–I just reached for an example.)
That’s the plan my man! It will only get there by our combined efforts to keep contributing and keep up our efforts to broaden our base. Glad to have you here with us, I look forward to your continued contributions.
But the masses seem to enjoy the latter day FN. I’m not sure that anyone
enjoys CH anymore. I have no desire to
Slag them; I just don’t find any reason to visit.
You’re right, I bet, bbqboy. If ratings are the goal, then the change at Food Network has worked out. I recall an old post from CH by someone who worked at Food Network when this shift in emphasis was decided. It began with those shows that send folks like Guy Fieri to colorful diners and dives. And all power to him. Then it morphed into the competition shows. Fine for FN. But the move changed the audience mix, for sure.
Speaking of competition shows, it occurs to me that I did used to like Iron Chef, maybe still would if I watched. I guess the difference there is that Iron Chef lacked the whole schtick with gimmicky ingredients and reality-show narrative style that we see these days. I see these current shows only because my mother likes them when I visit, and she has little interest in learning about cooking! She likes the personalities.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
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I was looking forward to Food Network UK when it was established a couple of years back. There was to be a mix of British and American programmes but I was really disappointed that much of the evening programming is the likes of “Chopped” rather than “proper” cooking - I have zero interest in the format. Means I don’t visit too often and instead watch Good Food, even though it is almost exclusively repeats of British food programmes that I watched first time round.
About Flay: I, too, like him more as he’s aged. In that old show where he was on a patio grilling with some gals looking on, he was a jerk. He’d probably agree. But he could be pretty generous and open in his Throwdown days…
It has been speculated that the majority of people that now watch the FN don’t cook! It’s purely entertainment. Just another competition show which seem to be the rage these days.
Yes, and he did a season of Worst Cooks and he was very generous and open and the old BF would have been awful to these folks. He seemed to genuinely care…
Which makes me wonder about people on this thread who talk about the regional fora. There is nothing regional about cooking that isn’t interesting to everyone. If you want to talk about restaurants that really isn’t cooking, is it?
The Mesa Grill is an awful mish mash with terrible food. I hated it 15 years ago, I hate it now.
Bobby’s Burger Palace put me on the sh1++r the last time I ate there. Now polluting malls coast to coast. It takes some doing to make a burger that is not microbiologically safe.
Bar Ameripain is derivative and also just … awful.
Other than his places at the mall he “runs” a string of casino restaurants…
Everything he makes always has a weird fekkin twist to it that really messes up the dish. Just wierd shit.
Terrible, terrible food. Just awful.
And on top of that his voice is just really, really annoying.
