It seems that gone are the days of Julia and Jacques, giving some instruction with passion. It’s all competitions of cooking and baking. I like ICA and those type of shows; but I long for the next Julia/Jacques to step up. I may be disappointed.
Same here. I learned a lot from those teachers.
Perfect name for them: teachers. They had fire but also the taught the elements of fine dishes.
Agreed! Nothing instructs or informs anymore.
Youtube has some pretty good instructional videos.
For me, I’ll say to myself – “OK, I have X and some Y, let’s see some videos utilizing those two items” Sometimes the dishes are “Clunkers”; other times they are perfect.
Then I have to decide if I’m skilled enough to duplicate what the presenter did.
Julia Child was my childhood idol, and in many ways still is. By watching her, Jacques Pepin and Martin Yan, I developed a love of cooking and interest in trying new foods. Today, America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country have taken up the teaching aspect of the cooking show, and Jamie Oliver brings enthusiasm. While these won’t replace Julia, she did put the concept of the cooking show in motion for many Americans.
The competition shows? Ugh. I find them so stressful to watch. There is no encouragement. You have 30 minutes to make a 7 course meal, and some TV personality is going to complain that you put too much lemon on the fish.
I’ve found some YouTube cooking videos useful. The majority of the time I’m screaming SHUT UP and fast forwarding to see if I came find what I need to know.
Interesting article, thanks for posting. One big oversight to this article is how technology plays a role. While YouTube was mentioned, nothing about smart phone, tablets and laptops.
Just like some of us were raised with landline phones and TVs with 5 channels and no remote, recent generations were raised looking at their phone and tablets…sometimes laying in bed.
The way people watch and consume media has changed due to the hardware and the short format it favors. And of course much of the internet is gamed to gather maximum attention and clicks, to the tune of billions spend on making it more additive. The dominant viewing device are now phone and tablets…and shorter works on them.
As for why TV cooking shows got stale, I think they have a point about how facetious (and expensive) TV production has become. So fresh, largely unscripted, and new gets attention. The authentic argument holds up as well, as full production TV have a fake staged edge. Sometimes the host can still be authentic but there’s only so many of those people who can do within the regular TV model, and the format still has to be tailored.
So good to hear/read from you. Made my day. Julia’s boeuf bourguignon was the dish that made me look great to my family. I still remember begging my mom to use the old bottle of red wine in the pantry to make it.
I still make omelettes the way Jacques taught me, among many other dishes I still make and adore.
I still love slappin’ garlic flat, like Martin yan.
Youtube has good stuff, too. The cooking on Youtube is usually superior to any BS TV choice. Guy’s Grocery Games. Uff.
Love Kent Rollins!! Man crush
I miss the actual cooking instructional shows and they didn’t have to be fancy or advanced. I’ll take 30 Minute Meals or 5 Ingredient Fix. I miss shows like Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Farmhouse Rules, Extra Virgin, any of Giada’s shows, etc. (so many more too) I don’t care about food truck races, grocery games, or baking competitions. I like Chopped and I’d like to see Iron Chef America back but the rest of them can float off into the ether.
Hmm interesting. I enjoyed the old cooking shows too - from Julia Childs, Jacques Pepin, and he who shall not be named, to the Alton Browns and the infusion of the fun science-y angle. I like that Youtube has jumped to fill this gap. With the globalization of cuisine, Youtube also has broadened my ability to find those global recipes that would have been impossible otherwise. To wait for them to become popular enough to warrant a version from a local Western chef on TV would raise all sorts of questions (still trendy? authentic? or *gasp" appropriation…)
My biggest beef with cooking today though is that educational instructors alone aren’t enough. They are all about spectacles (watch someone try to eat this 20 layer hamburger!!) or competitions (make a 5 course meal with only 3 ingredients in 45 minutes). I enjoy some of those cooking shows, but people are just introducing not so interesting twists and I find myself tuning out most of the new ones.
We’ve learned a lot by watching ATK and Cook’s Country, especially the former.
Yes, some of the presenters are long winded. I think if they stretch it out to over 10 minutes or so, they can throw in an extra commercial and make more money.
I really miss the old format and really, really hate the cooking competitions. I want to learn. Put the armchair sports on a diffrent channel. It makes me recall the Martha Stewart shows when they switched to including a studio audience. She didn’t like that format and I stopped watching when they changed from educating to playing to the reaction crowd.
The ROKU channel has a lot of FREE Jaime Oliver content.
I like Jaime Oliver – in metered doses.
I think you’re right.
Yep. That’s the problem. And the groaning and making when something is tasted - oh, go get a room!!
Cook’s Country and ATK have definitely stood the test of time in my book. Others like Pati and Lidia have gone by the wayside. Kevin Belton and Kitchen Queens still hold my interest. Other than that, most of them are about as interesting as Joy of Painting.
Luckily most newer TVs today come with a built-in app (or you can get something like Roku) that has lots of good cooking channels. Not sure when I’ll wind up watching them for the third or fourth time, but the list is long: Jamie Oliver, Emeril, ATK, Cook’s Country, Vivian Howard, Emeril, Andrew Zimmerman, Martha, Ming Tsai, etc., etc..
