I loved Two Fat Ladies - as much for the banter and the kitchens as for the food.
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there is fast food & slow food & then me - a slow cook. the more i watched the competition shows the more i realized there is no way/reason i would ever want to imitate the cooking. i couldn’t even get the pans to temp & the water to boil, let alone the food prepped (forget actually cooked) before time was up.
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I thought the original Iron Chef, in Japanese, was great because it was different and a little out there. In the 90s it was broadcast locally in the Bay Area on ch 26. The American version was bad, but it had expectations. The rest of the American competition shows are ginned with drama and weirdness, per American TV producers think that’s what people want. Other countries do a better job of competition show like Great British Bake Off, but i’m not a baker. Even Gordon Ramsey’s UK stuff in toned down and watchable…but they want him screaming bloody murder in the US. Personally I find forced drama stupid, pointless, insulting and symptomatic of American corporate media…who love humiliation are part of the show. It’s somehow an extension of the Darwin think, there has to be a loser or two.
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There comes a time when the sh*t has to stop. GR was it for me.
.” Personally I find forced drama stupid, pointless, insulting and symptomatic of American corporate media…who love humiliation are part of the show. It’s somehow an extension of the Darwin think, there has to be a loser or two”
Enough is enough. I can’t believe people watch that stuff.
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Delete
I remember I turned on the TV in the middle of the night long, long ago and cried out WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??? 
Honestly I had no idea. Didn’t even think to check what channel I was watching …..
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I LOVED ICJ. Morimoto has been an icon ever since. Chen Kenichi was great. Sakai was masterful.
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There’s a clip somewhere of Sakai peeling an apple with a chef’s knife- one handed.
All those guys had mad skills. Watching Morimoto’s artistry. The church window terrine he made was so out there.
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I LOVED ICJ. Morimoto has been an icon ever since. Chen Kenichi was great. Sakai was masterful.
Somewhere buried in my house should be a photo of me with Sakai and Masahiko Kobe (Iron Chef Italian) at the time. Went to the Food Network event where they were invited and snagged a photo with them.
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[Pedantic Hat ON]
Just going to say that it was just Iron Chef - 料理の鉄人, or Ryōri no Tetsujin (Iron Cooking People, more or less) - not Iron Chef Japan. I know it’s commonly known as ICJ to differentiate it from the crap that is Iron Chef America, but that’s not what it was called.
[Pedantic Hat OFF]
ETA - Actually, on thinking about the translation, it’s more accurate to call it iron people of cooking. They’re not people who cook iron, of course!
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Somewhere I still have a book with all of the Iron Chef Japan episodes.
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Did you used to run the “Iron Stef (Steph?)” website?
This made me think of how “The Teaching Company” has changed over the years (and not just by re-branding itself with a new name, “The Great Courses”). The medium has definitely changed: audio/video cassettes gave way to CDs/DVDs and now to streaming. The production values changed: Robert Greenberg talks about his first lectures were in a plain room with a piano and a blackboard. This eventually changed to a room with a bookshelf, some knickknacks connected to the subject, and a fake window with ivy outside. Then they added a dozen or so “students” (that you saw only from the back. And the latest ones had fancy studio sets with special effects.
But the topics also changed. Before they were pretty much standard college-type subjects. Now there’s a lot of self-help, a whole line of food and drink courses, and even history has courses like “Board Games of the Ancient World”.
This sounds a lot like the trend in cooking shows. I haven’t watched them lately, but the minimalist set of Julia Child is probably an almost forgotten memory. Everything has to be “improved”, even when it was fine to begin with.
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My sister used to work for “The Learning Company” with the tree logo!
ETA Maybe it was The Learning Tree
Nope, not me.
I may have asked you that a long time ago!
Tonight on ATK Bridgette was sporting long blonde extensions along with a new woman who was in charge of the yeast rolls. No sign of Julia. Got a funny feeling about this show. Hope it’s not out with the old and in with the new.
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That’s how I feel about all the cooking competition shows-- especially the ones where you disadvantage other cooks. It’s antithetical to how I want kitchens to run. Encouragement, support and team work.
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I miss the OG Iron Chef. One of the first shows I watched regularly when I moved to the US.
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