PBS cooking shows?
 

Anyone watch these? They've become my default activity on a Saturday afternoon if we have no plans.
Ciao Italia - some good recipes, but sometimes I have to hit mute
Lidia's Italy - Not always the healthiest dishes, but I've picked up some tasty recipes from this show
America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country - Basically the same show, slightly different format. I get a lot of "tricks" from these shows, such as supplementing burgers with a panade to keep them moist. We've bought several utensils based on the product reviews.
Simply Ming - Love the way he mixes East/West ingredients, then does several dishes
Avec Eric - fairly new show starring Eric Ripert. Looks interesting, the first few shows have seemed to focus on ultra-fresh cooking (such as cooking shrimp on the beach)
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Re: PBS cooking shows?
 

Ex cooking show junkie here Jeff. Two of them I recognize, I completely agree on Caio Italia - she can drive you up the wall with her chatter. Ming used to have another show called East Meets West. We've adopted a lot of ideas and had some "aha" moments from these shows as well.

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I should point out that I've only developed an interest in cooking (other than grilling) since meeting my wife. She loves to tell people that when we met, my fridge contained a jar of mayo and beer.
I vaguely remember Ming's old show, and Yan Can Cook, which I don't believe is on anymore.
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PBS rocks! You missed my favorite though...Rick Bayless - Mexico One Plate at a Time. I made his mojo de ajo a couple of weeks ago...soooo amazing.

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My daughter and I will watch some of these at times. She absolutely loves them! You forgot BBQ U.

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Steve Raichlen is the man.:tu

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I love em all. Ming Tsai by the way is a great dude. My wife and I went up to Mass after we got married and ate at his place. He actually came over and sat with us and talked for a bit. He signed our menus and we left. A few months later we had a house fire and apparently my mother called his restaurant and told him (he remembered me because his anniversary is the same day as mine). That Christmas we got a note from Ming and Polly Tsai with a copy of his new cookbook autographed. Class act!

I did forget this. I haven't watched it in a while. I think it's on later when I'm usually watching Legend Of The Seeker.
Never heard of this one, Mario. When's it on?
That's a great story, Scott. I love the eps where he has his parents on cooking with him.
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Don't remember. I think I've seen it twice. The guy has various styles of BBQ's and smoker's in on the edges of a large circular patio I think. Lot's of good grilling recipes with cheesy music.

I think I did see this once, I didn't know the name of it (found it flipping channels). IIRC, it's on some weeknight, not with the Saturday block of cooking shows.
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Tod English, does a show. I don't remember the name, but he travels and explains the dish and visits different places that do the type of food he is talking about.
The one I saw was about Sushi and he was at the fish market in Japan ordering the sushi that had just been caught. The food was amazing.

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Airtimes depend on your PBS affiliate and tend to vary from affiliate to affiliate. Best to go to your affiliate's website and check the schedule or go to zap2it.com and punch in your zipcode and check there.

Raichlen actually has two shows - Barbecue University (AKA "BBQ-U") and Primal Grill with Steven Raichlen. Both are very good.

http://www.bbqu.net/

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BBQ U is with Steven Reichlien and is a great show

Ming is really a family type of guy. Very nice and his wife is sweet as well.

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Is ming the eccentric Thai guy?

He's Chinese. I wouldn't call him eccentric. He seems pretty laid back.
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You might be referring to Martin Yan.

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Are you thinking of Martin Yan? "Yan Can Cook"

Martin Yan is always cracking corny jokes and he is a bit eccentric.

He's Chinese though. Lives in San Francisco, or he used to anyway.

http://www.yancancook.com/

He has two restaurants in the bay area - locations are on his website.

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Been watching them all since the 70's.

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I just noticed this thread. I was *****ing last night to my wife the cooking chanel has gone to crap for me.

1. They lost the Emeril Live show - my #1!
2. I'm not sure if/when the other Emeril show comes on.
3. Paula Dean is setting the South back 60 years with her bs accent and cooking. We haven't cooked like that in a long time.
4. Alton Brown irritates me to no end. What a friggin idiot!
5. I will not even start on the Nettles and what I think of those two dimwits.
6. Bobby Flay - great shows
7. Tyler - again good shows
8. Rachel Ray - love the quick menus, actually somethings I might cook
9. Mario - is he still on, I miss his shows?
10. Kitchen Battle or what ever it is called - good except for Alton.
11. Giada - does she cook or just look good :)
12. Sandra Lee and the Contessa may be good shows but don't cook much that matches me so I watch very infrequently. Besides the Contessa has that same sappy bs about her "Jeffery" that the Nettles do.

I bet I would average at least 1 - 2 shows a night in years past, now maybe 2 - 3 shows a week. I can't remember if Andrew Zimmerman is on the food network or the travel network, but love watching him.

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Great story Scott. Used to love watching "East meets West" and now I definitely like and repsect him more as a cook and a person. :tu

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Exactly. Justin was the best, RIP. Never missed his show on Sat morning. Bought 2 of his books and have made many of his recipes. :tu

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:tpd::tpd:

I garawwwnntee!

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Yea, they have dumbed the channel way down with that Sandra Lee b.s.. Here are some shows I catch once in a while:


Barefoot Contessa: everything is made with a pound of butter + heavy cream. Try her Chicken Piccata.

Paula Deen: She's the down-home version of the snooty Barefoot. Same amounts of butter + cream in every dish. I don't really watch her much. Try her wild rice salad. Oh, and her two "boys" are annoying.

Alton Brown: He's good with science. The nerd of the crew.

Giada: She'll add mascarpone cheese to any dish and call it Italian.

Bobby Flay: The master of blender sauces.

Jamie Oliver: Great show. You'll have to do some translation from English to English if you know what I mean.

Tyler Florance: This guy cooks up some great stuff. It's hard to listen to him talk though. He speaks in a strange stoner language.

Molto Mario: He's the best. I record his show on the Fine Living network (I think). I don't think he's on Food TV anymore. Ming Tsai's show is there too.

On PBS I record Cook's Illustrated. I have Rick Bayless' cookbooks, but I've never seen his show. I'll have to check it out.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3715/35802028.jpg

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Jacques Pépin is my favorite PBS chef. His recipes are great and he offers a lot of technique and tips that have really built the foundation of my early cooking. Especially when it comes to preparation and plating.

I don't always agree with Juilia Child's ideas with what goes together, and some recipes like cooking lettuce just don't sound that tasty.

Being Boston, I have heard countless stories about Ming and Julia. I ride my bike by Blue Ginger a lot. Never ate there; don't know why it's 9 miles from my house.

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Rick Bayless' show is my favorite followed by Cooks Illustrated. If you're into Mexican food, get any of Rick's cookbooks. They're some of the best for that cuisine of cooking. I still get requests for tamales. Mark Bittman's shows are good too. Haven't seen them in a while though. :-(

Hopefully my PBS station will carry the Eric Ripert show. Sounds interesting and he's a excellent chef.

If they replay it, catch "Spain - On the Road Again" with Mark Bittman, Mario Batali, Gwenyth Paltrow and smokin' hot Claudia Bassols. Made me want to go to Spain to sample the food.

I've seen a few now and it is interesting. There seem to be three segments. The first is some location that inspires him (last was an organic farm), Le Bernardin (his restaurant), and finally his home kitchen, where he shares a recipe related to the first segment.
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"Now what I'm onna did is make tater salad without taters" . He was great . RIP Justin . Lots of good cooking shows on PBS .

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Caught a new one (new to me anyway), but I'm drawing a blank on the name. The episode I saw, Lorraine Bracco was a guest, and they were in Marrakesh (sp?) making traditional Moroccan dishes.
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Found it. It's called Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth. Today's ep is in Laos. I don't recognize the guest (missed the first couple of minutes). She's an Aussie. Just now, they made a type of traditional Laotian salad featuring ant eggs. Yum! :r
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This just gets better and better. They went to a silk factory, and had fried silkworm, and silkworm poo tea.
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I saw him on about a month ago. Haven't checked since.

Did you ever get around to seeing BBQ-U Jeff?

Not yet. I keep forgetting to check the local listings and find out when it's on. It's not part of my usual Saturday block of cooking shows.
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BBQ-U is on. Probably started at 11:00AM. IDK though. I got out of the shower and my daughter was watching it, again. She seems to really like the cooking shows. It's on channel 17 in Campbell if that means anything to you Jeff.

Seeing as I'm on the opposite coast, I doubt we have the same schedule. :r
I checked. One of the local PBS stations has a great website that lets you look up info on every show they broadcast. Unfortunately, they don't show BBQ-U, apparently. The site for the other station sucks. I also haven't had any luck finding it locally on tvguide.com or Zap2It.
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You've really got to listen to Giadda when she describes what she's eating . I swear she uses innuendo at least once or twice a show . "Little Soft Pillows of Heaven" and "Gooey , Salty , Creamy Goodness" are just a couple examples .

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It's tough to beat Lidia's Italy. She looks like a cajun woman from my dad's side of the family,
nearly bald and man-looking. But that lady cooks like I like to cook. And she likes to drink.

The one I cannot stand is the one where the boyfriend is there to provide low-quality musical
interludes on guitar, and I think they even use a band.
Another one I loved until I had gotten about enough latina cocina is the Puerto Rican, Christina.
She gave me a routine boner from time to time. I really like the cat from Spain. His accent is half
the show for me.

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My 7 yo loves cooking shows so of course I got her some Giada DVD's. I would love it if she were to try my cannoli. :D

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Haha, it's Raichlen that wants to make me punch him, not Lidia from Italy.
Granted, these guys have to repeat alot, but every recipe he does he has to re-tell what indirect
grilling is, show how nice the hinged grills are for placing coals on the fire while cooking, and his
speech pattern gets on my nerves. And "here at BBQ U, we like to ..." has got to be the phrase
that sets me off worst. But he can be topped by the cat that wears the tablecloth shirt.

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Leave the bathing suit....TAKE the cannoli!

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I've been trying to figure out the difference between America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country. Cook's Country has a live audience for the taste testing, other than that, the shows seem identical. :confused:
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Gonna have to check these out!

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A.T.K. is the funniest show. The host is kind of a nerdy type, but the one that
gets me going is the guy that tests the kitchen tools, kind of a mouth-breather
chubby cat, who's dad is very likely the show's producer. :D

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Wok With Yan was my favorite as a kid.

He seems to know what he's doing. We've picked up a few utensils based on his recommendations.
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Oh, yeah, he def separates the wheat from the chaff. Well, the dudes that work for him, lol.

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I think the woman and I are going Ming Tsai's "Blue Ginger" tonight. It's 10 miles from my house. She may have a different idea on where she wants to go. We've been wanting to go there for a while. She is on school vacation next week, so perhaps lunch instead then?

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Get the Lemongrass Lobster or the vinegar shrimp for appetizers. He has a great wine list as well.

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Same here. I like then both though, way better than just about anything on FoodNetwork.

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Oh yeah, I watched the entire last season of ATK a year or so ago, til the re-run cycle came around.
I am fascinated by the whole concept of the show. I think they also went out of their way to have a kind of
'everyman' staff of talent, as opposed to a show full of Giadas or Erin Andersons.

One of the things I like on ATK is how they show where the different cuts of meat come from, and talk about the pros and cons of each for the demo recipe.
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