I'm so glad I discovered this group.

[Vinca]

As a long time wannabe chef, I'm picking up so many ideas here! Are you guys hooked on the cooking shows - Top Chef, Iron Chef, etc.?

[Longhorn]

1. I'm no cook but I love Top Chef!

It doesn't inspire me to cook but I do believe I've learned to be a better restaurant patron. ;)

And I love this forum because it's full of wonderful people who make me feel good. It's a good "antidote" group to the mod forum, sometimes. (The mods are wonderful but the posts we have to read can be a downer.) :hi:

[Vinca]

3. Unfortunately, I've become hooked on Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares

as well, so I rarely patronize any restaurant anymore. Gordon Ramsay's unintended consequences of putting on a program that shows bugs and rats and grease and slime in the restaurant kitchens.

[Warpy]

11. Yes, and allowing footage of him puking up a bad scallop

in an alley was enough to put anybody off restaurants for life.

Still, basic sanitation doesn't seem to be the problem with most of them, it's over designed food, over ambitious menus and an overworked kitchen staff.

The show has given me a real appreciation for restaurants that manage to put out consistently good food.

[ginnyinWI]

2. I like Jacques Pepin

His PBS show, "Fast Food My Way" has given me a lot of good tips and techniques. "...'appy coo-king!"

[yellerpup]

4. I love the cooking shows.

I have an idea for a new cooking/reality show. It's called "Stresstaurant" and in it home cooks get to play out their dream of opening their own restaurant (for a day or two) while a crew films every minute. Welcome to C&B, Vinca! :hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Whenever someone asks me about opening a restaurant, my standard reply is ......

..... take two aspirins and go to bed. The feeling will pass.

It is a brutal business.

[yellerpup]

6. I know only a few people who cook at home very night.

But I know a lot of occasional cooks who dream of opening their own restaurant. I think you give good advice. Stinky the Clown knows from brutal!

[hippywife]

7. I've long wanted to open one, but...

I don't have the inclination to deal with the regulations and paperwork involved. Nor do I have the money so...

But what I wanted was a small carry out type place. No seating except to wait for an order. Very simple. You get your choice of pasta (spaghetti, rigatoni, penne, shells all parboiled and chilled, then dropped in boiling water for one minute) and your choice of sauce (marinara, sausage, mushroom.) Each dinner comes with a side salad and bread. Meatballs and Italian sausage links extra.

There was a restaurant back home that did this on a eat in buffet style basis and it worked very well. I want people to pick it up and take it home. I only have to clean up after myself and no one else.

[yellerpup]

9. Sounds like a good concept, but you must be willing with the paperwork.

The menu sounds yummy, too. A friend and I started Dessert Divas back in the early 90's. We lasted exactly three weeks. Her husband worked at a large hospital and brought home requests for birthday, shower, retirement goodies and I contracted with two local upscale restaurants. Week one, we had our tasting party and everyone went nuts. Week two, we baked our asses off. Week three, we had more business than we could handle if we'd had six more bakers on board. To meet demand, we would have had to make a big investment in space, equipment, supplies, and utilities, hire employees, set up a bank account & line of credit, permitting, etc. We were both cash short and she was just going into the 5th month of her second pregnancy and we had no room for error, so we called the whole thing off. We did prove, however, that there was a huge local market for upscale baked goods and someone moved in and filled that space. Personally, I learned that it is a lot more fun to bake when inspiration strikes than to have to grind away at it twelve hours a day EVERY day.

[NMDemDist2]

21. there was a drive thru in PHX like that

they had Panninis too, but mostly pasta and great soft garlicy breadstix

we got take out there regularly....

edit to add.... and EXCELLENT lasagnas too, white or red

[Warpy]

12. Mine is that I didn't want to work that hard

so I went into critical care nursing.

[Vinca]

8. There was a British show that was very similar to that.

I think it was on the BBC channel, but I can't remember the name of it. In any case, it wasn't nearly as interesting as it could have been because the host wasn't the most exciting character. The pairs opening their restaurants were a riot, though. Usually one of the people was a serious slacker which caused all kinds of problems. An American version with a decent host - Anthony Bourdain maybe - would be good.

[yellerpup]

10. I missed that show...

but I'd tune in any time to watch Anthony Bourdain eat anything--even a bug! Oh, he's already done that!

[MagickMuffin]

15. Two Fat Ladies: Is this the show you are referring too?.?.?

Two Fat Ladies is a British television cooking programme starring Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson.

The show centered around travelling the United Kingdom on a Triumph Thunderbird driven by Paterson. Wright rode in the sidecar as they travelled to various destinations, such as an army camp or an all-girls' school, where they would prepare large meals, often with unusual ingredients. Both ladies were very fond of strong flavours, and would often use things like anchovies, garlic, and various herbs and spices quite liberally. The recipes were gleaned from an older time and tradition when ingredients like rendered fat and drippings were used as well as raw eggs and unpasteurized milk products. They emphasized the importance of using fresh ingredients of the very best quality, avoiding supermarkets for farms and roadside markets.


I found them to be obnoxious. I feel the same way about Bobby Flay, after seeing him on the Iron Chef which he won. He then jumped on top of the cooking counter with his shoes on while chanting USA, USA. I thought he was rude, arrogant, thoughtless and showed disrespect for the Japanese culture. I have never liked him since then. Bobby Flay:puke:

[Vinca]

18. No, it wasn't the fat ladies. The show was very short lived.

The host was a French chef with an accent so thick you could barely understand him and he was much too kind to the bunch of losers picked to open restaurants. The show needed a Gordon Ramsay. The name will probably come to me in the middle of the night sometime.

[Vinca]

20. I found it! It was called . . . duh . . . "The Restaurant."

It says something about the state of my mind I couldn't remember that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/restaurant/

[TygrBright]

13. I try to catch the PBS reruns of Julia.

She's one of my goddesses. I used to laugh at her when I was a little kid, because she sounded so funny, and sometimes she'd drop something or spill something and she'd just charge right on.

It wasn't until I got older and developed an interest in preparing real food for myself and my loved ones that I realized what a bottomless well of wisdom and good will she was. "And if that doesn't work, add more BUTTEH!"

She's a gas. Someday I plan to treat myself to some of the DVDs of her shows.

nostalgically,
Bright

[eleny]

14. Hi! Here's my favorites...

Good Eats - He taught me how to make a great rib roast and now I want to try homemade marshmallows
His marshmallow You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElynzLyU2Ew

Tony Bordain - My favorite episode so far is the one filmed in Uruguay

Ace of Cakes - What a fun crew

License To Grill on Discovery Channel

Any Rick Bayless Mexican cooking show

[hippywife]

16. We don't have cable

and I very rarely watch TV, anyway. So not hooked on the cooking shows.

Welcome to C&B. :hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. When I was hospitalized,

and not sure I'd ever walk again, TV was a kind of lifeline. The only thing I could watch without going nuts was the Food Network. I watched everyone, and even though I couldn't keep solid food down, it was the only time I wasn't nauseated. Go figure.

Now that all of that is behind me, I find that watching the old Jacques Pepin and Julia Child shows on PBS are the only food shows I care for. I simply can't watch the Food Network.

Maybe someday.

Welcome to DU, Vinca!

:toast:

[hippywife]

19. So, happy that

you've recovered to be part of our little group here. :hug:

[wryter2000]

23. I watched the Food Network for a weekend once

I was in bad pain from arthritis in my neck, and I couldn't do anything but sit in my chair and hold my head absolutely still against the head rest. I figured non-stop cooking shows would be heaven.

By about the second Giada show, I was heavin instead of in heaven. I had a flash of insight that she was a skinny version of the Barefoot Contessa (or vice versa). At least, Paula Deen was different. I watched her for a while until I realized that what she was cooking couldn't possibly taste any good. The sons were cute, but too cutesy. Finally, I gave up.

I can sit in front of the PBS shows all day (except for the Martha Stewart one that grates on my nerves).

I've made massive contributions to Christopher Kimball's retirement fund. I've probably put one of his kids through college. I love my ATK/CI/Cooks Country.

[wryter2000]

22. Welcome

I'm an America's Test Kitchen girl. They're the best since we lost Julia.