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I am equally offended by Rach. Her quick fix meals are not for everyday, nor do they teach people anything. I also see the overmarketing of the whole concept.
I cannot watch her show(s) without thinking look at all that sodium.
Yes she is perky, you would be too if you got the pay day she got.
Tony Disdain just became a daddy in April. Shocker I know. I think mayb the little muffin will mellow him, but not about Rach.

I like Tony, RR and AB. They all fill a particular niche in the market for food based entertainment. I can respect them for that, no matter what I personally might think of their culinary or celebrity skills, or lack of same.

To each, their own.

Given the "drive-thru dinner" disease that is rife in our country and having terrible repercussions on our nation's children, I have vowed to coexist with RR as she serves the purpose of making cooking seem easy and fun to the masses. More than once, I have heard her say (my husband had a brief crush and watched the show) how her menu was just as quick as take out. Perhaps an exaggeration, but I give her points for encouraging the audience to cook. I don't have to, and don't watch the show(s).

The science geek in me loves AB. Always will. He makes the technical aspects of cooking interesting. Would that there were more high school science teachers who could teach complex subjects with ease and humor.

Tony Bourdain has his good and bad points. His show has matured beyond the machismo swaggering to attain some quality cultural exploration. Will be interesting to see how the dad thing goes.

I love Tony Bourdain and have our DVR set to record any new episodes of No Reservations. I am embarrassed to say that I used to watch Rachel Ray shows, but now have a serious gag-reflex every time I see her on television. I've never tried to make any of her recipes but I do commend the idea and the effort to try to cook dinner every night and appreciate every concept anybody can come up with to make it happen.

Well, I buy prechopped onions. I buy prechopped lots of stuff. I have to wonder how many of those food purists who regard chopped veggies with such distain actually cook every day. And of those who do, how many of you work outside the home? When you're gone all day and need to come home and have a real dinner ready in half an hour flat, any shortcuts you can find are welcome! When I cook dinner on the weekend or for a holiday, I go all out with the fresh stuff, but for weeknights, it's shortcut city. I am unapologetic about that. At least I get a real dinner on the table and it's not frozen chicken nuggets.

Personally, I have tried RR's recipes. Somehow I ended up with three of her cookbooks -- no, I didn't buy them -- but the whole 30 Minute Meals thing is a not what it's cracked up to be. It's thirty minutes once everything is chopped, measured, and anything else that needs to be done before you throw it all together and add heat. Needless to say, most of her recipes don't fit my requirements of a *real* 30 minute meal. I do have a few of those recipes and I bless those wonderful cooks who came up with them.

Hi PonyFla,
I'm raising my hand, as I fit the qualifications you required in your first paragraph (cook *almost* every day, full-time job, don't buy the pre-cut stuff...). I find the process of cooking a good, slow meal from scratch at the end of my full-time work schedule to be the one of the most rewarding, relaxing and satisfying uses of my evening. Doesn't mean I do it every night. If I'm just to tired to cook, then I'll go to a restaurant, but that doesn't happen often (can't afford it). If I don't keep chopped onions in the fridge, then I have to chop one!

Besides, I learned that three-step onion-dicing trick, and it's shaved many a' hour and tear off my dinner making ritual! ;-)

i, too, cook almost every night, have a 40+ hour job, and still manage to chop, dice, peel and brunoise my own veggies. the more you do it, the faster you get at it. it probably takes an extra 3 minutes to cut veggies.

So, I gotta ask, on the scale of horrid food things, what is worse ... warthog rectum or pre-chopped onions?

I guess I forgot to mention that I have a husband who insists on eating by 7 p.m. If I get home at 6:30, that leaves me half an hour. Cooking a meal that takes an hour or more is totally out of the question. Any few minutes I can shave off by having onions prechopped helps and I really don't taste the difference once they're cooked (now if I'm making a salad or something, that's a different question). I feel virtuous just in that I get a home cooked dinner (albeit one with frozen onions in it) on the table. So many of my coworkers look at me like I'm insane when I mention that the family sits down to dinner together every night. I could make my 7 p.m. deadline by bringing home pizza or burgers but where's the joy (or nutrition) in that?

I'm a Tony fan, I have Kitchen Confidential and His, Les Halles cookbook. Tony is a ass, he knows he's one, you and I know he's one--so why so surprised he mentioned R.R? I cook from scratch too, always have even as a single mom.

Personally I think pre-chopped onions or diced garlic taste odd, ...and odd is not good flavor. They put preservatives on those things and they alter the flavor.

Tony is a classically trained chef so he expects his peers or people who impersonate his peers to cut up the onion all by themselves. Simple as that. He's not going to rag the home cook, with kids underfoot. Okay he might...but he's going for the jugular on some of these tvcooks.

Pony, try cooking somethings on the weekend like a chicken or roasting some vegtables for a dish you'll use later on, so that you can cook more easily on the weekdays. I'm sorry but I'm having a hard time getting past that your husband "INSIST" at a 7 p.m. meal. I say tell him to help, and it would be easier on you.