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I'd have great chefs guest and teach me and the viewers methods, techniques and share recipes. There would be no yelling or story telling (unless it had to do with the dish or method), or tablescapes or dumbing down the food. I'd want it to be like free culinary school - sometimes for beginners and sometimes for advanced. I'm somewhere in the middle, so sometimes I'd be just observing and asking the occasional question. Others times I'd be following along or helping. It's not about me or even the chef, it's about giving the viewers great advice and inspiring them. Kind of what Julia did for my grandmother and mother and me.

I'd love to see a show featuring the cooking secrets of ethnic grandmothers. Exactly how DO you make that pierogi dough stick so it doesn't explode in the boiling water? Believe me, there are tricks to the fillings that can't be taught from the recipe books.

Moving from East Europe to, say, Asia, I want to see someone authentically making fried rice, or spring rolls, or whatever, the way they learned it from THEIR grandma. It would feature a native saavy for foods and their prep that make our understanding of how to make the same dish seem like the mainstreamed Americanized version. These shows would have no celebrity host or wanna-be chef-star - they'd be almost more of an instructional documentary on real in-home native cooking. In other words, a limited palette each show but a huge depth of quality and authenticity.

@moibec - I love your idea. I'd include grandmothers and cooks on my show too. Anybody who can demonstrate their genius is welcome - most of my favorite cooks aren't chefs. That includes my own grandmother, mother and Ina. If you don't like Asian cuisine, tune in next week - could be Swedish or African or Irish or French or Cuban.

There would be no cooks, no chefs, no pots and pans, and it would not take place in a kitchen.

Instead, the show would be filmed in a living room, with large plush couches, leather reclining chairs, and a big screen plasma TV with an awesome sound system.

Hooters girls would serve cheeseburgers, chicken wings, tacos, french fries, onion rings and milkshakes from various fast food places, to the contestants seated comfortably.

Voting for the best burgers, tacos, fries etc. without any wrapping or packaging (removed by hooters girls before serving) to identify which chain they came from.

With a simple snap of the fingers, a hooters girl would jump up and down for a minute, then refill your milkshake, bring the next round of burgers and tacos, and walk away slowly without ever speaking.

That's as far as I've got... still working out details. :)

I was just kidding about that.

There would be no milkshakes.

In my defense... It's Sunday, and I'm watching sports on TV.

So I apologize for letting my testosterone get the best of me.

Can you ever forgive me Izzy? :)

I'd make a show about food guys like to eat. But it would have to be reasonably simple. Guys are reasonably simple beings and usually don't like doing anything complicated unless it involves a machine shop instead of a kitchen. I would want to make a show that would make the guy watching put down the phone he's using to order his pizza and instead, go to the kitchen and make something healthy, but that a guy would want to eat.

I know Guy Fieri usually tries to focus on "guy food", but his recipes are usually so damn complicated that they're intimidating. So my show would be like Fieri's show, but more laid back and with less actual dicing of vegetables and other things that look like work. And less tequila, but more beer.

My show would run about six or eight episodes, and that's it. Guys can't handle more recipes than that, anyway. And the reruns would be very popular.

I'm kidding, of course, only just sorta ...

Perky.. lol.. I make a deal with you, whoever finds the secret for calorie free munching first, SHARES with the other.

Lord knows I could use a little less handle in my love handles.

:)

@Josdean, that sounds awesome! I would love to watch a bunch of real grandmas make food on TV. Wow - you are lucky.

My cooking show, in addition to being unwatchable for more than five minutes due to my forgetfulness and tendency to giggle too much, would be all about cooking with local produce in season - each show, I'd highlight a fruit and a vegetable, making a couple of dishes with each. I guess it would have to be a locally-broadcast show, so that it could really be local and seasonal food.

I would have my version of Iron Chef America- the secret ingredients would be things like Velveeta, Twinkies, hotdogs, Kraft Mac n Cheese, can of tuna, olive loaf, fishsticks, cream of mushroom soup... the chefs would be an Iron Chef vs regular home cooks who have to cook with this stuff every day...

Maybe a cooking program with kids in which mothers cook w their kids and look up for great recipes that appeal to the "little stomachs". The program should focus also on teaching little kids how to cook. Those beginners will amaze us w their super creations and twice the fun!!!

Okay the idea of having grandmothers in the kitchen is great, as that is exaclty what inspired me to start cooking and baking in the first place.

I have been thinking lately that I would have something like "Oven Love" and spend the time bringing people back to baking, everything from cookies to yeast breads, fancy to simple. I think that people (at least my friends and colleagues) all seem to have this fear of their oven and baking in general and look at my food in awe (things like chocolate chip cookies, nothing that spectacular), when they could easily do the same in their own homes, but instead buy theit baked goods from supermarkets or petrol stations. I just would love to show people how easy it is.

And considering how many things are in even the most basic breads in the supermarket, like HFCS and hydrogenated oils, these would be much simpler. And (here's a little trivia that I learned while living abroad), did you know that there is too much sugar in McDonald's buns to be considered bread in the EU? Funny, I thought.