Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I've seen just a couple episodes now, and I definitely agree. It annoyed me most that she kept tasting her unfinished food "just for" something. "tasties" or something like that? Has anyone else caught her doing this?

I have no problem with a chef tasting their food, but the way she does it seems unprofessional for a television show.

I just view the reviews on her today's apple tart tatin and I was surprised at the number of glowing reports on her and her show. I totally agree with the above comments however. The whole "tasting" thing is a bit disgusting.

I thank you for that information! I was not aware. We just recently watched the show and we were appalled at the rather low-rent diction. You are obviously correct in indicating "some like the personality" given the reviews I referred to above. I have made an unsuccessful attempt at contacting the producer through the FN, but got nowhere. Thanks for the info!

Getting ahold of the producer is a nobal act and their lack of response is normal they could give a rats ass about what the viewer thinks.......thats why I don't watch anymore......I guess I must be a hater

Yeah - we've been all through Chef Ann's "over the top-ness." Here's the thing - she's a larger than life personality with a wealth of culinary knowledge. I think I'd rather watch Chef Ann with her bounty of information, than a mousey woman whose more "mainstream" but knows less.

There are other topics (threads) here about Chef Ann - especially when the show first came out. Regardless of how anyone feels about her personality, she's worth watching from a culinary respect.

I learn more in 20 minutes of Anne Burrell than several seasons of most of the rest of them on FN. That's why I watch, and I'm annoyed at how many I've missed and never catch a repeat. I care more about her talent and ability to teach her methods, than how she pronounces her words, flings her arms, or lets her girls hang out. I find those other attributes super annoying with RR. SLop, Giada because I don't learn from them and they get under my skin. Emeril can BAM away (although he doesn't do that much anymore), and Tyler can say "absolutely" a million times, but they are great teachers and I want to cook their food. I don't find a single trait of Ina Garten annoying - perfection personified. To each his/her own.

Her recipes rock!

I keep going back and forth on Anne Burrell's show. At first I really didn't like it, then I saw her make something (I think a chicken liver crostini) and thought it looked quite good. So I set the TiVo to get some episodes and watched a couple of them. I formed an opinion that what probably serves her very very well running a restaurant kitchen (enthusiasm, being somewhat loud comparatively speaking, quirky ways of referring to things and so on) don't, to me, translate very well to a home kitchen cooking show. I also just don't think I'd like much of her food, not because she's not making good food but simply because I don't think I'd like it. She uses a _lot_ of salt (I watched her making her bolognese in the last few days and had to back the TiVo up a couple of times to be sure I'd actually seen the amount of salt correctly) and she doesn't use black pepper in anything because she doesn't like it.

I don't think I'll watch much more of it myself.

I have to add my vote in support of Anne Burrell. I am a home cook and there are more times than I can count when I hoot, hollar, dance and wave my arms in the air after making something completely delicious in my kitchen. Her recipes are amazing. It's the fastest 30 minutes on my Tivo every week!

@jackiejackiejackie ~ At the risk of sounding rude, what is your favorite show on TVFN? Could it be Semi something?

I've said it many times before - I actually enjoy the fact that she's not another "conventional" Food TV personality with minimal (if any) kitchen skills. She's different, and the best thing is, she truly knows her stuff in the kitchen, and it's such a rare thing on the FN nowadays. So I don't care if she isn't too "refined" (at least her sentences are grammatically correct and I don't need to rewind to try and figure out what she just said - yes, I'm looking at you, Sandy) - it's a Food Network, not a Miss Manners contest. If a person has real substance and real knowledge (and she sure does), I find that I can be very forgiving as far as quirks and catch phrases are concerned.

I can't help but wonder what would happen if Anne Burrell and Guy Fieri ever mated? I imagine a whole kitchen full of tiny, loud, bleach-blond spiky-haired munchkins...

@simon ~ izzy thinks you are a little grumpy today. Anything your little izzy can do to make you a wee bit happier?

Rare it is! We wouldn't want a blind rage for dessert!

A real chef with real talent who is not TV perfect, NO, how did that happen on Food Network? Anne is a unique personality. She has a lot of talent and thank God that Food Network is finally putting a real chef in their programming. Reminds me of the old days of Food TV. Reminds me of Graham Kerr, his show was far from perfect but I learned a lot. If you ever watched the French Chef with Julia you would see her not be perfect.
Why would you want to watch someone be ultra perfect and the their food suck? Maybe you are watching the wrong show if she annoys you.
Maybe something Semi like food with perfect almost cooking might make you happier.
I don't want my chefs perfect. I want them making a mess, drizzling earl and showing me the talent. Who is with me?

yes, I'm like a box of chocolates that way.

I'd much rather watch Ann cooking the crap out of something than watch Sandra Lee cooking crap.

LOVE her...she's interesting, knowledgeable, and perhaps without meaning to be, damn funny. Just last night I said Browwwwn food tastes good to my chicken. LOL.

The thing I love about Anne Burrell is that I really feel like that's her personality. The FN people might advise her to be more "cheerful" or whatever, but she does come across as being authentically herself.

I don't follow recipes exactly, anyway (well, except for baking stuff - and even then, it's difficult, which is why I'm a meh baker at best, but that's another story) - her principles are sound, is the point I'm trying to get at. Brown food *does* taste good. Food *does* need salt. If you choose not to brown it as much, or add as much salt, fine, whatever. But the principles of cooking she imparts are sound.

And I have no problem with how she talks or acts or what her hands do. Why should everyone be exactly the same? I've always thought a cooking show on pay-cable would be great, where the chef could say something like, "look, with squid you need to do one of two things. Cook it for a minute or two, or cook the shit out of it." Because some of them, I mean, that's what they're thinking. I don't see the problem.

@chiff: Instructions on beekeeping. I'm dying here. Hilarious.

LOL Jerz. I don't iron sheets either. If you have a good enough dryer, they come out almost flat anyway.

My linen closets are pretty damn good but holy shit this woman is the OCD queen...

Spewage on keyboard...but worth it.

I gues I really didn't notice the "odd" way of talking about cooking since that's what I say sometimes. I think sometimes your really just have some random brown crud leftover. Wh cares how it got there, what it came from...its a fast way to refer to something then I'm all for that when in the kitchen.

THe same thing goes for abbreviations, pet names, or nicknames for food products. As long as your audience knows what you're talking about then you're fine. I don't always call everything I'm cooking with by its proper name...why should someone who is supposed to be personable and relatable do it?

@pavlov-well stated, as for me I still love the PBS shows. I'll take Lidia and Jaques to anyone on FFN.