Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I used to watch a lot of FN back in the early days. I enjoyed Jack McDavid, Mario Batali, Sara Moulton. Now, I never watch FN. The turning point, for me, was when Rachel Ray became a "star" (gag).
Now if I want to learn something about cooking, I tune in PBS, and watch Jacques Pepin, Lidia, or the two ladies on America's Test Kitchen.

I have to agree with many comments here.I have studied culinary arts for years and these housewife cook wannabees do not know the difference between a good Veloute and a bowl of gravy.
Where does the food netwok find these people?
Sandra Lee gets so excited over her booze,you would think she was an alcoholic! Rachael Ray acts like the host of Sesame Street with her ignorant, goofy, childish sayings. Paula Dean serves so much fat in her food, it is more rich than her fake,overpronounced accent which is comparable to fingernails on a chalkboard.Giada dresses like a street walker and tries to sound italian with her fancy pronouncing og food.What happened to credible culinarians? are all we are left with are women's day readers like these four women who think they are teaching cooking? please!!!

My favorite is Ina and my very least favorite is Giada. Can Giada's tops get any lower without this show being rated as porn? I have nothing at all against showing some cleavage, but please...this is a cooking show, and if her cooking isn't good enough to stand on its own, they should take her off the air. Actually, I tried several of her recipes and thought they we just "okay". Her books are loaded with photos of her rather than of the food, and she is way too full of herself. She should stop the annoying Italian accent when she pronounces Italian food items. She was born and raised in California for goodness sakes!

I used to watch this channel frequently for info on cooking techniques, and good recipes; not on much anymore. Weekend getaways at $40 and such rot are a waste of time. I have no problem with the dumbed-down shows for the chef-boyardee crowd, but I have the travel channel, with Bourdain, for the other stuff.

Faves: Alton, Mario, Sara

Middling: Sandra, Giada [OK....just eye candy....no turtlenecks needed]. Flay....I like the genre, so I follow his recipes. Emeril....shelf life date gone by......he's now a shill on the "green network".....and, not convincingly so. Paula.....on the fast track to Emeril status.

Least: Ray Ray. Well, Sandra too...although S doesn't annoy me me nearly as much as does RR.

FAVE: jamie oliver -- i LOVE jamie at home. also nigella -- apparently i love brits.

LEAST FAVES: sandra lee, hands down. not even a competition!

Favorites: Paula Dean, her recipes I can make and have. Sandra Lee because her recipes are very doable. Why do so many dislike her? I love to watch her. I also like the fact that with Sandra Lee, you can take common packaged stuff and make something great. Alton Brown, definitely a fav of mine. I can't stand Emeril. His recipes are so complicated, why bother? Ina Garten's recipes are too complicated as well.
Least Favorite: Obviously Rachel Ray is an amature when it comes to cooking. Come on folks, I mean, my teenage son can concoct what she comes up with. Also, she is extremely irritating with all of her hand gestures and her EEVO and her rolling eyes. I deliberately turn off the FN when she is scheduled. I just don't get it. She's awful. BEST: Alton Brown WORST: Rachel Ray

My husband and I read the local paper online but he insists on subscribing to it, only for the papers to pile up, unread, in the recycling bin. His reason -- and I agree -- is that we should pay for what we use. Several times he has written to the newspaper to suggest that they charge for full online access. But they don't get it... yet.

Sooner, rather than later, the old guard of newspaper publishers will figure out that paper and ink is as contemporary as wired telephones, modems and cassette machines.

The suspense is killing us, bylime. What are your favorite food blogs?

Also worth a shot is http//onetsp.com - a new site I've been building over the last few weeks. It's meant to be incredibly simple for you to collect and manage all of your recipes in one place.

An added benefit is that you can access your recipes from your mobile phone as well (http://onetsp.mobi). Sign up and give it a shot!

AARP bumper sticker:

Food has replaced sex in my life.
Now, I can't even get into my own pants.

Carolina de Witte - chefs can taste if they want to, of course. Some do, some don't. Some do sometimes but not always.

I was never taught to taste during service before sending it out to a customer but rather to be sure that I knew ahead of time by smell and look and by focus on the initial prep and even ordering/checking in of goods that when in the process of putting out anywhere from four orders to 250 orders that they would be good and correct in taste just from the building "from the ground up" so to speak.

As executive chef I worked on instilling this same way of doing things in the chefs and cooks that worked for me. It requires a lot of standardization of recipe and focus on initial ingredients, along with an intensive structure that involves detailed production schedules and a well-trained team who are willing to work together. It's not just about the food itself, its about the people who are putting it together.

This takes away from "creativity" allowed in a free-form way, yes. But the guests get consistency.

It's a beautiful thing when a kitchen of ten can trust each other to come in and together put out a range of meals where some of the plates might be finely detailed "fine dining" and the other plates are fine banquet service for 50 hitting at the exact same time.

Granted, part of this is intuition. But most of it is training, teamwork, knowledge and consistently-implemented procedures that run from step A to step Z.

But to each their own, and to taste on an ongoing basis is one way of doing it, for sure.
But what I said is true and workable also. :)

foodvox said: "No, chefs don't have to taste all the time if they are chefs for they know what they are doing and don't have to double-check." This isn't true. I've been a chef for many years, but I was taught to ALWAYS taste before sending it to a customer. There are many variables in cooking. If you aren't a good 'taster', you can not be a chef. The difference between ordinary, bad and sublime can be just a touch too little or too much salt, nevermind such ingredients as acids, etc. That being said, a 'taste' doesn't mean an entire mouthful of food, it is just enough to judge...a few drops could be sufficient.

I am not overweight, as I usually skip the 'house meals', and I go to the gym several nights a week. I eat the majority of my meals at home with my family, and we love fresh fruits and vegetables, organic and local if possible. I love preparing meals for my family even more than I do for patrons at work. Moderation is always key. I do splurge, but not everyday.

From my perspective, there is absolutely no moral triumph for being thin. You want to be thin, be thin. But when people pat themselves on the back for what they perceive to be better eating habits than someone else... I just find that, in and of itself, self aggrandizement of the grossest variety.