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Blogwatch: Chocolate Pasta
Does anyone remember Ron Popeil making this on his long-running infomercial for the Popeil Pasta Maker? One of his daughters was tasked with making chocolate pasta. I was well received, but what has the man made that flopped? Spray-on hair? Showtime Rotisserie? Pneumatic toilet plunger (which I oddly enough saw about 30 minutes ago at a store)? The man is a genius!
Interview with a Grocery Store Shoplifter
Adam I don't question your decision to post this.
Does everyone realize the site is a fake blog like The Onion?
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'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I wanted to like this show but simply couldn't bring myself to it. The contestants were boring and I found myself wondering why they kept interviewing death every time Marco Pierre White was onscreen. It showed very little cooking and serving happening by anybody.
I doubt I'll pull myself in front of the television next week to watch. I can't stand Jeffrey Steingarten. His look and personality remind me too much of a Smithfield ham.
Blogwatch: Chocolate Pasta
Does anyone remember Ron Popeil making this on his long-running infomercial for the Popeil Pasta Maker? One of his daughters was tasked with making chocolate pasta. I was well received, but what has the man made that flopped? Spray-on hair? Showtime Rotisserie? Pneumatic toilet plunger (which I oddly enough saw about 30 minutes ago at a store)? The man is a genius!
Interview with a Grocery Store Shoplifter
Adam I don't question your decision to post this.
Does everyone realize the site is a fake blog like The Onion?
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
i don't have cable either, so i was hoping it'd be great, but it was pretty boring. i'd recommend reading his books though!
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I loved the show. Marco Pierre White is just about the most serious chef in our lifetime and he takes what the contestants do very seriously. I am sick of cooking judges that don't know food from a hole in the ground - yes like Padma, who has probably thrown up everything she's ever eaten and never even worked in a restaurant. Ted Allen on "Chopped"? pulease!
Plus Marco has that ravished, evil genius look that is so amazing! Yes, he's doing a bit of following the pack on food TV - but you have to respect his history, being the first British chef ever to win 3 Michelin stars, and who nourished a whole new generation of fine chefs in England.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
No. People need to be watching quality programming like Dollhouse.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
No, I think TV is saturated with too many cooking programmes and they are generally not about the food, but about making a TV show! I attended the filming of an upcoming BBC2 programme called "Put Your Menu Where Your Mouth Is", and the food was terrible! And we had to pay! It has made me very disillusioned about TV cooking programmes now. Furthermore, I discovered that just because you are a celebrity chef, it does not mean you are a chef or that you can cook.
You can read about my experience here.
http://agirlhastoeat.com/bbc-two-put-your-menu-where-your-mouth-is
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I enjoyed it. I like MPW - he comes off with a kind of Vincent Price vibe to me, gentle, civilized, yet quietly menacing. I don't think he means it, but if you picture him as a horror-movie icon you might have more fun watching the show. I mean him no offense; as far as I know, he's earned his culinary reputation. But that voice, that delivery, belongs, it seems to me, in old horror films, and I mean that in a good way!
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I would love to seee a show that features Marco Just cooking a three course dinner, app, entree, dessert once a week on a saturday or sunday morning that would rock cause he is a true chef. There wouldnt be another cooking show to watch. Food tv is whats wrong with our industry today. Mario, Lidia, Jacques, Alton, are the only US shows worth watching all the others should be cancelled.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
i will watch it every damn week. i don't have cable, so no food network/top chef for me, and marco is so damn dreamy. i'm in, who's with me?!
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I watched it and loved it, but I love MPW. His books "white heat" and "devil in the kitchen" are awesome reads and the man is just downright sexy, talented and exhudes coolness.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
Finally watched it, and best thing about it was MPW. Watch his version of Hell's Kitchen UK if you want to see what a interesting and yet reasonable person he is. You only catch bits of him on the show between the awful USA Realtity TV editing. It was even worse than the USA Biggest Loser, which has become a bit of a joke with the constant repeated footage, and peeks ahead.
Do we really need constant COMING UP NEXT spoilers? It felt like after you cut out the commercials, and COMING UP NEXT crap you were left with 25 minutes of actual show.
One reason The Restaurant UK is such a superior show is the freedom of an hour with no commercials (real BBC), no need to constantly try and HOLD the audience over a commercial break with cheezy COMING UP NEXT spoilers. The Restaurant UK instead builds carefully, you don't know everything before it happens, you get genuine surprises and suspense.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
Extremely well shot from a technical (TV) point of view. Nicely done title sequences and well edited, too.
It may have been just so-so in terms of food reality tv shows but I liked watching MPW do his thing. (and he's allowed to be more attractive than GR, more charismatic and personal). I kept flashing back to the conversation Bourdain had with him on his show and felt that he was still the same person. Nice clothes, too. Someone should do some major repair work on his hair though.
If there is a problem with the show, it's that MPW is the most interesting person on it. Next would be the critics and lastly the contestants.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
We need more reality cooking shows like old Top Chef seasons. More cooking, less drama. There are people like me, that wants to watch anything but drama. Save the drama fo yo mama!
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
Marco Pierre White is the douchebag qua douchebag...
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
i felt the same way but, i will watch again next week to see if it gets any better. cheers!
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I hate "reality TV" (and that term, for the association with garbage TV). But I obviously like food and its preparation and thats why I have this site bookmarked.
That said, I watched The Chopping Block last night, and I liked it. For one thing, Marco Pierre White is someone who isn't (yet) overexposed, so that is a mark in its favor. Secondly, the contestants on this first episode did not strike me as being nearly as obsequious or slimy as those on Top Chef, Hells Kitchen or most of the other competition shows. That bowing and scraping crap from people that are supposed to be adults is, for me, a major turn off.
I can easily give up Hells Kitchen (and switched to CSI halfway through last week because I just got tired of Ramsays same old nonsense) - and substitute The Chopping Block.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
No, we do not need another one of these shows, and we darn sure don't need one on a major network during primetime. It's time these so called reality shows go the way of the Dodo Bird.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
Watched it. Meh. I won't put it on my Tivo list, but may watch it if nothing else is on and I'm bored.
I love Top Chef, and I actually like Chopped, the Food Network show. Chopped pits 4 chefs in a battle, eliminating them one at a time, and it is done in one episode. Next week, 4 new chefs. No serial drama there. It is gimmicky, but the chefs come up with some pretty creative dishes in a short time.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I love documentary tv, and game shows. The problem with a lot of reality tv is that it tries not to fit in either of those categories. British Kitchen Nightmares was good because it was a documentary and Ramsay was just a character. US Kitchen Nightmares is garbage because it is bad documentary, trying to excuse itself by identifying as "reality tv".
Survivor succeeded because, in part, nobody knew or cared who the hell Jeff Probst was, even if they watched Rock and Roll Jeopardy a million times. The show became about the contestants and their subtle and not so subtle interactions. Once you put MPW in there, how am I supposed to care about these contestant nobodies? Tom Colicchio isn't on Top Chef enough to overshadow the characters early on.
Another thing going for Top Chef is that the contestants are more interesting to begin with. I sort of believe they could actually run a restaurant, and the question is just who could run it best. Shows like the Chopping Block, and Hell's Kitchen rely on fake tension built by the possibility of outright failure. Will these goons make a good restaurant, or fall flat on their face. No room for subtlety on network tv. The problem is that to create the possibility of failure requires sub-prime contestants. They don't air amateur baseball on national tv because professional is so much better.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I still don't know what to make of Marco. This may take a show or two more to decide. But I love Gordon Ramsay, after seeing the F Word re-runs, I can appreciate him so much more. Marco seems TOO pompous.
And Jeffrey Steingarten is to food television what Jabba the Hut was to Star Wars! And watching either of them eat brings about the same reaction in my household.
'The Chopping Block': Do We Really Need Another Cooking Competition Show?
I would agree that I was somewhat entertained, but only somewhat. I have a feeling that as the show goes on and douches like Xan and Flan and Than get kicked off, it'll start to pick up.
Blogwatch: Chocolate Pasta
I have a package of pasta from a museum exhibit too. One of those things I haven't known what to do with. The mole suggestion above sounds good.
Blogwatch: Chocolate Pasta
Hm....seems like this is one dish I won't be trying in the near future...unless someone wants to make it for me haha
Blogwatch: Chocolate Pasta
My girlfriend once made chocolate ravioli with a chocolate ganache inside, and a chocolate sauce. They were excellent, but also VERY rich. I could only eat one or two at a time. They were more savory than sweet, and I would definitely eat them again.
Blogwatch: Chocolate Pasta
I made chocolate pasta once, also with raspberries to complement. It was a long, arduous process, and the result were starchy noodles with a vague, watery chocolate taste. I'd not make (or eat!) it again.
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I wanted to like this show but simply couldn't bring myself to it. The contestants were boring and I found myself wondering why they kept interviewing death every time Marco Pierre White was onscreen. It showed very little cooking and serving happening by anybody.
I doubt I'll pull myself in front of the television next week to watch. I can't stand Jeffrey Steingarten. His look and personality remind me too much of a Smithfield ham.