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Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
Let's focus on what a fraud Gordon Ramsey really is. He has the gaul to position himself as the master culinary entreprenuer precisely as his restaurant empire teetered towards bankruptcy. He and his father-in-law were humbled into ponying up millions to gain some forebearance from their creditors. I wouldn't be surprised if all of Gordon's net proceeds from these TV programs goes to support the restaurants. But it doesn't look like many of the contestants could balance their own chequebooks so perhaps the real agenda of the show is to clone some more Gordon Ramseys for the World. Has anyone asked us if that is what we need? Perhaps the next series will be a cook-off of competing bankruptcy attorneys vying for Gordo's business.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
Different generation, but Elizabeth David and MFK Fisher both write about food and memory that draw you in even today.
David's book on Italian food written when the UK was still suffering food shortages is a classic and I find it as good as Silver Spoon, Hazen etc.
Costco Will Accept Food Stamps at Two NYC Locations
Unless Costco has changed their policy recently they only accept their own coupons ( which they send out to members at frequent intervals). They do not accept manufacturers' coupons. I was refused in Long Island City and haven't tried since.
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
Lady M Cake Boutique Cheesecake: The Last Cut Is The Deepest
the Mille crepes cake isn't hard to make. Recipe on internet. I made it last Christmas, after cleaning off the rust from my long -not -used crepe pans.
Not every crepe has to be perfect, you can bury the less than good ones in the middle layers.
and very much cheaper than buying it!
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
Let's focus on what a fraud Gordon Ramsey really is. He has the gaul to position himself as the master culinary entreprenuer precisely as his restaurant empire teetered towards bankruptcy. He and his father-in-law were humbled into ponying up millions to gain some forebearance from their creditors. I wouldn't be surprised if all of Gordon's net proceeds from these TV programs goes to support the restaurants. But it doesn't look like many of the contestants could balance their own chequebooks so perhaps the real agenda of the show is to clone some more Gordon Ramseys for the World. Has anyone asked us if that is what we need? Perhaps the next series will be a cook-off of competing bankruptcy attorneys vying for Gordo's business.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
Different generation, but Elizabeth David and MFK Fisher both write about food and memory that draw you in even today.
David's book on Italian food written when the UK was still suffering food shortages is a classic and I find it as good as Silver Spoon, Hazen etc.
Costco Will Accept Food Stamps at Two NYC Locations
Unless Costco has changed their policy recently they only accept their own coupons ( which they send out to members at frequent intervals). They do not accept manufacturers' coupons. I was refused in Long Island City and haven't tried since.
Costco Will Accept Food Stamps at Two NYC Locations
I consider myself a samurai shopper. I do shop at Costco but am well aware that it isn't always the cheapest. They don't accept coupons ( let alone double them) and the quantities can be overwhelming. Let the buyer beware holds as true for Costco shoppers as anywhere else. And why is it that I always come out with far more than I intended? I realise that is my problem not theirs.
Take the time to compare prices, often drugstore and supermarket sales are cheaper especially with a valuable coupon. And if you have a good street fruit seller, they are ubiquitous in New York, they are much better value without risk of spoilage.
I am happy to fund food stamps for those who need them but would much prefer they be spend wisely, rather than at an overpriced bodega or similar. And yes the $50 membership is a big initial nut but works out at less than a $1 week.
Why The Hate For Alice Waters?
Alice Waters overlooks the fact that not everyone lives in California with year round access to good local produced food. Most of us don't have that luxury even if you learn to love what is available out of season but farmed within whatever constraints you put on yourself.
Ever cook knows the secret to good meals is good ingredients, and lacking access to them means that it is much harder to produce varied and exciting meals every time.
So yes she is elitist and unrealistic but also a force for the good.
Sugar Rush: Gâteau Aux Marrons at Lady M
the gateau aux marrons is good but the Mont Blanc is the best I have ever tasted, and this after a long life of testing, in the name of gastronomy....
The milles crepe cake is quite easy to make - lots of recipes on the internet but it is time consuming. However for your pains you get a whole cake for a few dollars
Mike's Pastry vs. Modern Pastry Shop: Holy Cannoli!
why doesn't someone do this for New York? I can't find filled to order cannoli anymore - but perhaps that is a good thing re my lack of resolution to diet. One less temptation...
Mike's Pastry vs. Modern Pastry Shop: Holy Cannoli!
why doesn't someone do this for New York? I can't find filled to order cannoli anymore - but perhaps that is a good thing re my lack of resolution to diet. One less temptation...
Snapshots from the UK: The English Foodstuff Lexicon
As a Brit who has lived in US for the last 40 years although with much time out back home I think this article is more than a little dated.
Plus the photos show the most appalling cheap commercial products.
Bakewell tart ( and I speak as a native of Derbyshire) does not have a thick layer of icing/frosting and a cherry on top. It is just jam/preserves on the bottom and layer of frangipane over. Other items such as kippers are highly coloured and the scotch egg is very nasty looking.
So was the article making cheap shots or a point? if this is the best research you can do I suggest you look outside the supermarkets.
What differentiates tea and high tea is a main course. High tea is served in lieu of dinner. Afternoon tea is calorie laded snack served in addition to dinner. Of course there is an element of class distinction here too.
Square Meal, A Neighborhood Comfort Food Clubhouse
as a long time resident ( 30+) years I welcome any attempts at local gastronomy. (We can't even support a Greenmarket). But Yura? it would be nothing special in any other neighborhood. But if it gets the ball rolling with some much needed decent restaurants - welcome. I have spent 3 decades trying to figure why despite obvious high household incomes the eating options are very slim pickings.
Square Meal, A Neighborhood Comfort Food Clubhouse
as a long time resident ( 30+) years I welcome any attempts at local gastronomy. W
Lady M Cake Boutique Cheesecake: The Last Cut Is The Deepest
Perhaps it would have been okay if you had just asked her not to slice it. Then done it yourself.
That is really bizarre. I suppose they eat the extra slivers themselves. I can't imagine what else they might do. Maybe collect enough slivers to start making full slices? Yeah right.
Lady M Cake Boutique Cheesecake: The Last Cut Is The Deepest
(Actually, looks more like 5%, if the pic is accurate!!)
Lady M Cake Boutique Cheesecake: The Last Cut Is The Deepest
As perfect as we'd all like our food to look, in the end, it is for EATING, not for SEEING, unless your eyes are inside your BELLY.
I would have estimated how much it was she took off (2%?) then reduced my payment by exactly that much.
"Well, looks like you took away about 2% there, so I'll only be paying 98% of the agreed upon amount. Have a great day, and I'd advise you that what you did there was not only illegal, but rude."
On another matter, PLEASE describe that crepe cake! Is it, as I imagine, stacked sugared crepes?? Sounds like that could be amazing.
Lady M Cake Boutique Cheesecake: The Last Cut Is The Deepest
I go to school right by there, and once I stopped in out of curiosity. I ordered a slice of something or other, and after it was cut, on it's way to being transferred to a place, it fell on its side rather than staying upright. The woman behind the counter actually threw the slice away and tried again to be sure I would be presented with a slice standing up!! Seriously. So I don't know that we can blame the people behind the counter. I think it must be policy, and it's not their fault if they have to follow it.
Square Meal, A Neighborhood Comfort Food Clubhouse
true hidden treasure. easily missed by most tourists, thankfully.
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
HerbyN at 7:34AM on 08/06/09
You nailed it. I agree exactly with everything you said.
This show is my little guilty F**king pleasure.
Square Meal, A Neighborhood Comfort Food Clubhouse
A correction: Square Meal is on the southwest corner of 92nd and Madison (not near 3rd Avenue). Food was great tonight, as usual.
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
First of all,
Intensity is any any kitchen even a wing joint. In HK it is amplified.
Talent, well put any person in a new kitchen and have them cook food for a chef they never worked for with people they never worked for and a menu they never learned well, if that's a sign of a hack then your standards are pretty high.
Showing off talent, that's what challenges and dealing with ambiguity during service is for.
Contestants are horrible, your watching Fox a channel that every other show is more cras then the contestants, look at Family Guy even the baby is an a@##hole.
Ramsey is one of the best chefs in the world but it's true he shows no talent on this show.
Insults are they same each year and they do get old.
Conflict is played out in all reality shows.
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
couldn't disagree more... love Hell's Kitchen and find Ramsay to be more "passion" than bully (he grows on you). i'm not just a fan of this show, but also his F-Word show on BBC America. the more you watch him the more you realize that he has a sincere love of food and his "edge" comes more from being frustrated when others don't treat the craft with as much care and respect as he feels it deserves.
back to Hell's Kitchen, though... i find it to be diverting, fun and entertaining. characters make interesting viewing, and the rag-tag group of people they select (some admittedly with little or no culinary skill selected only for their "entertainment value" as true incompetents) make the show interesting to watch for me. admittedly this show isn't so much about cooking as, say, Top Chef, but that said, i find Hell's Kitchen way more entertaining. a guilty, guilty pleasure, i know...
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
Ramsey is just a bully. He wouldn't talk the way he does to anyone if there wasn't a camera crew around. What a hack.
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
The show was mildly entertaining the first few seasons with the obvious head cases and reality show wannabes populating the show. (Dewberry still remains a family favorite with his Scarlet O'Hara-like wilting and getting the vapors.)
Now, it's just profanity laced shouting and dumb posturing. Curious that anyone watches considering the current job situation in the country and Ramsay as the tyrannical boss. Who needs that?
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
I like it. I watch it. It's not a cooking show. Recipes... anyone!!! Without making it more than it is, it's a show about what ordinary people think passes as character on TV. We see the proud, fall, the humble, survive, the talented, excell, etc, etc.
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
it's nothing but entertainment don't you people get it. you watch rachele, paula, and alike they are not chefs they are celebrity's that sell cook books. they can't cook anything without being taught how on camera. carey jones don't watch any more hell's kitchen because you don't get it because your a total ass hole NOW PISS OFF.
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
This is Fox formula reality television. It's all in the editing!!! But when the shock value wears off, it's all the same recycled nonsense. I've found that the ONLY way I would ever consider watching Hell's Kitchen is to DVR it ahead of time---give it at least a 15 minute head start--so I can fast forward through all of the "cliff-hangers" through all the commercials and back.
I'm a bit surprised at the "Prize" this year--running a restaurant in Canada for the Olympics? Then what? Strange that they're not handing out money as a prize anymore, isn't it? Maybe I'll just watch re-runs of Top Chef-Masters--it's a pleasure to watch REAL chefs compete (without all of the nastiness and venom).
Why I Hate 'Hell's Kitchen'
While I have watched his show in the past,I don't any longer for the simple reason that his vocal rants are getting more and more frequent, more intense and more personal. You can only tell some one that they are stupid, dumb or to piss off so many times before they reach the breaking point. As each season progresses, the verbal barrage gets more intense and belittling. Usually with no outward rationale for it (as far as we can see) on any given show one particuar chef is in the line for fire for that particular day, sometimes for several that follow depending on that chefs reaction to the ire of GR.The pattern seems to emerge that he takes a disliking to one chef or another and then rides and berates them until they crack and end up leaving the show. Tell me to piss off once, maybe twice, I'd blow it off; call me stupid and criticise my skill set without telling me why; I'd chalk it off because of who it came from but to do it week after week?? Sorry, but my redheaded, Scots-Irish temper just might get the better of me and I'd wind up giving GR a set too like he'd not seen before. THEN I'd hand him my jacket and run, not walk out the door and not give it a moments pause of regret beyond the fact that I allowed my self to get into that situation in the first place. No one, regardless of their skill set deserves to be belittled and treated the way he treats those contestants, no one.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
Pass the Polenta by Teresa Lust has some great essays, especially the one on how to grade a wine. Love most of the books mentioned. Reichl's humor and food description is very witty, earthy, and sensual. I adore Steingarten's humor. A Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White showed the extent to which serious cooking and cooking knowledge put a chef over the top. Although that can go a bit too far as seen in The Perfectionist by Chelminski, about Bernard Loiseau, the 3-star Michelin chef when he took his life for fear of losing a star. I use both Heat and Kitchen Confidential in order to teach narrative and description in my beginning writing class. Even Bourdain's Les Halles is a fun read. Elizabeth David also writes sensually, poetically, and aptly about food and is one of my favorites to return to again and again. Marlena di Blasi's sensual food descriptions are definitely worth reading in bed. And for a real killer that has almost endless literary and cooking references to food, read Reckless Appetites: A Culinary Romance by Jacqueline Deval. Peter Mayle, yes, especially the essay on eating at the French truck stop, which also appeared in Gourmet Magazine. I adore Ruhlman, found amusement in Julie and Julia, felt like moving to Paris after reading My Life in France, and appreciated the history and passions of Judith Jones in The Tenth Muse. I also liked Alice Waters and Chez Panisse. Flinn's The Sharper the Knife the Less You Cry kept me interested for several days. And finally, anything by Angelo Pellegrini is always a pleasure to read.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
I just finished Too Many Cooks by Emily Franklin, and loved it!
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
Great ideas in here, my reading list just got much longer! I'd just like to second "Language of Baklava" -- I read it ages ago but I remember loving it! Also I'd like to add John Edge's "Apple Pie" in the non-fiction category -- I got it as a gift and was pleasantly surprised by Edge's ability to turn a history of apple pie-cum-casual anthropological study into a page turner. (It's also conveniently compact for subway riders.)
Oh and I can't post this without fourth-ing or fifth-ing the MFK Fisher and Ruth Reichel recommendations. Although now that I've gone there, I also have to mention "The Tenth Muse," a memoir by Judith Jones, the editor who "discovered" Julia Child and influenced/was influenced by lots of other important chefs/foodies (don't worry, it has appetizing recipes too!).
And if you haven't read the Omnivore's Dilemma yet, do.
Also good, super quick: "Stuffed" by Patricia Volk. I'll stop now.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
My favorites are Toast by Nigel Slater and Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain...by far the best ones I have read. I've also read Garlic and Sapphires, as well as Heat, but thought those got quite boring after awhile.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
How to Cook A Wolf by MFK Fisher is a classic and lots of fun -- light, not exactly a memoir but chatty.
I second (or third or nth) the recommendations for anything by Steingarten. Also, while not specifically food-centric, Peter Mayle writes a lot about food and restaurants and especially food festivals in a fantastically funny and approachable way (try French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew).
The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine has been out quite a while now too but in some ways seems to me to have anticipated the growing interest in sourcing your own food -- but in a much less intense and apocalyptic-sounding way.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
Agh! The first one looks fabulous...but my bookstore was out of the one copy they had ordered :(
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
Anything by MFK Fisher.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
I'm also a Jane and Michael Stern fan. Square Meals was the first of their cookbooks for me, and I also re-read it in spots from time to time. Their other books are fun reads as well, and so are their articles in Gourmet. SM was the first food history book I read, all the way back in 1990 ;-)
David Lebovitz' new book is one of the very few I can remember that actually made me laugh out loud. He has an amazing sense of humor, a terrific writing style, and his recipes are excellent. He has a website worth checking out www.davidlebovitz.com
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
C. Trillin and J. Steingarten are my two fav food writers, though there are many books listed here that I also love. There are also many I haven't read, and I'm excited to have so many great suggestions.
I don't know if he only has one book, but the Alan Richman book that I have is called Fork It Over. I liked it alot.
Michael Pollan's writing literally changed my life. The Omnivore's Dilemna convinced me that it was time to start buying as much organic food as possible, even if it costs more. I'm the self proclaimed Cheapest Woman on Earth, so this was huge! Plus I think he's a great writer.
Summer reading and food: Anyone read these two or suggestions?
I forgot "The Gift of Southern Cooking" by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. Intended exclusively as a cookbook, but Ms. Lewis' introductory comments are wonderful to read.
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the Mille crepes cake isn't hard to make. Recipe on internet. I made it last Christmas, after cleaning off the rust from my long -not -used crepe pans.
Not every crepe has to be perfect, you can bury the less than good ones in the middle layers.
and very much cheaper than buying it!