We all have our favorites I am sure as we all have the ones that make us want to throw something through the TV. I am writing about a new one to fit into the latter category. Delia Smith move over, David Rocco has taken over as the worst TV cooking show presenter around.
Has anyone seen the show Dolce Vita by Canadian (with Napolitano parents) David Rocco? He is an ex model who because of some weird bit of luck, gets to have TV shows that talk about Italy and food. Some of my least favorite parts of his show:
He calls everyone Ciccio
He bounces when he talks and bounces and flays his hands around too
He speaks in English but throws in Italian words but never explains so I am sure those who do not understand Italian are wondering what he means when he says "you need to schiacciare the olives".
He is into showing off expensive things he has
It is soooooo staged
and my biggest gripe is that he speaks without knowledge. He had a friend visiting and the friend asked about something and David explained that it was a corrider that the DeMedici family used to get from one place to another. His friend asked what it was used for now and he said the same, it is just a corrider. That corrider is the Vassari corrider .
At least there are loads of wonderful views of Florence and the surrounding areas. Maybe if I put him on mute and just watch the pretty pictures. Hummmm.
So anyone else catch this show or Judy or Anne, have you guys met him??????
I used to watch David all the time. He has a show called Avventura or Avventure.. where he would go around to different regions and meet with chefs and chat with them in the kitchen while he prepared meals.. This used to be on PBS. His wife is the producer I think.. then he disappeared.. ah but these are all just warm ups to Diva's show! Dream big, bella!
Cristina, at our house we love to hate David Rocco! My 12-year old daughter does a wicked imitation of him, tilting her head sideways, grinning, and speaking in an unbearably perky manner. ("THIS dish is a TUScan CLASsic!") We get his show on TWO Canadian channels: FoodTV and TeleLatino. The latter is slightly more tolerable as it is dubbed over in Italian. - Marie
At the risk of being ripped apart here ... I like David Rocco's "Dolce Vita"! His show has actually inspired me to cook - as his recipes are always super simple - and look delicious (and the ones I've made definitely are delicious, that's for sure!).
The first season wasn't nearly as good as the seond season, but that's to be expected with a new show.
Maybe I'm partial to him, as he's a fellow Canadian ... I dunno - but I like the show!
Well, I'm not THAT upset! I think his previous show "Avventura" was incredibly good and more serious than the overly-staged current "Dolce Vita". David is not a chef, which he admits on his website and, well, it shows.
Avventura, on the other hand, took us to small towns where he would meet local chefs and ask them to cook, while he translated for the viewer. He would talk about local traditions, festivals etc. I also think that the production was 1000 better than on Dolce Vita.
Too bad, really. When I first heard he was doing a show that takes place in Florence, I was very excited and thought it would have the same format as Avventura. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near as good.
As for "annoyance" I think that Giada De Laurentiis takes the cake. Although she apparently has some serious cooking training, she always seems to be making recipes that were borrowed from her mom or her aunt. She uses the word "moist" about 50 times per show and she talks with her mouth full! Anyway, I don't know if I can trust a "chef" that weighs no more than 80 pounds!
About fours years ago our local TV station taped a series of cooking shows at my restaurant.
What a nightmare!
First of all I am one of the least photogenic people I know and I don't like being on camera. But I figured, "Hmmm. What an excellent opportunity for free advertising.", so I consented.
The theme of the shows would be gourmet at home. Showing people how to take dishes they might consider "too fancy" to try themselves and prepare them at home.
So - once I decided what dishes to make I had to prepare 3 or 4 of the same dishes in various stages of production. Then I had to time the phases of preparation to coincide with commercials. (Bear in mind this was a small station without a lot of editing talent. There was generally only one take of any scene.)
I had a friend that worked behind the scenes at the FoodTV Network. How wonderful those TV chefs have it. Everything is prepped for you. Your 3-4 dishes are pre-cooked in their respective stages of "doneness". Make-up artists insure the chef looks as good as the finished plate. Are any of those kitchens ever messy? Dirty dishes just magically disappear under a counter. The ceilings must be so high there is no need for range hoods. Those are perfect kitchens. What I wouldn't give........
I remember one particularly hot August afternoon when the station wanted me to make my Chocolate Chambourd Baked Alaska. Not normally a problem - assuming I have a freezer for the "Alaska" portion of the recipe. The camera guy decided my cooling equipment in the kitchen was too loud and we had to turn them all off - freezer and fans included. I guess he didn't realize that you couldn't freeze ice cream in an oven - and that's what my kicthen was like that day. The inside temp in the kitchen was nearing 100 degrees....so you can imagine how lovely the chef looked too.
To me that show was a nightmare. I was finally able to plate the whole mess. To my surprise this tiny station still runs my shows and I am constantly running into people who tell me they "just saw" the show, or "just made" the dish and how surprisiongly simple it was to prepare.
I gained a new respect for the TV chef's after my attempt at network cuisine.
***Trying to figure out how to post of pic of the finished product. How can I do that without a URL?
Posts: 690 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 14 January 2005
careful, cristina... i sort of mentioned lollypop head (giada) on another thread and got hammered almost immediately. SHe ain't eating no 20 potstickers at a time, if you know what i mean,(well maybe she is but that is a whole other subject, barf barf)
Torile, your experience reminds me of Chef Guerrino, which is one cooking show that runs on small local TVs here in Italy. it's fully shot on an underlit kitchen, to the effect that the kitchen really looks dark. I know that professional kitchens are pretty bright, but not nearly bright enough for TV. Also, being a normal litchen and not a studio equipped like a kitchen, it really looks cluttered with stuff, while TV kitchens are usually HUGE and airy. Than there is Guerrino himself, with his mustache and his accent (from Veneto). He cooks pretty simple stuff, but the show looks so... Tacky when compared to the glamorous shows on the major TV channells...
Originally posted by paradiso 28: careful, cristina... i sort of mentioned lollypop head (giada) on another thread and got hammered almost immediately. SHe ain't eating no 20 potstickers at a time, if you know what i mean,(well maybe she is but that is a whole other subject, barf barf)
di
Lollypop head? That is hysterical...she's not so bad, though I do think she has approximately 1000 teeth in her mouth. Someone told her as a child to smile, "you have a lovely smile" which she does, but it seems to be permanently stuck there
Posts: 1375 | Location: Seattle - next is Isla Mujeres,MX in December, then its Paris in March, then hopefully England! | Registered: 02 May 2005
Dennis, Emeril single handedly was the cause of me not watching cooking shows any more. It seems like every time I have a few minutes to watch a cooking show -- it's HIS!
So, this Giada De Laurentis -- could we have a picture of her? She sounds like somebody you would like to pop in the face!
For an hour of comedy and guilty pleasure, it's still Iron Chef Japan for me. The dubbing is what makes the show IMHO, it's so unintentionally hilarious. Iron Chef USA just doesn't have that quality.
I like Giada. I actually just made the rissotto from her cookbook and it was really good. With that said, I only find her head to look large when she wears her hair down. -Mary
They are all pretty much unbearable, compared to Julia, anyway. And someone else hates Delia! But the worst I have ever seen is a woman whose name almost escapes me -- Anne Willets?-- something like that. She is British, strict in that nasty nanny-knows-best manner, dripping class prejudice; she runs a fancy-pants cooking school in her chateau. I saw her once on Martha Stewart, and they circled each other, smiling frostily and hissing like bobcats. Bliss, for this viewer. Yr, Robert
Robert, I think you mean Ann Willans, the founder of La Varenne cooking school. I think she also holds classes at Greenbrier. I've never seen her on TV, but her cookbooks are really good. Martha used to have cat fights with guest cooks, but on her new show post-incarceration, she appears to have considerably mellowed.
I am new to the world of cooking shows, having recently got a satellite. In the first month, I have become addicted to Ina Garten. I want her house in the Hamptons; her kitchen and all her kitchenware; her garden; her eating trips to France; etc. I laugh hilariously at her extravagent use of butter and oh my all that white sugar. It's a fat woman's approach to cooking. A heart attack in the making?
Reminds me of watching the Galloping Gourmet years ago and thinking "Gosh that guy drinks a lot while he cooks" -- and, of course, later learning that he had a drinking problem. If I remember correctly, he then had a program demonstrating how you could make fabulous tasting food with far less calories and no alcohol!
I switch channels when Emeril comes on. Did his audience members get lobotomies as a condition of appearing on his show? What else could explain their happiness and smiles?
My favorite cooking show, hands down, is The Great Chefs series. I actually liked seeing the food prepared in underlit, crowded, grease blackened, kitchens in beat to hell used pots & pans. It was a relief to see how chefs cook in real life not the slick, manipulated world of T.V. land. My least favorite, it's a tie between Emeril and Sanda Lee.
Ginger - my sentiments exactly. Great Chefs win hands down.
They are the gourmet version of Rachel Rays 30 Minute Meals. In a restaurant most dishes need to come out of the kitchen in a timely manner so most things are geared to quick preparation.
As for Emeril and Sandra Lee --- You're right -- toss up. Emerils dishes all start to look alike after a while (who wants the same "essence" in everything) and the BAM was cute for maybe the first dozen times I heard it. Now it just annoys me.
Sandra Lee ...... I thought about her when I read about Graham Kerrs alcohol comments above. I don't care what the occassion is she always has a cocktail concoction to pair with it --- even kids parties!!!! And who wouldn't love to be able to decorate their kitchen around the theme of every meal??? Not realistic at all. But then, don't we all have an assortment of colored KitchenAid mixers in our pantry? (I have 2 - both white. Oh so boring)
Posts: 690 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 14 January 2005
Okay, I also like Giada's recipes and she really endeared herself to me on the show that was filmed in Rome with her family. But my thing about her (other than she's as skinny as a rail) is the whole cleavage thing . She is always wearing VERY low cut shirts - I mean what is that all about - it's a cooking show for goodness sake! All right maybe I'm just jealous (thin and cleavage), but still...
I've said on other threads that I'm a big fan of the Barefoot Contessa. Her recipes never fail, with all that butter how can they? And I like that the recipes make enough for a crowd.
I once saw the Galloping Gourmet with his wife Trinia (remember her) at a Denny's-type restaurant in a little town in Eastern Washington (Moses Lake). I couldn't believe he was eating there. My son got his autograph for me. Then we saw him again the next day in Spokane. He probably thought we were stalking him, but actually we were on a hockey tournament trip.
Posts: 933 | Location: North of Seattle | Registered: 28 February 2003
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. She is always wearing VERY low cut shirts - I mean what is that all about - it's a cooking show for goodness sake! All right maybe I'm just jealous (thin and cleavage), but still...