Allez Cuisine!
“Tell me what you eat,
And I’ll tell you what you are.”
-Brillat-Savarin Iron Chef
It occurred to me tonight that I’m really infatuated with television cooking and food shows. Particularly the cooking contests type shows. My favorites include Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen. And don’t even get me started about the Food Network, an entire network devoted to the joys of food and cooking! I love it! But why do I love it all so much?
Well, I love food and I’m sure that has a lot to do with it! I also like to cook, though I don’t do it as much as I used to. And with the contest shows like, Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen, I get the added pleasure of reality TV with it’s conflicts and personality quirks of the different contestants. It can be a lot of fun! Also you have the thrill of competition and the back stabbing that inevitably always comes with it. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy it. It’s always more fun to have a villain to rage against! I also love the artistry these people can display with their cooking. Top Chef’s Quick Fire Challenges can really put both their skills and their creativity to the test. While Top Chef is more haute cuisine, Hell’s Kitchen has it’s moments as well. I currently find myself rooting for a sweet little Waffle House cook that’s trying to hold her own amongst more highly trained, fine dining professionals. You know what? I think she can beat them with one hand tied behind her back!
Now the joy of the Food Network…it runs the gamut for me. They have everything from cooking challenges to cooking shows, like Emerill or Thiry Minutes Meals, to shows tracing the history of a particular food. I love the network as a whole. It’s informative, entertaining, and delicious!
It’s interesting to note that watching the food being prepared, while a favorite pastime of mine, doesn’t necessarily make me want to jump up and start cooking. It does, however, make me want to jump up and start eating! Especially Iron Chef (And I don’t mean the new, stream lined American version. I’m talking the original, down and dirty Japanese Iron Chef!)! They make it all look so good!
So let’s eat, drink, and be merry in front of our televisions. Maybe we’ll become better cooks for it. Maybe we’ll just end up hungry! Either way, there’s a lot of quality entertainment out there for the food lover! Enjoy or in the words of Chairman Kaga, “Allez Cuisine!”
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