For example – Barefoot Contessa – Love the show but it is probably the worst for the fake scenes and scripting. Are we to believe her friend Eleanor was surprised when she opens the door one morning to find her daughter has secretly flown a thousand miles to give her one of Ina’s breakfast baskets? She reads her script perfectly when she asks if Ina ”had something to do with this” – gee, I would have thought the camera crew in the hedges would have given that away. Really?

Sandra Lee – For years, “Aunt Sandy” has felt compelled to entertain us with endless stories of her siblings’ children. I feel sorry for poor nephew “Brycer” – doesn’t he have to be an adult by now? Remember the fake sleepover episode with her niece? And the fake birthday parties? Priceless! And has anyone else paid attention to how many times she asks “can I just tell you?” per episode?!

Paula – Not as bad as the others, but now the producers have her saying “ya’ll” ALL THE TIME. It used to be an occasional thing that came naturally, but now they’ve used it to death. And ever notice that if she’s alone in the kitchen either Michael or the boys are always about to come in “any minute”, but yet sometimes you never see them?

Guy – does the same thing, his boys are always in the next room, could walk in any minute we are to believe, as he is making a huge mess of food just for them, but somehow the show always ends before they show up. Hmmmm?

I’m sure it’s the network pushing all the crap, not the individual cooks, but it needs to end. Just stick to the cooking, that’s entertainment enough.

I would love to throw out my two cents on a few FN shows. I am a professional chef and I love watching FN, but some of those shows I just cannot deal with regardless of which level I try to enjoy them on.

I guess I should start with my favorite show, Good Eats. AB is the man, in my opinion – and although he has HIS opinions, he is usually right on. I enjoy good eats because it’s a show that I can learn something from. Whether it’s foolproof methodology (although not always applicable in a professional kitchen) or just easy consistent recipes, it’s a great show. Some controversial opinions AB has been accused of lately have been saying that Molecular Gastronomy isn’t cooking – I couldn’t agree more, it isn’t cooking and certainly not food I am willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for and go home hungry. The world is trending towards fresh, healthy and natural – why are we infroducing chemicals into everything? If you want something to taste like bacon, why not just use bacon? Also, I heard AB said that Man vs Food was gluttonous and irresponsible – bravo AB, it certainly is, not to mention disgusting.

Anne Burrell – love her! She’s a real chef, not some yahoo masquerading as one. I love to watch her cook because it comes naturally to her and she really believes in great flavors. She worked for Mario Batali – enough said!

Guy Fieri – not much I can say that hasn’t already been said, so I won’t bore anyone. I do enjoy watching DD&D because it shows real people making real food and as a travel enthusiast, I find lost of interesting places I can try to find and most of them are somewhat affordable. Guy’s Big Bite – I’ll pass. I don’t need to garage kitchen, instruments that don’t get played and fake crap all over the place. Also, there is no need to make some flamboyant cocktail – if you have 5 minutes more airtime, would it kill you to make another dish.

Sandra Lee – she’s fun to watch, she’s cute and bubbly. I don’t get the table-scapes, pitches of cocktails, costumes and decorations though. I feel bad sometimes for her, I think she has this crazy bad reputation of being an alcoholic that I haven’t really seen.

Emeril – a true chef, although over-exposed in the early days of FN. I love the fact that he cooked for real and showed people how real cooking really did work. I respect him as being one of the pioneers of the food network, though I think that the FN executives embraced his personality more than his talent and turned him into a late-night talk show wearing a chef coat.

Barefoot Contessa – ok, I like Ina but the show is way over the top in an “I have more money than you” sort of way. The biggest pet peeve I have about her show is the way her recipes are written. It is an “unwritten rule” of the cooking world that recipes are ALWAYS written using large eggs. If a recipe doesn’t specify – always assume it is large. Ina, however, uses extra large eggs for all her recipes. I like her recipes and her flavors…. just can do without all the Hamptons crapola.

Paula Deen & Sons – i don’t think I can add anything that hasn’t already been said, so I will just leave this alone.

Rachael Ray – see above. (also over-exposed)

Bobby Flay – see Rachel Ray and learn how to cook without cilantro – it doesn’t need to be in everything you make.

That’s all for now, I will post a part 2 later. Have a great week everyone and happy cooking!