My Favorite TV Chef
I'm not sure if most of you who read this blog are able to get BBC Food, but it's become my favorite channel. We only get it in the mornings here, after which it switches over to a Danish channel, but most days I'm glued to the TV until noon, watching various cooking shows. This shows you how demanding my current schedule is.
At any rate, I've done a full reversal on Ainsley Harriott. I used to think he was an idiot when he was doing this show, which required him to act like a very loud, very drunk queen without the benefit of actually being gay. But I really think he's found his forum with Ready Steady Cook. The premise of the show is that two celebrity chefs come on, each is teamed up with a non-chef guest of varying level of skill, and are challenged to complete a meal based on ingredients brought by the guest, usually purchased for under ten pounds British. Oh, and they have twenty minutes to do it. The audience then votes on which meal looks seems most delicious.
Techniques tend toward stovetop preparations, broiling, steaming, and other time-saving tricks, so you tend to see a lot of soups, deep fries, curries, etc., as well as quick breads and other straightforward dishes with few preparation steps. But that's kind of the cool thing about the show; there's a new twist on every show, and you see some unexpected ingredients (at least for my American palate) like duck breast, various kinds of fish like plaice and monkfish, pheasant, venison, and rabbit. But once you've gotten the basic techniques down, you can usually replicate most of the dishes with a quick trip to the store, given an occasional substitution. Of course every once in a while, a chef will throw a curveball like quick souffles and the like, but after having seen a few of those come off okay in under twenty minutes, I'm tempted to try my hand at one.
At any rate, I've done a full reversal on Ainsley Harriott. I used to think he was an idiot when he was doing this show, which required him to act like a very loud, very drunk queen without the benefit of actually being gay. But I really think he's found his forum with Ready Steady Cook. The premise of the show is that two celebrity chefs come on, each is teamed up with a non-chef guest of varying level of skill, and are challenged to complete a meal based on ingredients brought by the guest, usually purchased for under ten pounds British. Oh, and they have twenty minutes to do it. The audience then votes on which meal looks seems most delicious.
Techniques tend toward stovetop preparations, broiling, steaming, and other time-saving tricks, so you tend to see a lot of soups, deep fries, curries, etc., as well as quick breads and other straightforward dishes with few preparation steps. But that's kind of the cool thing about the show; there's a new twist on every show, and you see some unexpected ingredients (at least for my American palate) like duck breast, various kinds of fish like plaice and monkfish, pheasant, venison, and rabbit. But once you've gotten the basic techniques down, you can usually replicate most of the dishes with a quick trip to the store, given an occasional substitution. Of course every once in a while, a chef will throw a curveball like quick souffles and the like, but after having seen a few of those come off okay in under twenty minutes, I'm tempted to try my hand at one.
posted by L&D at
10:08 PM
1 Comments:
oddly enough... BBC food is my favorite channel here in Rwanda as well, as Ready, Steady, Cook is one of my favorite shows. Unfortunately I rarely get to take a stab at the recipes as ingredients can be a bit hard to come by, but totally agree with the assessment of Ainsley - initially annoying, now he just has verve and moxie. or something. :-)
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