Food Network

Having access to cable tv for the first time since 2002 -> Food Network viewing. For starters, this video about chicken cacciatore is entertaining. 

Saturday morning with the Brits: Jamie O and Nigella. His current show/book seems to be pretty good. The carpaccio with french beans he made looked really good, will have to give that a whirl. Cooking cranberry beans with summer savory was a good trick, too. The one funny thing about him, he has a cookware deal with t-fal, so everything is non-stick. I hate non-stick. He uses metal utensils with 'em, too, which is pretty silly. That said, I own 6 of his cookbooks, and they are all interesting. I like him.

Nigella is just ridiculous. Her voice, plus she is flirting with the camera the whole time. She doesn't focus on technique at all, just ingredients, which I quibble with, but her obvious love for food is contagious. She made british-style indian food in this episode, quasi-authentic, but whatever, it looked tasty. Might try the north indian chicken curry, and the pomegranate raita.

Saturday evening, Iron Chef America marathon -- 3 episodes with different cheeses being the secret ingredient. A little lame of a secret ingredient but c'est la vie. Mario Batali, godfather of this blog, knocked his out of the park. In the third one Bobby Flay was destroyed. I don't understand why people are combining seafood and cheese; it happened at least once in each episode, it's against the rules. Episode 4 had a variety of tuna. Morimoto scored 59/60. Really, really beautiful stuff. The challenger did well, too. The pic is of tuna tartare which he added to his restaurant's menu after the show.

Rogue in Newport, OR has a deal with Morimoto, they brew 3 beers with his name on them. This guy looks good.

Disappointments? Seemed like every dude who didn't have a beard had a soul patch, so guess soul patches are in style/overdone, now. No mention of organic food at all. A ton of advertising of lame processed food/a ton of lame advertising. Typing this whilest listening to commercial-free NPR.... All-clad was everywhere. All-clad is alright, I have a few pieces, and it is made in America, but I don't like monopolies, plus there is better stuff out there. On the flip-side I was happy to see a Staub Piece mixed in with the also good Le Creuset.  Also, Nigella used stainless steel lined copper.