Food Network shows

Food Network seems to be launching a lot of new shows recently. I like to try out new shows. You never know what they will come up with next.

Bobby Flay's Grill It -- Bobby Flay has so many shows. It's amazing! I actually really like Bobby Flay. I used to hate him (flashback to him standing on a cutting board at Iron Chef) and then I actually looked at his grilling recipes, books, and shows and decided that I liked him. But as a guilty secret. When he came up in conversation, I would say, we really like his grilling recipes. We have his DVDs. When I was at my sister's, we made his grilled potato salad recipe. Turns out, it's just a French-style potato salad, but grilled. It really reminds you that chefs know all the basics. The other night, we watched him on Iron Chef America against Gabrielle Hamilton. We were really impressed that his repetoire looked non-Southwestern at all, a far cry from the things he used to make.

Oh yes, I was going to talk about his new show, Grill It. It seems to go with a theme where he has a guest who specializes in something. They both make their dishes and they go through the prep and cooking and all that. I only watched the first one but it didn't really keep my attention. I just like cooking shows without gimmicks. The cooking itself looked good, but this one isn't on our DVR list.

Since I mentioned Iron Chef America, I want to also mention that I've been really excited about all the NY chefs that have been on there. We haven't watched the Marcus Samuelsson episode yet, but we happily watched the April Bloomfield and the above mentioned Gabrielle Hamilton episodes.

Ask Aida -- The concept of this show is a little interesting, but I think it works. It's all about questions from viewers. Aida begins by addressing a recipe request from a reader. The first one was for indoor grilling. She did a marinated flank steak with grilled portobellos and red onions. Aida is pretty straight forward. She has good prep skills. She talks about what she's doing and adds in little tidbits a la Barefoot Contessa, which I really like. When there are lulls, her sidekick Noah fires in questions on prep or trivia related to whatever she's doing. I like this show. It's informative and simple. I'm not sure about Noah though. He may make or break it for me. He's nice, but dorky.

Secrets of a Restaurant Chef -- I was really looking forward to this Anne Burrell show. I love watching her make pasta and other stuff for Mario Batali on Iron Chef America. I considered one of our few stops while in NYC at her restaurant, Centro Vincoteca. The first show was painful to watch. She flailed about in general and, though probably very genuine, was a little much for me to watch. I was disappointed, but didn't want to give it up. The second episode was about a roast of some sort and it was way better. She's fun to watch and very knowledgeable, but less flailing. Still, the episodes in the DVR are piling up so there must be some reason that I'm hesitant to watch.

Food Detectives -- They gave Ted Allen his own show, like MythBusters but ... well, probably that show but about food. I have it taped but I haven't watched it yet. I think this will be either an awesome or horrible show.

How'd that get on my plate? -- You know, I love shows like this. I always went through Unwrapped even though that host really irked me ever time he was on screen. This show leaves out the kitchy introductions and just gets down to the good stuff. It even has nice animations to introduce how things work. The host is very likable and seems knowledgeable when she's talking. She's not just there for decoration.

So obviously, we've had to make some room in the DVR for these new shows. We had to remove Martin Yan's China that had him touring China. The show followed him through different Chinese cities exploring the food (which was always great, though his speaking rhythmn was a bit hard to follow and I found it a chore to watch) and then he would cook something. I was only really concerned in watching what he was eating, so we ended up removing it. Instead, we are recording Samantha Brown: Passport to China. We watched the Beijing episode a couple days ago and really enjoyed it. As an aside, I really enjoy the commerical where she comes back from a trip (promoting her new show on weekend getaways) and her officemates are aluminum foiling her office. She mentions that they would never do this to Bourdain. It was cute and funny. J says I'm the target audience for it.

Still taping and loving Barefoot Contessa. J says one of the reasons I like this show so much is that they really focus on the food, zooming in really closely on the food and prep.

Still taping Good Eats although that show is so prolific that it really hurts the DVR queue. We really have to keep tabs on this show.