Stepford Chefs
I’m catching up on my favorite TiVo’d Food Network shows and settling in for another excellent 30 minutes of Chef Robert Irvine doing his magic, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but another over-exposed celebrity, Michael Symon. It’s not enough to see Symon all over the Iron Chef series, but now he’s replaced one of my favorite food guys, Chef Irvine. As you may remember, Irvine was fired from his Food Network show Dinner Impossible earlier this year for taking too much creative license with the accomplishments on his resume (see my blog “Resume Impossible” atwww.itsfoodtime.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/resume-impossible). Somehow, I had hoped Irvine would be saved by a last minute change of heart by the Big Bosses at the Food Network, but apparently no such luck. It’s a sad day for us ‘Impossible’ lovers.
What’s bugging me more is over-saturation with the same handful of food celebrities. How many shows, let alone cookbooks, does the world need from Rachel Ray? Does Alton Brown really need a cooking show, a travel show, a gig as Iron Chef host, etc.? I love Bobby Flay, but how many times a week do I need to see him on TV? Is there really such a shortage of celebs? Or are the boys in the back office just lazy? For example, during the Iron Chef competition last year, Symon competed with John Besh in the final round and just pulled off the victory. John’s a new face, a likeable guy, and apparently a great cook. Why not bring Chef Besh back as the host of Dinner Impossible? Instead we get the same guys in our face, simply occupying different time slots.
Is it really so hard to bring new talent forward, or is the audience (that’s us) as lazy and stupid as the suits at the Food Network seems to think?
– Chris