In the wake of Paula Deen's humiliating departure, the Food Network is posting declining ratings. (Although I suspect they have been in decline for a long time.) This Chowhound forum thread got me thinking about why I don't watch Food Network, and what it might take to lure me there.
First of all, I have very little interest in a reality cooking competition. It's ridiculous, I don't understand it, and I don't want to watch it. You throw a raw octopus at eight nervous sweating people and give them fifteen minutes to turn it into a delicious dish, and I do not care the least little bit.
I also question why there are so many shows about making cakes. There is only so much fondant I can watch before my eyes glaze over. The cakes are only barely edible in the technical sense anyway. It's just Keeping Up With The Kardashians but with a bakery instead of the Kardashians. Once again, I do not care the least little bit.
I'm marginal on the "cooking show as travel show" genre. I can be lured into watching those as filler, from time to time. I'm tired of men always being the stars of these shows, though. As a general rule on television, women cook the food (Paula Deen, Rachael Ray) and men eat it (Anthony Bourdain, Guy Fieri). Give me some female stars!
And finally, teach me about food and how to cook it. Don't just show a bunch of people eating it. I want to know more about meat cuts, about the history of fish sauce, about the development of quinoa. Make it a smart show, and I'll watch it. There's a whole world to explore on the topic of food, and right now Food Network is only exploring the thinnest, lowest common denominator. In their race to the bottom, the only question is, how long will it take them to hit?
Image courtesy Flickr/Jack Zallum
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