Gordon Ramsey Uncharted is going to appear on the National Geographic channel starting July 21st. I just saw of plug for the show on tv tonight. It looks like it is similar to Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown.

I also saw ABC's Family Food Fight tonight, and it was just okay. They start out with four families competing with each other. All four families cooked dinner, and one family won and moved on. The other three families had to cook eggs benedict and I am not sure what else and one of those families got eliminated

NFriday wrote:I also saw ABC's Family Food Fight tonight, and it was just okay. They start out with four families competing with each other. All four families cooked dinner, and one family won and moved on. The other three families had to cook eggs benedict and I am not sure what else and one of those families got eliminated

After I saw your comments, I checked it out. I saw the first episode shown in late June.

Families cooking together is not always a well coordinated effort, which is the drama the producers are counting on.

Early front runners are the three brothers who simply assigned each other what to do, then off they went.

There are three cousins who probably are not in the kitchen all that often. They work off each other's strengths. Where it almost went haywire was an older cousin who decided to change her reliable recipe AND who kept accidentally turning off the oven. Together they prayed at the oven that their chicken would finish cooking with the little time available. They won the first round and avoided the elimination contest.

A Chinese Tiger mother and two adult daughters, whose skills were not at their Mom's level. When things were not looking well, the competitiveness of the mother showed. Mom also ignored her daughter's reactions to shrimp with heads, which was later commented by the judges. If they lost, the drive home was not going to be fun.

There was an Italian family from Chicago area driven by the adult daughter's ambitions. It was easy not to like the daughter, though it could be driven by how the program was edited. Their lowest point was when they were in the 'Breakfast for Dinner' elimination. The daughter directed her parents to cook a Mexican breakfast with some elements they clearly never had done before. Not surprisingly, they were eliminated.

Regards,
Cathy2

Nancy,

I watch tv streaming via the internet. Often I have to wait a week for new episodes.

Last night, I watched the same episode you chatted about. This afternoon I put it on for my Mom. I was surprised when episode one was over, it immediately began the second episode.

I will guess the ratings are not what they want, so they are bumping stats by uncloaking the second episode faster. It was really interesting family dynamics.

Regards,
Cathy2

I just watched a little of the Family Food Fight last week, and apparently the Muslin family won the first round, because I saw them watching the other three families cooking in the second round. The episode I saw last night, the White family won the first round, and the only thing they made that the judges did not care for was the corn bread. The Mother revised the recipe. Did anybody see the blow torch being used last night? It was some sort of roast wrapped in bacon. None of the judges liked that.

NFriday wrote:Did anybody see the blow torch being used last night? It was some sort of roast wrapped in bacon. None of the judges liked that.

Yep, it was the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin from the Italian family from Chicago, who were sent home. The judges thought it should have been crisped in a hot frying pan.

The White family are all cousins. The older cousin decided not add bacon or brown sugar to her hot water cornbread. Her cousins were not thrilled about making those changes. Yet they won a slot and avoided the elimination round.

The Muslim family are all sister-in-laws who clearly spend a lot of time together. They really work well together.

Two out of three Asian brothers worked well together, but the third guy with his fussy perfectionist tendencies dragged them down. Even as they walked away after losing, the third brother lagged behind a few steps.

From a people watching point of view, it's been as interesting as the food.

Regards,
CAthy2

JoelF wrote:I agree -- it's Favreau that makes it work. He's a very different personality from the attitude of Bourdain: he's got a joy of learning and watching (which is probably why he's a decent director) and seems generally fun to be around.

I wonder if full recipes from the show are posted anywhere. I've searched around a bit and only found a couple of them.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

JoelF wrote:I agree -- it's Favreau that makes it work. He's a very different personality from the attitude of Bourdain: he's got a joy of learning and watching (which is probably why he's a decent director) and seems generally fun to be around.

I wonder if full recipes from the show are posted anywhere. I've searched around a bit and only found a couple of them.

=R=

Yeah I've wished for this too. I've relied on their graphics during the show to at least ID the ingredients. That's proven to be helpful

WhyBeeSea wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

JoelF wrote:I agree -- it's Favreau that makes it work. He's a very different personality from the attitude of Bourdain: he's got a joy of learning and watching (which is probably why he's a decent director) and seems generally fun to be around.

I wonder if full recipes from the show are posted anywhere. I've searched around a bit and only found a couple of them.

=R=

Yeah I've wished for this too. I've relied on their graphics during the show to at least ID the ingredients. That's proven to be helpful

I probably shouldn't say this out loud but I'd be willing to plunk down for a companion cookbook.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I probably shouldn't say this out loud but I'd be willing to plunk down for a companion cookbook.
=R=

Gotta assume this is in the works.

Haven't looked at the recipes, let alone tried them to see how good they are, but here's a sure attempting to duplicate the show's recipes
https://www.delish.com/food/a27840324/t ... t-recipes/

JoelF wrote:Haven't looked at the recipes, let alone tried them to see how good they are, but here's a sure attempting to duplicate the show's recipes
https://www.delish.com/food/a27840324/t ... t-recipes/

Thanks, Joel. I'll take a look. I'm mainly interested in the marinades. Based on a few conversations that took place between Choi and Favreau in the episodes, it seems like those recipes are never the same twice, anyway. But still, maybe these will be good starting points. And, as WhyBeeSea posted above, at least an ingredient list for each dish is provided within its episode, which is somewhat helpful.

=R=

If "Taco Chronicles" on Netlix doesn't immediately make you check flight schedules to Mexico then your LTH privileges should be revoked. Each episode highlights a different type of taco and visits places that do them best. I'm embarassed that in my numerous visits to Mexico City I've never visited El Vilsito, auto shop by day, taqueria by night. That will soon be corrected.

spinynorman99 wrote:If "Taco Chronicles" on Netlix doesn't immediately make you check flight schedules to Mexico then your LTH privileges should be revoked. Each episode highlights a different type of taco and visits places that do them best. I'm embarassed that in my numerous visits to Mexico City I've never visited El Vilsito, auto shop by day, taqueria by night. That will soon be corrected.

I've been enjoying this series but at times distinctions and differences in styles (even between multiple places making the same items) are not articulated well or depicted visually. I also find the first-person voice-over narration by the taco type in each episode to be incredibly cheezy. But the food they do present and detail looks positively awesome!

=R=

On History Channel is a series called “The Food that Built America."

I have not yet seen it, but heard its praises from friends.

Cathy2

The Tiny Chef, the rotund, blissfully humming protagonist of a hit stop-motion video series online, is just the latest testament to the charms of miniature food.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/dini ... -food.html

Thought I'd be annoyed, finger on the clicker, ended up watching the entire episode.
Good Eats: The Return #1, Chicken Parm on YouTube found ----> Here

Has anybody else seen the 6 part series Uncharted on National Geographic channel with Gordon Ramsey? It is similar to Anthony Bourdain's show. They just showed the final episode on Sunday. He was in SE Alaska in the middle of the winter. I enjoyed the program. Somebody took him out on a boat to catch some pristine ice. Somebody else also took him out salmon fishing. He did not catch any salmon. I enjoyed the program. I also saw the episode he filmed in New Zealand and the one he filmed in Hawaii. Hope this helps, Nancy

I did the new Good Eats method for Chicken Parm yesterday. Turned out very well. I only had one can of legit San Marzano tomatoes so I broke into another large can of tomatoes, illicitly labeled as "San Marzano". I could tell after a long simmer which tomatoes were which. Never making that mistake again.

New episodes of Rotten on Netflix. Watched the show on avocados. Lots of avocado trivia, including that the modern Haas avocados all originate from a single tree grown by a mailman from Pasadena. Also focuses on the criminal element a billion-dollar-plus Mexican crop attracts.

No Passport Required is starting its second season on January 20. I saw the preview for it today. One of the cities Marcus is going to is Philly.

NFriday wrote:No Passport Required is starting its second season on January 20. I saw the preview for it today. One of the cities Marcus is going to is Philly.

The first episode of the second season, Seattle, is available at

https://www.pbs.org/video/seattle-cwbmj4/

The Chef Show is back for a new (short) season on Netflix. Favreau is sort of phoning it in on this one, but he did have a busy year. He hits up Border Grill, Wolfgang Puck's Cut and and Roy Choi's new restaurant, all in Las Vegas and Wexler's in LA. Each show offers a little something, and nice to see Sue Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken again, with an anecdote about when they both worked at Le Perroquet in the early 1980's (for $3.25/hr; half of what the men were paid) and also giving a shout out to Rick Bayless for his timesaving trick of leaving the peel on plaintains before frying - they saw it on his show.

Just got my weekly email from PBS. In April, they will have a series called, 'Dishing with Julia Child.'

I think I am going to like this or lets hope nobody screwed up the execution, because I really want to like this.

Regards,
Cathy2

Hi- I have Sling streaming service. It is a lot cheaper than Comcast. Since the pandemic started they have given me all kinds of new channels. Some are just available for a few months, such as the Hallmark channel, and some are here indefinitely such MSNBC and Fox News. One channel that just started appearing on Sling is the channel Tastemade. It looks like it is mostly food related. Has anybody seen this channel? It looks like it is more relaxed than the Food Network.

For those who are Amazon Prime members, I strongly encourage you to re-visit (or watch for the first time) the Great Chefs series, which are free to stream for Prime members. We flew through both seasons of Great Chefs of the West, which was really a seminal show for me back when it originally aired (1987). I was heavily influenced and inspired by it, and consider it to be one of the biggest reasons I got into cooking.

At the time, the series -- and the chefs featured on them -- were state of the art. Well, even though cooking is often considered a static craft, a lot has changed since the late 1980's. Some of the techniques used by the chefs are obviously dated or flat-out wrong. It's fascinating to see these leaders in their field work through the limitations of ingredients, technology (some of which hadn't been invented yet) knowledge and training. There are some practices shown at which even the most basic home cook of today would scoff.

Of course, there are plenty of exceptions to the above, the most notable coming in a 1985 episode of Great Chefs of Chicago that featured Jean Banchet (episode 8 ). That episode is timeless and watching him work and create in the Le Francais kitchen is positively transfixing. I've watched it a few times and have not tired of it.

Speaking of the Chicago series, it's also interesting to see how the dining landscape here has shifted since the mid-1980's. In this (sole) season of the show, more than 50% of the restaurants featured were in the suburbs, and a vast majority of the featured establishments focused on French and French-influenced cuisine. We were still a good decade away from a local focus on anything when it came to upper-echelon dining.

In any case, the series are still wonderful and inspirational time capsules and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Unfortunately, compared to today's HD/4K video world, the picture quality does not do these dishes and chefs justice. But that almost adds to the charm. Don't let the technical limitations of the era prevent you from enjoying these fascinating documentations. These are the television equivalent of picking up an old paperback, the contents within every bit as entertaining and informative as ever.

=R=

Agree completely on Great Chefs. I learned all my knife skills and prep strategies from that show. Hugely useful and had a huge impact on me.

Katie wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Last year on PBS, 'I'll have what Phil has,' is now Netflix's, 'Somebody Feed Phil.'

That Phil, he really gets around. First episode, Phil is in Bangkok. What a lucky guy.

Woo-hoo! Thanks for the heads -up. We love Phil.

Season three starts tomorrow. It includes a visit to Chicago. https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertai ... story.html

Dave148 wrote:

Katie wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Last year on PBS, 'I'll have what Phil has,' is now Netflix's, 'Somebody Feed Phil.'

That Phil, he really gets around. First episode, Phil is in Bangkok. What a lucky guy.

Woo-hoo! Thanks for the heads -up. We love Phil.

Season three starts tomorrow. It includes a visit to Chicago. https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertai ... story.html

Chicago episode was nicely filmed but nothing revelatory (his New York one was a far better effort). He also visits London, Seoul, Montreal and Morocco.

Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi - new 10 episode series on Hulu.