With our recent post on the free boudin selection, I felt like we might be getting dangerously commercial at We Are Never Full, but that was nothing compared to last night’s dinner at The GreenTable, sponsored, as it was, by those corporate behemoths, Visa Signature.

How strange, we hear you cry, that you folks (i.e. us), who are constantly bucking trends and chipping away at established norms (note the irony), should be so craven and would sell-out to big business so quickly! Guilty as charged, I’m afraid. Though happily for us, the only thing that we “sold” was a few delightful hours of our time with some very stimulating company, including fellow bloggers, food writers and, of course, the kind and generous representatives from Visa, chatting about the food scene in NYC.

In return, Visa provided a magnificent organic and sustainable dinner featuring a host of delicious products grown, for the most part, within a couple of hundred miles of the city. The wines pairing all three courses were also magnificent and again, were either organic or biodynamically-grown. All in all, a real treat for a Monday evening.

And so, if you weren’t already sickened by our association with big business, you better click away now before the name-dropping begins. For not only did we see everyone’s favorite “food dude” Guy Fieri stroll by during dinner, complete with peroxide-do suitably immovable with gel, and recent Top Chef finalist Dale (Food Network is located in the Chelsea Market above where we were eating), we also chin-wagged with the real stars of New York gastronomy, including: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan at TheKitchn; Cynthia Sin-Yi Cheng at Cravings; Tina Wong at The Wandering Eater, and Mona at Mona’s Apple. We thank them all for their company and a really enjoyable evening, and look forward to keeping in touch.

What’s interesting is the rest of the list. Look at the jump in salary from Puck to Ramsay. And I’m absolutely sick and dumbfounded that Paula “I Heart Butter” Deen makes more money than Mario Batali. WTF!? And Bobby Flay better check his contract with The Food Network considering he hosts about 5 shows for them, owns a few restaurants all over the US and still only makes the same as Anthony Bourdain.

2. Wolfgang Puck – $16 million
3. Gordon Ramsay- $7.5 million
4. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa – $5 million
5. Alain Ducasse – $5 million
6. Paula Deen – $4.5 million
7. Mario Batali – $3 million
8. Tom Colicchio – $2 million
9. Bobby Flay – $1.5 million
10. Anthony Bourdain – $1.5 million

What do you guys think of this list? Anything shocking to you?

**For those WANF international readers (love you, btw… thanks for visiting!) if you have no idea who Rachael Ray is, you can read up on her here.

Well, not exactly. Here’s what (A certain national celebrity mag) magazine’s daily news clips e-mail The Dirt reported today:

“Insiders say Rachel Ray’s daytime show will be taken off the air at the end of her contract in 2010. Apparently, her ratings are sliding.”

We are at pains to remind our readers that while we are certainly not Ms. Ray’s biggest fans, we do not wish her ill. That said, the fewer opportunities we have to stumble across her wild and excessive gesticulations, jock-voice and tucked-in styles while idly flipping channels, the better.

Is this just another case of a network trying desperately to cash-in on a TV personality’s popularity by making them ubiquitous and endlessly shoving them down the public’s throats until people get sick of it? Or, is it that she wasn’t that popular outside of ’90s throwback Mid-Westerners anyway, and the network has finally caught on? What do you think?

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER RACHEL COMMENTARY:

• RACHEL RAY: MAYBE HATE IS A STRONG WORD
• HIT Me Rachel One More Time!
  

So, the headline above might be slightly hyperbolic, but the sentiment I’m trying to convey is very real and serious. Last night, UK TV cooking legend, Delia Smith’s new show Delia premiered on BBC2 and instead of garnering the rave reviews virtually every one of her previous series have, this one has been roundly panned, and foodies across the UK are outraged at what they see as Delia’s complete volte face.

You see, for years Delia has been at the forefront of those encouraging us to return to fresh, seasonally-available foods, locally-grown in traditional ways and prepared using time-honored British techniques and recipes – something many of us started to believe, and a mantra that johnny-cum-latelys like serial-lisper Jamie Oliver have made a career out of parroting. But, in her new show, it seems that she is advocating the use of ready-prepared, dried or frozen ingredients to make dishes that are barely cooked, take no time to make and, frankly, sound horrendous. After having built her career by encouraging, nay teaching, a nation to cook properly and traditionally with real ingredients, she’s throwing all that away and encouraging us to cook as little as possible and make meals from foods full of preservatives, artificial colorings and flavorings. Delia had always said that the actual cooking could be as pleasurable as the eating, but now she’s saying it’s just a waste of time. Why, Delia? Why?

The equivalent, for US readers, would be if Julia Child had suddenly decided to advocate making frozen dinners or meals out of a can. Regular readers will know that we’re typically very disparaging about TV cooks who encourage us to cook in this way – Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee, in particular – and in this instance we’re going to have to agree (without having seen the show, admittedly) that (assuming the reports are true) Delia has made a serious mis-step here. Let’s hope that the cooking-haters out there (e.g. the Rachel Ray/Sandra Lee lovers) don’t win on UK TV as they have on the Food Network.

It’s a philosophical issue: either you look at food as fuel, and therefore eating and cooking as necessary evils to be completed as quickly as possible and with the minimum of effort, or you look at food as an opportunity to make a necessity enjoyable and relaxing, and therefore eating and cooking as a “way of bringing pleasure to everyday life,” to quote Delia. Surely those who are on TV trying to get people excited about food should be in the latter camp, rather than encouraging us to rush through to the end of the meal so we can get on with our busy lives? What do you think?

• TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE WITH MUSHY PEA

My question to you, dear readers, is what do you think about Babbo being named #1? I have eaten there once and I still remember the meal I had – amazing Ostrich ravioli. You know you’ve hit a great place when, years later, you still remember your food. Have you had a memorable meal at Babbo or anywhere – if so, where was it and what was it?

I’ll leave you with a quote by the lovely Italian Stalion fire-crotch that he gave months ago when word was out about him leaving/being asked to leave the Fool Network (his wit and frankness bring a smile to my face ever time I read this):

“They don’t need me. They have decided they are mass market and they are going after the Wal-Mart crowd, [this was...] a smart business decision. So they don’t need someone who uses polysyllabic words from other languages.” -Mario Batali

So, again, what are some of your most memorable meals?

Not to be stingy (I’ll take what I can get) but wouldn’t it be great to have a Thai or Indian chef on there, too? Maybe a Mexican chef doing regional cuisine ala Rick Bayless? Why not give Morimoto his own show? Oh, that’s right, maybe it’s because he’s too Asian? TFN completely degrades him every time he’s on Iron Chef by dubbing some dudes voice over his own. HE IS SPEAKING ENGLISH WHEN YOU DUB OVER HIM WITH ENGLISH!!!! I understand he has a strong accent, but at least let us hear the master speak. For fuck’s sake, degrade him a bit less by using subtitles. I wonder if this pisses him off?

Speaking of black cooks/chefs, I have been wanting to write a post on someone I am in love with – G. Garvin. Has anyone watched him on TV One? I’m so happy he is on TV – he’s intelligent, funny and is a fresh face/voice in the culinary TV world. He actually enlightens us with his knowledge of different foods and the recipe, doing it all with humor and not loosing sense of his real personality. The Food Network should have swooped him up before TV One did. I love him… he looks like LL Cool J and has a personality to match his looks. His catchphrase is “holla at ya boy” and he makes a sound when he’s grinding pepper (nothing like the loud, obnoxious BAM!). Here’s a few quotes I wrote down from G. while watching his show a few weeks ago:

“If you ain’t got no wooden spoon, you probably ain’t got no TV!” – G. Garvin

“If you ain’t got an oven, go holla at ya neighbor! Tell ‘em ya got dropped biscuits for your b-baby-baby!” - G. Garvin during a segment making ‘Dropped Biscuits’

I hope the new show on TFN is a good one. I really hope the Neely’s survive on the network because it will prove to me that the audience as well as the execs are not afraid of a bit of diversity! Good luck, Neely’s! I’m sure I’ll be giving my opinion on this here blog as soon as I see it! I’d love to hear your opinion too.

Check out a another WANF reader’s posts on the Neely’s and this subject:

Food Network Missing Key Ingredient?

CHECK OUT SOME RELATED POSTS:

• Rachel Ray – Maybe Hate is a Strong Word?
• NOOOOO! Could it Be? (Mario Gets Fired?)
• Bon Appetit Magazine’s ‘Makeover’- Love It or Leave It?
• Sara Moulton Leaving Food Network for PBS
• Good Eats – Man TV?

Although we are still recovering from our 14-hour cooking fest that was Christmas Eve, we had an absolute blast and were proud of ourselves for successfully producing 6 courses for 11 people. It was EXHAUSTING, make no friggin’ mistake. We cooked from about noon till 7PM on Sunday and from 10AM till 5 on Christmas Eve day. The hardest part of the meal was the Fritto Misto because we were cooking on an electric stove (arrrrrrrrrr) and we only had one cast-iron pan (fried so much quicker and more evenly). I had a bit of a mini-breakdown during the fritto misto cooking because people were bumping me, talking to me, staring at us and doing the #1 most annoying thing you can do to a cook (now this was all my mother) saying, “Ummmmm, can you tell us when this may be done?” or “Are we any closer to eating?” SHEEEEEDDDDDDD UPPPPPPPPP!!!!!

So, since there are lots of elements to our meal, I figured I would post one or two recipes at a time. Most of the things we made were not from recipes and just kind of happened so I’ll do the best I can with measurements. But, like I always say, cooking should not be all about recipes – recipes are like a bit of a helper but you should never feel like they should be followed exactly. Always taste as you go along and you’ll know whether you need to add more stuff.

Thanks to my sister, Alison, we had one of those festive Christmas drinks that you always see in those dorky Christmas spreads in magazines or in those fake, made-up ‘party scenes’ on Michael Chiarello’s ‘Napa Style’. You know he doesn’t have that many different friends! And you KNOW people wouldn’t be having that much fun with him. Anywho’s, you know how much I hate on The Food Network, but this recipe comes from there. It also comes from a very annoying personality on TFN – Guy Fieri. Anyone with the name “Guy” can not be trusted. Anyone with a friggin’ goatee a different color than the hair on his head can not be trusted. ANYONE with a pinkie ring should NEVER be trusted!! But, you know what, even with a nerd-o, cheesy title like “Gingerbling”, this drink was very delish and not heavy like many creamy Christmas drinks made with eggnog. So, for my first posted recipe is one I can lift straight from The Food Network. God, I hope this never happens again.

GINGERBLING CHRISTMAS DRINK – FROM ‘GUY’ FIERI ON TFN

Ingredients

For the sugar rim:
Apple slice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Grated nutmeg

For the drink:

1 ounce cinnamon schnapps
1 ounce vodka
4 ounces ginger ale
Ice

What to do:

1. For the rim, combine all ingredients in a shallow dish or saucer.
2. Wet the rim of a martini glass or tumbler with the slice of apple, reserve for garnish. Dip the rim of the glass in the sugar mixture and reserve.
3. In a cocktail shaker, pour the cinnamon schnapps, vodka, and ginger ale over ice, shake and strain into the glass. Garnish with the apple slice.

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

• Spanish Easter Bread – Hornazo
• Pork Roll and Scrapple – The Dirty Culinary Pride of South Jersey/Philly
• Pulling Pints: Not Small Beer
• FRITO MISTO DI MARE (FRIED MIXED SEAFOOD AND VEGGIES)
• FETTUCCINE FRA’DIAVOLO WITH CRAB AND SHRIMP
• CREAMY LEMON PASTA

UPDATE: Emeril Live is DEFINITELY cancelled as of the middle of December.

So, first Mario, then Sara and where the hell is Morimoto on Iron Chef? Probably gone as well. As the ship that is the Food Network quickly sinking in my mind, Rachel Ray continues to make more money, get more shows, and get more irritating! WTF!?

During a brief, but animated, post-lunch discussion of the various Food Network “stars” with several of my work colleagues today, it was posited that Alton Brown’s show “Good Eats” is popular with men, and men only, because it’s a show about gadgets.

For me, Alton Brown is one of the few non-annoying characters on the Food Network, combining, as he does, witticisms with interesting facts and anecdotes, creative explanatory methods with geekiness, and delivering it all in a humble, non-offensive manner, and because of this he is by some distance my favorite presenter. Being the best of a bad bunch however, is flattery with scant praise, and it’s a fact that there isn’t much competition for him on the network with likable characters at an increasingly high premium. (Do we really need one more non-professional, white-bread, middle-American housewife making weekday meals in a spotless kitchen? That’s right, I’m thinking of what’s her face, that thin-nosed, freckly-faced, boney slag who won the next food network star – now “The Gourmet Next Door” – ugh) But is Alton only likable to men? And, is “Good Eats” really a gadget show?

The fact that it’s not just another stand and stir show in which the host tells aggravatingly sacharine stories of how her father (who’s Sicilian – and therefore, implicitly, knows everything there is to know about food) used to make his own pizzelles or whatever, or how her nephew (insert peculiar unisex mid-Western name of your choice here) always likes to eat these tasty treats after an afternoon chasing the hog-skin around, makes it unusual in the Food Network schedule, and something unusual on such a sickeningly homogenous channel is like finding a dildo in your pocket. It’s kind of cool and exciting, but it’s also rather worrying and throws you off balance.

So, what do you think — is Good Eats only for men? Do you like Alton Brown? Should he be the next rat to jump the sinking ship that is TFN?

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER INTERESTING POSTS:

• NOOOOO! Could it Be? (Mario Gets Fired?)
• Sara Moulton Leaving Food Network for PBS
• Rachel Ray – Maybe Hate is a Strong Word?
• Diversity Finally Comes to The Food Network

You go, Sara! Can’t wait to watch you again. We know you’ll be better off with this move.

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

• NOOOOO! Could it Be? (Mario Gets Fired?)
• Rachel Ray – Maybe Hate is a Strong Word?
• The Wrong Message from a Former Prophet (Delia Smith Jumps Ship)
• Does Hollywood HATE Food?
• The REAL Cocido of Spain
• Diversity Finally Comes to The Food Network