What happened to the Food Network?

I have a confession to make.  It's a dark secret I've been carrying with me for many years.  I love cooking shows.  Not just cooking shows... any show where they show you how to make something.  But cooking shows... there's something much more immediately attainable about them.  I may not have every gadget they use, but it's easy to get by and start making a dish that catches my eye.

And the beauty of those shows, the formula that Julia Child came up with - is in the de-mystifying of the art of cooking.  Showing that while great cooks are artists, you too can create some pretty great food.  You might not ever run a kitchen at a world-class restaurant, but there's no reason you can't try something new in your own kitchen, and no mystery to how the chef's do what they do.  Just years of practice with stuff you have around your own house.

The rise of cable television, the proliferation of 24-hour channels dedicated to a given hobby or interest was a great boon for a while - wannabe cooks got the Food Network, science geeks got Discovery channel, Alien abductions and paranormal woo-ists got The History Channel.

But something has changed.  I tuned in to the Food Network the other night and up came a show - Top Chef.  Prior, recent exposures showed me other shows like Chopped, and Hell's Kitchen. These are reality contest shows.  Not cooking shows.  They don't show you anything of the cooking involved - They quickly toss out who is doing what, but there are so many people and so much time spent showing off their personalities, that there's no time to talk about the how or why - it's 20 seconds of Bob is making souffle! Jody is making Creme Brulee!  Then on to the tasting and judging, with a lot of shots of the contestants as they're being judged.

The cooking has been almost completely jettisoned from the cooking show.  In favour of overhyped drama and jump cuts to fires flaring and pans being banged.  What the food is, how it's made, why the cook is doing what they're doing... all of that is gone.  Most of the time you don't even get to see what the cook is doing.  The "mystery" is back - some people do some stuff, food you couldn't think of yourself is presented, and then judges weigh in.

That's not a cooking show.  That's a game show, based on a skill we can't judge for ourselves.  I see no reason it should even be on the Food Network.  And definitely no reason to watch it myself.

And while we're ranting, what's with these kids, with their music?  Get off my Lawn!

Bah.  Maybe I am getting old after all.