18 September 2011

Watching Food

I quite often spend my weekends with my television tuned to cooking shows and I've found that I like some more than others. While I truly adore Bobby Flay, Giada and Paula, they cook very little food that I find myself wanting to reproduce. I've recently started watching Hungry Girl and while she gives me great ideas on simple foods I wouldn't have thought about, I don't like all the prepared items that she uses in her recipes.

My favorite food shows? I think I have two. First, Cupcake Girls. Yes, Cupcake Girls! This is show about two friends in Vancouver who have a chain of cupcake stores. They share a lot of insights into growing and maintaining a chain and balance with just enough personal information to let you know they're real people. While they don't really share recipes or cooking techniques, the do provide an inside view into the business side of things.

Probably my most favorite food show is Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. I liked the show when it first began but he was basically just drinking his way around the world. Now, he visits places around the world and uses food as a way to commence a dialog about culture, politics and current events.

I think if I were to have my own food show, I would travel with one or all of my children and we'd compare high and low cuisine in various places around the world. We'd look at how menus are designed, the use of restaurant space and developing food trends. Maybe we could get local chefs to do a cooking segment and share recipes. Yeah, that would be nice!