i *LOVE* "great chefs"!!! (main website here.)sometimes i feel like i'm the only one who remembers what an amazing moment in television "great chefs" (and its sister show, "great chefs international") was. i know that can't possibly be true, but even if it is, i have to give respect to what was one of the most formative shows of my childhood. i may have spent my earlier years parked in front of pbs, but as i got older ~ say 10 to 13 or so ~ "great chefs" was my show-of-choice. i remember it coming on the travel channel for two hours in the post-school afternoon: 2 "great chefs" followed by 2 "great chefs international". my brother and i watched religiously and there were few days that i missed my mini-marathon.
the g.c. camera crew travelled to restaurants all over north america, europe, and south america, bringing their audience three dishes in thirty minutes: appetizer, entree, and dessert. each segment featured a different chef in a different restaurant and more often than not, the chefs were in separate cities or countries. the show was then edited together to present one fabulous three-course meal.
i have to confess that i really preferred "great chefs international" (it might have been "great chefs of the world"), but neither show has a heavy web presence which is supremely disappointing. there is a youtube channel w/ entire 22-minute episodes of "great chefs"; however, i couldn't post a video here b/c the channel disabled embedding. (a lot of youtube channels that post tv shows disable embedding, comments, and ratings to fly under the radar; i understand their motivation, but i am still sad.) i encourage you all to go to their main youtube channel,or check out some of my personal faves, below:
this episode features an entree by a young hubert keller in the kitchen of fleur de lys (both of which have been featured on top chef).
y'all might think i chose this episode for roy yamaguchi (appetizer), but i absolutely did not. the croquembuche that chef jean-luc creates at the end of the episode is a top-notch demo. seriously, he fricking STICKS HIS FINGERS in visibly-boiling sugar: only hardcore pastry chefs can do that! :))
episode 118 made my top three because of the appetizer from chef-instructor alain sailhac and the unique ingredients used in elka gilmore's entree (above).
just hearing the corny-ish theme song and the commentator's formal savannah accent make me nostalgic and happy. more than that, though, "great chefs" introduced me to professional cooking and i fell in love with kitchen life on the spot. watching these men and women create dishes quickly and competently... well, there is just no substitute for that.
the show has very little time editing and there are certainly no switch-outs. these chefs were also working with a lot of completely foreign ingredients, but by watching and listening, i learned the proper way to use them all. even when i entered culinary school at 24, the demos from 'great chefs' were my secret ace-in-the-hole; i was familiar with ingredients and techniques some of the other students hadn't even heard of. a few i remember specifically are: why/how to use caul fat, what it means to temper chocolate, and a folding technique that left my baking instructor pleased as punch.
i couldn't find my all-time favorite ep, but it was one in which a mandoline-wielding chef cut the hell out of his middle finger while discussing why one should be VERY CAREFUL while using a mandoline, LOL. thank you: lesson learned, sir. it's funny now, but i remember being shocked at the time and a little surprised that it wasn't fully edited out... i mean, can you imagine if that happened on the set of a foodnetwork show? pssh! *rolls eyes* anyway, "great chefs" showed the chef talking and the very first moment he cut himself (sans blood), then cut away to let the commentator explain what happened. the segment re-started at the same step with a well-bandaged chef more carefully prepping his vegetable (potatoes, i think). i can imagine that these shows were filmed during prep-time, either before or after lunch, and the chefs would've had little time for retakes. but this boils down precisely what i loved about the show: it never pandered and it wasn't sanitized.*** instead, the audience got to be a fly-on-the-wall in some of the best kitchens of the time ~ an experience which included getting cut or making mistakes and moving the hell on.
the techniques from "great chefs" still hold up today, despite the fact that food trends and plating styles have certainly evolved. seriously, if you haven't seen it, go lose yourself in an episode or two: i promise you will learn something new!
*** (LONG-ISH) SIDEBAR: i had a tweet "conversation" yesterday w/ ana marie cox (@anamariecox) about how impossibly dumbed-down ~ to the point of being offensive ~ foodnetwork is...
she went on to say more and re-tweet others who echoed her sentiments, and i was overjoyed to find that FOR ONCE i wasn't the only one incredibly irritated by the foodnetwork. after the tweet exchange, i was doubly happy that i chose to feature "great chefs" today. the chefs on this show were not coached-to-death puppets making desperate ploys for "brand marketing" deals...
the beauty of "great chefs" lay in the fact that some chefs were gregarious while others were visibly uncomfortable in front of the camera. it was always okay, though, b/c the FOOD was the driving force of the show (gasp!). sadly, foodnetwork has taken the fire and elegance out of food-related television: it's literally unwatchable imho. i miss "great chefs" terribly, but god forbid those foodnetwork bitches try to remake it and ruin all my childhood cooking memories. (the real "iron chef" [now aired on the fine living network] and its crappy FN remake, anyone? one word: YUCK!)***
anywho, sorry this post was so long, bbs, but "great chefs" was too formative for me not to give it a proper nod!
as always, thanks for reading! xoxox.
1 comments:
I've never been able to get into food network. Would have thought it a natural after I became a Top Chef fan. But it always seems so overly produced to me.
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