Television Cooking: On the Road Again

I have enjoyed cooking shows since the days of Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet. When they first came on the television scene they were associated almost entirely with Public Television. And PBS had a bunch of them, Justin Wilson from Louisiana, Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, the Galloping Gourmet, and Yan Can Cook (I still use a big cleaver for a knife because of him) - I watched them all. My favorite was Justin Wilson.

Then came cable television and the possibilty of more stations than the broadcast television's bandwidth allowed. Enter Food Network, and the cook show personality hit the bigtime. Rachel Ray was as popular as Oprah for a while.

Now, the genre is changing again. Reality TV has folded in with Food TV. Top Chef has been around for 4 years but I'm still not on board yet. I do like some of the competition shows like Iron Chef.

My favorite food shows haven't changed in the last few years: Good Eats because host Alton Brown explains what happens in the cooking and ingredient mixing process, America's Test Kitchen on PBS (the same people that do the Cook's Illustrated Magazine) and anywhere Sara Moulton shows up.

One new favorite: Mark Bittman and Mario Batali tour Spain and its many food dishes with friends and actresses Gwenyth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols. It is a good show if you like European scenery and cuisine. Here's the website: spainontheroadagain

Some I don't care for: Emeril annoys me. Bam this, Emeril. The lady from Louisiana has a voice that is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. And her two boys need to cut the apron string sometime before they turn 50. Barefoot Contessa is a little too Hamptons, although she seems a likable person. The Cake Show with the Goth, Gen X'ers is way too hip for me, plus I can't watch anyone cook with tattoos on their neck.

Remember the Two Fat Ladies cooking show on BBC? That was an all time favorite because they were real bluebloods with the 1960's upperclass disdain for pretention.

So here's the question: what is your favorite cooking show?

While I'm At It . . .

May I mention a couple of local websites and blogs?

The first has nothing to do with food, necessarily. Littlelizzie is a weblog spotlighting Liz's line of children's clothing, accessories, and now, her photography. Liz is creative, talented, and a lifelong friend of our family. Her weblog is one of three or four knitting/sewing/craft type blogs whose authors visit and join in the comment page. Now, I have never "crafted" in my life. When I was a boy we did build model navy ships and set them on fire as they floated down the creek. But I don't think that counts. But if you like quality creative products for children, you will like her site.

I have mentioned this blog before, but I think Eat This Fort Worth continues to excellently review Fort Worth food and drink spots and weekend activities. It takes a lot of time to do this well. Her most recent is on Tim Love's, Love Shack, in the Stockyards.

Hole in the Wall is another site that does frequent and detailed restaurant reviews, almost all of which I agree with. His latest is on Zambrano's, a place I like.

RJG (Regular Joe's Guide) : Same thing. good, detailed reviews, especially in the greater Fort Worth area.

FortWorthology is stilling doing the yeoman's job of photographing all the new construction downtown and the occasional mention of a new restaurant. His website/blog is as good as they get. He mentioned a few days ago that a Jake's Hamburgers was going to fill the spot Chile's is leaving behind, downtown. I hope that is true.

I add local weblogs and websites to the "locally written" sidebar of this blog on a loosely interpreted combination of the following conditions: that the author visits here, posts on their own blog frequently, and lists this blog.

Special thanks to Jake and BeccaWest for their post contributions; they always draw the most comments. And to Lynn, for her frequent and thoughtful comments, and Rambler for the same (although I am not so sure about the non-euphemistic use of a "house of ill-repute").

Thanks to all.

The Omni Hotel and the Dallas Cowboys.

A telephone call from a F&FW staffer (my son) got me looking at the details of the new Omni Hotel in the Fort Worth Business Press. The details are here, and they are impressive: fwbusinesspress.com.

The related big news, made public a few days ago, is the Omni being made the host hotel for the AFC championship team when the SuperBowl is played at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, 2011. That's a good deal for reasons more than the Omni contract. It puts Fort Worth as a premier host for one the nation's top events and one of the most watched events in the world, it brings a ton of money into Tarrant County businesses, and it showcases downtown Fort Worth. The NFC team is going to Las Colinas, by the way. Dallas is getting . . . nada.

This is all good, but I think many local Fort Worthians have the same mixed feelings my son had when he called from inside the Omni yesterday. "Nice hotel, new obviously, good restaurants, definitely a convention hotel, but does it fit Fort Worth? It's more of a big city hotel." His comments reveal the challenge Fort Worth has to address. How do we keep our small town atmosphere and still have this kind of growth, bringing in these kind of events?

For me, I like the growth pace and I think it is worth the risk. It's not growth at any cost like Atlantic City or even worse, Orlando, it's a more managed growth.

The numbers of registrations that the Omni is getting proves that there was pent-up demand for a legitimate downtown convention hotel. The hotel is booking groups into 2015 and has booked 750 groups into 2011. That's not too shabby.

Is a 5-start hotel? No. Is it a cozy, boutique hotel? No. It's a comfortable, business hotel with a touch of Fort Worth. It's not perfect but it beats what we have had. And it will do wonders for the south side of downtown. A Bob's Steak and Chop House on the ground floor doesn't hurt either.