Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Meme time

The lovely Chriesi over at Almond Corner has tagged me for a meme. Thanks Chriesi.

The rules for the meme:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post, and list their names to link to them.
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

I decided to make my facts TV chef related. Just because.

1. I think Ainsely Harriot is the most entertaining TV chef. Has Gordon Ramsey ever cooked an entire meal on a single gas burner held between his knees while sitting in a canoe floating down a river. No, no he hasn’t. Has Nigella ever had the plain bad sense to try and cook a meal on an open hilltop in Chicago. Sadly, no again. All the pinches of herbs that had been set out in little dishes blew away in about the first five seconds. LOL, good times!!

2. Ainsley is closely followed by Simon Bryant on The Cook and the Chef (shown in Australia only I’m afraid). It’s always soooo obvious when the producers have made him cook something he doesn’t want to do. He starts off all unethusiastic and then just decides he can’t be assed. Like the time he made ice cream cones but couldn’t be bothered with the whole moulding thing so they had big holes in the bottom which the ice cream, melting under the lights, just ran straight through . Or like the time he was supposed to make a croque em bouche, but couldn’t be bothered beating the batter properly, whipping the cream or waiting for the profiteroles to cool before he filled them. But he only filled about three because he couldn’t be bothered with the whole filling thing either. After dipping about two, he was sick of the whole dipping them in caramel thing that would stick them all together. So he threw about five on a plate and poured the caramel over the top. Poor Maggie (his lovely co-host) had to taste the soggy sorry mess and say something nice about it. I simply admire his ability to get away with it.

3. Jamie Oliver drives me mad because he doesn’t scrape out his bowls properly. He makes a cake batter or something and only makes a few token swipes at the bowl with a spatula. No batter gets left behind - that’s my motto.

4. My all time most hated show is Surprise Chef. A plus sized sweaty man would ‘randomly’ bail up shoppers from central casting in a product placed supermarket and go through their trolleys (which somehow only ever held about five items) in a manner reminiscent of a homeless person going through a rubbish bin. He would then invade their homes and cook them a revolting three course meal while blabbering on about his mum. He had rhyming nicknames for ingredients – my mate gargoyle for olive oil. That sort of thing. Thank God it’s long gone.

5. The worst dishes I have ever seen on TV were on James Can Cook (again Australia only - count your lucky stars rest of the world). I have strong memories of a pasta dish made with gherkin juice and vegemite and a chocolate omelette for dessert!!!

Sorry I'm not going to tag anyone in particular. Feel free to join in if the mood takes you.

7 comments:

  1. I think it would be interesting to be able to see all the Food Network chefs from all over the world. Ours are different thatn the States, except maybe with the exception of The Barefoot Contessa and Jamie Oliver.

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  2. good for you--"leave no batter behind" is my motto too! :)

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  3. Ours are so different here! But there is a show on another channel that is the same idea as the Surprise Chef. But it's with an incredibly handsome guy named Curtis.

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  4. I love Ainsely Harriot too. He always seems so laid back and he has fun.

    I scrape out my bowls too!

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  5. KJ, this was hilarious and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I wanted more :)

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  6. That was fun to read. :) I agree about Jamie. I think it is funny about him the way he uses all those herbs, a bunch of this a bunch of that and it seems it is never enough. Thanks for writing th meme. :)

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  7. Hi Val, I agree it would be interesting. We get a lot of british shows, but very few American ones and no Canadian shows at all.

    Hi a.grace, it has served me well.

    Hi, I'd take Curtis any day over our guy, Aristos.

    H fiona, i think Ainsley is about the happiest person on TV.

    Hi Cynthia, thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

    Hi Chriesi, I agree. He piles herbs into everything. He also squeezes lemon over everything. he must go through tons of those things.

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate each and every one.