Safe to say I haven’t been on here in a while (until yesterday). Safe to also say I haven’t done a top 5 in a long while. Ah! But there’s a twist to this one. It’s not about movies or music. How about food?
Secret’s out: We are foodies. Everybody knows this. So, unless there’s a weeknight show to watch, Food Network is on in our house. In fact, one could say that we know everybody on food network on a first name basis (sorta). In other words, we watch a lot of food netw0rk. It’s mostly us sitting there in our pajamas and saying things like “Mmmm, that looks tasty” or “Huh, that’s interesting” or “OMG that looks so goooood”
So without further ado, here’s my favorite Food Network personalities. Starting with…
#5 – Claire Robinson
Claire has a couple of things going for her:
Other things she has going: A winning personality, a good gimmick (5 Ingredient Fix), and the almost cutest dog in the world that my wife is in LOVE with…Newman
She literally showed up one day unannounced with this show of hers making standout recipes with 5 ingredients or less. And she was funny and she knew what she was talking about. She’s entertaining to watch.
#4 – Alton Brown
Ah, Alton. This man is a genius. A food genius. Sit down and watch an episode of Good Eats and I promise you that you will learn 7 or 8 things you did not know about food….in just ONE episode. Seriously. His time in the spotlight has dwindled and he has elevated to legendary status among the Food Network royalty. Sadly not seen as much, he spends his time hosting, judging and not cooking. Searching his recipes on the website, you’ll notice that most of them have “Difficult” next to skill level…BUT always rated 4.5 stars or above. Man does not believe in taking shortcuts. Something to be respected in our time.
He knows everything there is to know about anything food related. The science of it. And he’s quirky, funny and sharp. Get it? Sharp?
#3 – Paula Deen
I’ll get this right out of the way…I wish Paula Deen was my grandmother. I sincerely do. Every time she gives a southern cackle or calls her guest “child” or “sweetie” I just wanna jump through the screen and get me one of those big ole bear hugs that I’m sure she is an EXPERT at giving. I’ve read Paula’s biography and it’s admirable how far she has come on her own while raising two sons. Her cooking is morbidly unhealthy but you cannot deny that every time you taste a recipe of hers your mouth begins to melt in ecstasy. It is “sinfully delicious”. She is the classic example of “loving through food”. Every recipe of hers tells a story of love (and calls for butter). It makes you feel warm, fat and happy. Like…crash on the couch with your pants unbuttoned happy.
Nevermind that she’s a joy to watch. Always smiling, always making fun of herself, always cracking jokes. Always feeding somebody. That’s what a grandma should be.
Ah butter…good for the soul. Not your cholesterol. But your soul.
#2 – Giada De Laurentiis
Giada has grown on me. And no, it has nothing to do with her gratuitous cleavage or perfect smile.
But it certainly doesn’t hurt…ahem. ANYWAY, after we tried several of her recipes we keep coming back to the same comments about them:
Simple, Clean, Crisp, Refreshing, Bright…
We haven’t really come across a bad Giada recipe. So we found ourselves watching her show more often to get some more ideas from her. Got a couple of her cookbooks which we actually use and have affectionately started calling her “Giada De LaBoobs”
I like her because her Italian isn’t the stuff you find over here in America. It’s not drowned in a heavy sauce and doesn’t leave you wishing you hadn’t gone back for seconds. It’s a wonderful (and mostly healthy) departure from the Italian we’re used to. I like that. A lot. Because I like Italian food. A lot.
Okay fine…here’s a much more professional shot of Giada to make up for that one earlier…
WHAT?
#1 – Alex(andra) Guarnaschelli
Oh my. Where to begin with Alex? I think we stumbled across her show by accident one day and immediately recognized her because she had competed on Iron Chef. We were instantly mesmerized. Woman can flat out, out cook any chef I’ve seen on Food Network (with the exception being Morimoto). She is clearly passionate about food. The way she describes flavors, textures, ingredients is like poetry. Her recipes are executed to perfection and heavenly. Flavor combinations that other chefs would consider dangerous, she turns into a symphony of surprise.
She only has ONE show and it’s not on year round and it’s obviously not that popular as they keep changing times on it from year to year. But this year it’s at 8am on Saturday morning and I make sure that I am up and able to watch it every weekend. It’s kinda my ritual. I am always so excited to see what she’s going to make. Also, she’s hilarious.
Giada’s nickname sounds like the kind of thing we’d come up with. Ours maybe a little more PG-13… and we always joke that she clearly doesn’t eat the food – the camera cuts away at the last second so she can spit it out and avoid the calories. Paula, on the other hand, you know would eat the entire pumpkin trifle if it wasn’t for limited time for the show.
Alton Brown needs his own channel or internet feed where he does nothing but doing cooking shows. All. Day. Long.
She totally has to! I follow her on twitter and she actually made a comment to someone about how she stays so thin. “Small Portions” she says….hmmmm….
We used to be religious Alton-watchers. We’d spend the entire time watching his show going, “Huh!” or “How ’bout that?” We’ve become smarter meat/produce shoppers all thanks to him!
Listening to Paula’s charming-as-heck accent is half the fun of watching her show. Girlfriend has an innate ability to add syllables where they don’t belong, “Hey folks, we’re gon’ make ourselves a shree-imp and crah-yeeb salad! And don’t fergit to put it in a purdy bowl!”
I think what impresses me the most is how she pronounces “OIL”
I can’t even think of a way to spell it out phonetically
Ok, I admit I don’t watch the food network very much (mainly because we don’t have cable) but back when I had cable, if I saw Alton Brown on, I stopped. Love that guy. I guess it’s geek kin-ship, although he’s a food geek and I’m a tech geek…we’re still cut from the same cloth.
Geeks need to unite!