Comments on: RUHLMAN’S NIGHTMARE COME TRUE

By: Stellathomas

Stellathomas — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

The season four finale of The Next Food Network Star was number one with fans Sunday night at 10pm, attracting an average of 4.0 million viewers on a total viewer 2+ basis, and 2.2 million adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. The program posted a 2.1 adults 25-54 rating, a 27 percent increase over the season three finale and a 3.0 household rating, up 14 percent over last season. The finale smashed all records for Food Network, becoming the highest-rated, most-watched telecast in its history.
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Stellathomas

Make Money

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Bourdains 1st paragraph sums up my feelings. I hate “Top Chef.” I hate reality TV. Bourdain, Zimmerman, ect. . . Real chef’s with original ideas eating their way around the world, I like. Idiot’s competing to be the “Next Food Star” just irritates me. I can turn the TV off and play that game in my own kitchen.
Chef Irvine lied on his resume, but he is a great TV personality and he has a great show and good ideas. Keep him, Can the new ones.

By: James

James — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I haven’t watched much of FN since Jamie Oliver and the original Iron Chef were taken off the air. I do like Good Eats and anything with Giada (see current issue of Esquire), but on my Tv list nowadays is either “Lost”, “Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann”, or anything on PBS. That’s it.

Now, there’s supposed to be some reality show it which a bunch of dramatic doofuses are supposed to pretend to be a Forensic unit to solve murders. What’s the name of the show? “MURDER”. How fucking original. A reality show it which self-serving dips tend to gain the upper hand while solving a murder case. Nothing like the death of a human being to help someone get a career boost. Look what it did for everone on the OJ trial. Look what it did for the judge in the Anna Nicole controversy. Someone gains from someone else’s death. Now that should be a commentary worth writing on.

KEEP ON FIGHTING, TONY!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I only wish Anthony Bourdain would take the time to watch the newest additiom to the FN. Simply Delicioso is to me one of the worst shows since Semi-Ho-Made. On her last episode the over the top host made a scallop ceviche (which she refers to as “Peruvian ceviche” with her own little twist)
She submerged the scallops in lime juice and drained it (what?) and then adds things like coconut milk, shredded coconut, oregano and raisins (what?). All her recipes have weird combination of ingredients. The music is loud, she talks to the food and tells you to smell what she is cooking. A real winner!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Anonymous said…
AMY FINLEY KNEW THAT SHE WAS GOING TO WIN THE NFNS BEFORE THE VOTING WAS COMPLETE! FOOD NETWORK RIGGED THE COMPETITION IN LIGHT OF JAG’s RESIGNATION!

The text messege votes were also rigged! Amy’s went through when Rory’s were denied!!!

Check out this link!!!

http://www.fox6.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoID=337422

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Anonymous said…
AMY FINLEY KNEW THAT SHE WAS GOING TO WIN THE NFNS BEFORE THE VOTING WAS COMPLETE! FOOD NETWORK RIGGED THE COMPETITION IN LIGHT OF JAG’s RESIGNATION!

The text messege votes were also rigged! Amy’s went through when Rory’s were denied!!!

Check out this link!!!

http://www.fox6.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoID=337422

By: dgfgfds

dgfgfds — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

kellypea inanely wrote: “Another sad demise in America’s despairingly, trite, unintellectual lives. I prefer to watch PBS.”

And your pretentious, Bourdain-ian, ass kissing wannabe ways (the quasi-hyper vocab, compare with his snide but smooth), illustrates that you, dear reader, overlooked the fact that, PBS is academia’s equiv of the Food Network.

The place where AB got his start.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Well Bourdain,
“Hopelessly Inarticulate”? What an observation. I have to admit it bothers me only because I enjoy your show and have supported you since day one. I’m not sure you had enough information to make such an observation but so be it.
I understand the viewers of Food Network have a different palate spectrum then your own. However, it still is the masses, and I do enjoy entertaining them.

By the way, dinner at Les Halle was spectacular.

By: Kristy

Kristy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

OHDEARGAWD..I should have previewed…..MY TYPOS!!!
Ahhhhhhhh

No spell check..No fair!

By: dgfgfds

dgfgfds — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

c’mon ruhlman and bourdain; you know you’d let Colombe blow you bareback in a foie gras minute.

By: Kristy

Kristy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

This might be a waste of space as this is old..BUT.
…Anthony..it’s your job to slaughter everyone..I get it and adore you..BUT…..Not everyone was a coke head in the 80s or a drunk….There really are peeps out there who were heads of their classes and did their homework.
Snark has it’s place and you are brilliant at it weildig that ever so sharp sword at the entrails of the (what you precieve to be) lame …innocous
masses….BUT…..The world is huge enough for all to be represented..I
actually enjoy Sandra Lee…GASP…I really do…(Rachel is screaming a bit too much these
days)
BUT I also enjoy you..So what does that make me????Yeah…. A suburbanite who has had a wild past.

Teetering in the middle is where most of us hang.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Oh, verily, RD, Top Chef is probably the best of the “reality chef” shows, with HK a distant second – TNFNS is a train wreck, and I still blame Bourdain for getting me into watching it by posting about it. Having said that, I still think Amy has one more melt down left in her – she’s as friable as asbestos insulation that one – but . . . but . . . . I think she’s going to win.

By: Gina

Gina — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I’m late to the party but still shocked that TVFN must read and actually listen to a wee bit of these blogs as that Marc Summers and his uber-happy narration are GONE for this go-round. Mind you, I only could watch the first two episodes of Next Cheffy thingy cause I couldn’t stomach the commercial where Guy (last seasons “winner”) was mr. harsh hardass. Gimme a break. And I while I like Top Chef a lot – you tell me pairing the two people who hate eachother together wasn’t done by some 19 year old producer? Please.

I still love the Bordain Snark. Yes – MR – he’s bitter – but isn’t that why he gets the big bucks?

By: RD

RD — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I love the smell of wank under a Bourdain post.

And no matter what anyone says, Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen are way better than TNFNS because they actually celebrate cooking as opposed to belittling it and dumbing it down for the masses.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

So . . . are the judges trying to insinuate that Jags is bipolar, or what? He gets upset because his oven didn’t work and this makes him an unstable personality – or did I miss something from not having seen Episode 1? BTW, love your concept, Momotad – the knife-throwing would certainly thin the herd faster than the Top Chef quick fire challenges . . . (!)

By: momatad

momatad — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Combine all the ‘I wanna be a cheffie when I grow up’ shows, make Tony and Gordon Ramsay the ONLY two judges, give them a rather large bottle of scotch to share between them, as well as a tray full of rapier sharpened knives in front of them and let the party begin….”WTF!! you don’t know how to filet that whatever it is you are passing off as meat!”……FWOOOMP….knife stuck in wall behind contestant’s head. Contestant skitters off whimpering. Two judges clink glasses, and some garden variety gnome announcer yells ‘next’……you get the picture.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

de Gaulle himself couldn’t have saved Colombe from her impending doom. Store bought chips and cheese sauce? What was she thinking? These shows are providing us with just what the FN execs intended … entertainment. People are apparently tuning in. Sponsers are happy. Another sad demise in America’s despairingly, trite, unintellectual lives. I prefer to watch PBS.

By: pchak

pchak — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

The only thing that could have made Tony’s rant on TNFNS would be if I knew who those bozos were, since I can’t bear to watch. Suffice to say, it was a hillarious read anyway. The only truth in that train wreck is that FN doesn’t even allude to chefs or cooking in the title of the show.

I’m a TC fan, since is Bravo willing to make changes to the show. They canned Billy joel’s puppet-headed wife after viewer uproar, and realized that there was too much drama (Tony’s pancreas-busting performance aside) in S2 (Wolfboy should have been drowned in his own foam).

As for HK, I enjoy seeing how much those scullery rats can take before going nuclear, and admire Gordon for his taste in literature .

By: kellypea

kellypea — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Bourdain is a stud and hilarious to boot. One of the only people who actually gets a laugh from me out loud. Ramsay is better to watch this season than last — which I didn’t finish — and Padma drives me completely crazy. Is she real?

It would be a tad swell if at least one of the three shows actually had something to do with food. The real McCoy. The personality crap gets to me. I can tolerate it if someone actually explains what and how they are cooking what they are cooking, but vending machine challenges?

And as far as pandering to their perceived audience goes? I’m sick of that, too. Last night I heard a bite that encouraged the audience to “Cook like Rachel Ray.” Uh….let’s not and say we did?

By: fuck you

fuck you — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Suzy — I take everything mean I ever said back — that was one of the best descriptions of Wall Street I have read outside of Ted Rall. (If you haven’t read Revenge of the Latchkey Kids, and particularly the Cog in Satan’s Bulldozer chapter, check it out)

Natalie — anyone who uses ‘u’ and ‘ur’ as contractions for legitimate English words is not in a position to be demanding copy edits off-the-clock, least of all on a blog.

Claudia — did I get the honor of ‘only post ever pulled’? CH would delete the entire blog, cover their eyes, and chant nursery rhymes in a corner. Ruhlman’s corner of the food media world is a very Good Thing.

re: The world needs an Iron Chef show with Pig Asshole as the secret ingredient. Something like Fear Factor combined with chefs whoring out their ’skills’ for cash. I’m telling you, it’d be more fun than a one-legged hooker.