I disagree somewhat that TV is useless in teaching people to cook. In some cases it might inspire people to try things they normally wouldn’t, because they saw so-and-so do it on TV. Sometimes a recipe may SOUND simple, but SEEING someone do it step by step can make all the difference as to whether they’ll actually attempt it or not. I don’t think Mastering the Art would have sold anywhere close to the number of copies it did without Julia’s show. It is just a shame that now the Julias are few and far between, and all FN wants to do is churn out one talentless pretty person after another.

That is all.

Before I read Michael’s and Anthony’s books, I thought I was learning to cook watching Emeril and Alton. Now I realize it was Alton and Mario all along.

On the bright side, having Michael crash the party does allow us some optimism that, just like Julia, he can raise awareness of real food, of good, slow food.

PBS.

I grew up out in the sticks where to this day they do not have cable. Mom finally bought a satellite dish three years after I left for college.

We had three local channels..some horrible evangelistic channel, some Spanish channel…and PBS.

I watched PBS every weekend…Jacques Pepin, Julia Child, Great Chefs of the West (and others) The Frugal Gourmet, Justin Wilson, Nathalie Dupree…all of them. It was my favorite part of the week.

When I had cable three years ago, the only things I watched on FN were Good Eats and Paula Deen, and that was about it.

Now I love Simply Ming and all the other cooking shows I get to watch since Tacoma has *2* PBS stations. I’m in heaven.

You know what the world REALLY NEEDS? We need them to have an on demand network that would let us tap into the little tv system that Thomas Keller has running between French Laundry and per se. I would probably leave that on my teevee every minute of the day.

(complete aside, but I know it will interest some people who read here; one of the bloggers at Cat Fud (http://fud.sleepingcat.com) posted about his Bourdainey experience eating whale in Japan while there for Worldcon a month ago.)

It’s also a great place to get ideas.

It’s also a great place to learn class and grace (especially from Judith Jones), as well as see firsthand what’s possible, good and bad, when anonymity and free speech are combined, er, plopped down and smashed together.

That I need a more supportive bra?

I watched Julia Child growing up…learned from her that cool way to smash garlic with the side of your knife to get the skin off, stored it away for 20 years, and used it…taught it to my 4 yr old daughter. Anyways, learning about Judith puts some perspective behind those memories.

And Walktheline? They USED to show Great Chefs of the… series here. I can’t remember what channel. Awesome stuff though. They could show repeats of that on the same network where thespian would have Keller’s direct feed show. And re-runs of Cooking Under Fire. And yes, I would be glued to my TV.