SC - Chef Heros

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Diana L Skaggs wrote:
> 
> At 09:56 AM 3/29/01 +1000, you wrote:
> >While I'm on it, what celebrity chefs are your heroes and why?
> I idolized Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet. I was saddened he had to stop
> taping shows. He made dishes that appealed to my tastes, didn't use a lot
> of obscure ingredients, and he gave me an excuse to hit the liquor store
> for cooking wine.

Did he stop taping shows for some health reason (I vaguely recall
something about illness, but it's hard to keep track of all this stuff),
or was it that other thing? I mean, Marv Albert and Pee-Wee Herman are
both working... . Smith was good at what he did, professionally, though,
which was to make fine cuisine accessible to most people, even if he did
water it down at times, ever so slightly. Certainly his net effect on
cookery in America has been good. 

> I still catch Julia & Jacque (sp?) from time to time, and Justin Wilson,
> the cookin' Cajun. But mostly I'm too busy doing something else to sit in
> front of the tube watching someone else cook.

I'm a big fan of James Beard's books, although he kind of gave me the
creeps in person. Again, he was a great innovator who helped bring
America out of the age of the Jello mold and canned peas (along with
Child, Claiborne, and perhaps Graham Kerr), and even posthumously his
estate maintains his home on West 12th Street in Manhattan as a culinary
museum and meeting place for chefs. 

Other favorites for food-type TV include Titus Chan, who may actually
have been the first of the Asian cooking show hosts in the mid-60's or
so ("Heat the oil in the wok. Stick in your finger. If you hear a
scream, it's hot enough."), and Keith Floyd, who is an entertaining, and
informative, lunatic.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com