Are Cooking Shows Helping or Hurting the Home Cook?

Are Cooking Shows Helping or Hurting the Home Cook?

The popularity of cooking shows on television, whether it’s straight forward cooking shows like Secrets of a Restaurant Chef with Anne Burrell or more kitschy “edutainment” like Alton Brown’s Good Eats, has sky rocketed.  Even those television viewers who don’t consider themselves cooks or foodies have their favorites or regularly watch the competition cooking shows. Food television is a common American past time.

So what effect does this have on America’s home cooks?  Many people believe that it has opened the American Palate. By showcasing celebrity chefs and styles of cooking that are not considered traditional “American” cuisine, it is opening the door for people to try new foods.  Especially shows like Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives which shows local food places all across the  country that people may not have thought to try (this show has even been known to inspire road trips to visit the many “Triple D” certified eateries.

There is another side to this particular coin.  For some people, watching food shows does not inspire a desire to cook and try things for themselves; in a way similar to what Julia Child was doing with her show all those years ago.  Instead it is creating a malaise in the home chef and making them believe that they aren’t able to make such beautiful and tasty dishes.  It has also been said that watching all of the food shows causes people to stay out of the kitchen and on the couch; that people are watching food more than cooking it!

We, here at Fiumara Apparel know how hard everyone in the food industry works and we also know how hard a home cook works to make sure his/her family has a delicious, nutritious and beautiful home cooked meal.  This is why we find this question so interesting.  We would love to hear from both sides.  What do you think about this debate?  Is Food television ruining the home cook or is it elevating them?