Emeril Lagasse leaves Food Network

In summary, the conversation was about different cooking shows on various networks, including the Food Network and the Travel Channel. The participants discussed their likes and dislikes for different chefs and shows, such as Emeril Lagasse, Paula Deen, and Iron Chef. Some expressed frustration with the staged nature of certain cooking shows and the lack of authenticity. One person even mentioned their own cooking skills and how they could outperform some of the chefs on TV. Ultimately, it was agreed that the Travel Channel had better cooking shows than the Food Network.
  • #36
Aw, I actually feel sorry for the guy.

Irvine's business partner wouldn't talk about Nice's lawsuit. "Everybody ... involved in the restaurant is up to date," Williams said. "Robert is not interested in avoiding any obligations at all. What I'm trying to do is gather all of these claims and figure out what's real and what's not real, and it's difficult because everyone is claiming to have agreements with Robert."

Irvine says he was pressured into starting the restaurants by LaTorre. He says he wanted a much smaller restaurant, and could have afforded a smaller place without financial backers.

"Wendy is a very, very intense woman. She'll say things and I'll go yeah, yeah, yeah, and then she'd just go with it."

Irvine says LaTorre was working on her own and he never expected to pay her until she demanded a cut.

"It's almost like I'm being held hostage," Irvine said. "I get a pain in my gut any time I hear this woman's name."

* * *

The sign in front of the empty restaurants suggests Ooze and Schmooze will open this spring, though experts say it will take at least six months.

Irvine has found a new backer, Orion Communities in Clearwater. But he also has had second thoughts.

"I just don't want to go into a negative environment," he said. "To me it's sad that I'm trying to do something good for the area."

LaTorre still has two of Irvine's white chef jackets in a closet. In her desk is a resume she made for him. At the bottom, in bold letters, is a quote from Irvine:

My passion is to reach beyond inspiration - to be spectacularly creative.
 
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  • #37
It seems his fans are on his side.

Readers: Cut Irvine A Break

Should Food Network have fired “Dinner: Impossible” host Robert Irvine for embellishing his resume?

The feedback from readers of The Stew is decidedly in Irvine’s corner. It almost makes me think Travel Channel or Bravo should pick up the pieces and bring Irvine onboard.

I don’t care if Robert Irvine was a part-time potato peeler on a Dude Ranch or a celebrity info-smut peddler on TMZ… he’s fantastic! He has great personality, a great show and probably embellished because it’s difficult to get an opportunity such as this otherwise. He’s awesome to watch & I WILL FOLLOW HIM TO ANOTHER NETWORK…

http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/life/comments/readers-cut-irvine-a-break/
 
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  • #38
Thanks for posting that. I hadn't heard about it. On the one hand I can see that he's in a difficult situation, but it is a situation of his own making, and getting a skate on doing something dishonest doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth anyway. It's unfortunate that he's ended up doing this to himself.

"My passion is to reach beyond inspiration - to be spectacularly creative."

Apparently this sadly extended to his resume too.

In academics or research, if he had claimed a degree unearned, or even more damaging, results unverified, I doubt he would be given the opportunity to finish out "his season".
 
  • #39
LowlyPion said:
Thanks for posting that. I hadn't heard about it. On the one hand I can see that he's in a difficult situation, but it is a situation of his own making, and getting a skate on doing something dishonest doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth anyway. It's unfortunate that he's ended up doing this to himself.

"My passion is to reach beyond inspiration - to be spectacularly creative."

Apparently this sadly extended to his resume too.

In academics or research, if he had claimed a degree unearned, or even more damaging, results unverified, I doubt he would be given the opportunity to finish out "his season".
Yes, it's very sad, you wonder how people get caught up in things like that.

It's really sad because the part that is true is his abilities as a chef. He's a great chef.
 
  • #40
Evo said:
Yes, it's very sad, you wonder how people get caught up in things like that.

It's really sad because the part that is true is his abilities as a chef. He's a great chef.

It's the personality flaws that make people interesting don't you think? Depending on how he deals with this, and accepts his responsibility and overcomes his shortcomings and moves on will determine how much he can be respected. He has the public trust to earn.

Whether he has presence in a kitchen under pressure, or the ability to marshal limited resources to deliver massive numbers of meals on time, or how engaging he is as a person, his lack of candor and his fraudulent attempts to big note himself sadly were unnecessary. If he learns this lesson, he and we all will be better for it. I think Food Network will likely keep him, if he delivers popular shows through the rest of the season. If not he was toast anyway, faux pas or no.
 
  • #43
Evo said:
It's really sad because the part that is true is his abilities as a chef. He's a great chef.

How do you know? Did you ever taste his food? :biggrin: That's the funniest thing, really, about any televised cooking show. Nobody knows if anything they cook tastes any good, because we're not tasting it. At least Emeril had a studio audience. They could have all been plants, but SOMEONE had to eat the food on camera without making a face. Then again, I've seen some guest chefs on shows like the Today Show where the host then was given a taste of the food just prepared, and you could just TELL they were struggling to keep a smile on their face and pretend it tasted good as they tried to swallow it. :smile: Bad chefs and bad food can be much more entertaining if there's a taster involved who isn't supposed to let on that it's bad food. :biggrin:
 
  • #44
Good point, Moonie! How do we know these chefs are capable of being anything more than entertaining? The on-air creations may be bland, have clashing spices, or just be unpleasant to eat.
 
  • #45
Moonbear said:
How do you know? Did you ever taste his food? :biggrin: That's the funniest thing, really, about any televised cooking show. Nobody knows if anything they cook tastes any good, because we're not tasting it. At least Emeril had a studio audience. They could have all been plants, but SOMEONE had to eat the food on camera without making a face. Then again, I've seen some guest chefs on shows like the Today Show where the host then was given a taste of the food just prepared, and you could just TELL they were struggling to keep a smile on their face and pretend it tasted good as they tried to swallow it. :smile: Bad chefs and bad food can be much more entertaining if there's a taster involved who isn't supposed to let on that it's bad food. :biggrin:
He cooked for hundreds of people on each show. From military groups, to Cruise Ships, to the Renaisance Festival King's Feast, 250 the other night for the big Cherry Blosom Frestival in DC. People that had no idea who he was.
 
  • #46
Evo said:
He cooked for hundreds of people on each show. From military groups, to Cruise Ships, to the Renaisance Festival King's Feast, 250 the other night for the big Cherry Blosom Frestival in DC. People that had no idea who he was.

Yes, well ... but if people were turning around and spitting it out you can be sure it wouldn't be in the version aired on TV either. But that said it's fair to say he seems to be a good cook to deliver so many dishes prepared to reasonably high standards. If he was awful, I'm sure the local papers that uncovered his misrepresentations in his resume would also reveal he was an awful cook. After all it would be news in these locations he cooks at.

But you must admit that some of these shows' preparations after they have dumped together some horrifying combinations and then taken a bite for the camera haven't likely been as good as they croon on about.
 
  • #47
Some recipes have taken me years to refine, and generally they are "under construction" until my wife says "this is perfect - don't change it at all". I'm pretty sure that my food is beyond "good" since my teenage "nieces" (actually daughters of a cousin) nagged their parents to get to our place early every Christmas day so that they could help with the production (and tasting) of my hickory-smoked spicy beef jerky, shrimp egg-rolls, shish kebabs, etc. Their mother is an OK cook, but those sweeties leveraged their influence on me to get their favorite foods cooked every year.

BTW, I have never had a left-over piece of pizza with my day-long simmered start-from-scratch sauce. Not once. It disappears as fast as I can make it, even with a small crowd. I would like to open a restaurant, and let the chips fall as they may, but I cannot be around people wearing fragrances, perfumes, scented laundry products, etc. It's too bad, because I could set up a lunch place with sandwiches, stews, chilies, etc and kick some chain-store butt.
 
  • #48
turbo-1 said:
Good point, Moonie! How do we know these chefs are capable of being anything more than entertaining? The on-air creations may be bland, have clashing spices, or just be unpleasant to eat.
Why do we even care? Its just supposed to be fun to watch, and I don't think anybody has suffered from the basic cooking tips and techniques they share (although if you call it EVOO everytime people are going to wonder who you learned that from).
 
  • #49
Evo said:
He cooked for hundreds of people on each show. From military groups, to Cruise Ships, to the Renaisance Festival King's Feast, 250 the other night for the big Cherry Blosom Frestival in DC. People that had no idea who he was.

Captive audiences. ANYTHING would taste good to people in the military used to mess hall food. :biggrin: I still have no idea who he is...never caught his show I guess. Of course, I'd never heard of any of the people on Food Network until they got their shows there.

It seems strange that a resume should matter for a Food Network show, though. Wouldn't an audition be more important? I mean, you can't tell me that Rachel Raye has an outstanding resume for cooking, she was just one of those people handing out free samples in the grocery store.

The show I like best is on TLC, not Food Network. Take Home Chef. Granted, they only seem to seek out people who shop in fancy grocery stores, but that show really does a nice job of showing how you can throw together a really great meal with readily available ingredients and cooked in your ordinary household kitchen...no fancy gadgets or commercial kitchen needed.
 
  • #50
Moonbear said:
The show I like best is on TLC, not Food Network. Take Home Chef. Granted, they only seem to seek out people who shop in fancy grocery stores, but that show really does a nice job of showing how you can throw together a really great meal with readily available ingredients and cooked in your ordinary household kitchen...no fancy gadgets or commercial kitchen needed.

I agree that Curtis does offer an engaging approach and attitude toward cooking. Generally simple recipes, prepared simply with what I imagine in my tasting mind to be clean flavors. His techniques seem pretty sound and he does a pretty varied selection.

If I had any criticism, it would be that he invariably chooses women that he lays the charm on. I can't recall a guy or a senior, or for the most part even middle aged woman, that he has roped in for the show. Mostly all younger yuppie females. I guess that's show business.
 
  • #51
LowlyPion said:
If I had any criticism, it would be that he invariably chooses women that he lays the charm on. I can't recall a guy or a senior, or for the most part even middle aged woman, that he has roped in for the show. Mostly all younger yuppie females. I guess that's show business.

Yeah, I agree on that. He's always flirting a bit. Though, in a way, it works better that he's picking these yuppie females who are more used to going out to restaurants than cooking for themselves, so their kitchens are usually clean and the basic cookware is there (though there was one episode where they went home to a kitchen with a sink piled high with dirty dishes and had to wash dishes before they could cook :smile:...I was surprised they didn't edit that part out).
 
  • #52
Moonbear said:
The show I like best is on TLC, not Food Network. Take Home Chef. Granted, they only seem to seek out people who shop in fancy grocery stores, but that show really does a nice job of showing how you can throw together a really great meal with readily available ingredients and cooked in your ordinary household kitchen...no fancy gadgets or commercial kitchen needed.
I'll have to try to catch that, that is if I have that channel. My cable company tried moving a few popular channels like the BBC to digitial trying to get people to buy up, sorry, I will just do without.
 
  • #53
Moonbear said:
...I was surprised they didn't edit that part out).

Perhaps it was an homage to reality TV?
 
  • #54
Evo said:
I'll have to try to catch that, that is if I have that channel. My cable company tried moving a few popular channels like the BBC to digitial trying to get people to buy up, sorry, I will just do without.

Yep, that's what my cable company just did...maybe we have the same company. I did relocate the Food Network though...it's next to all the religious channels I block, so I couldn't find it. They didn't move TLC on me though, so chances are you still have it somewhere too.
 
  • #55
Evo said:
I'll have to try to catch that, ...

He's worth it. He's the kind of engaging person you wouldn't mind sharing a meal with, whether or not he cooked it for you. I think he enjoys the cooking. I can relate anyway.
 
  • #56
LowlyPion said:
He's worth it. He's the kind of engaging person you wouldn't mind sharing a meal with, whether or not he cooked it for you. I think he enjoys the cooking. I can relate anyway.

He's pretty good looking too, with just the right amount of Australian accent. :biggrin:
 
  • #57
Moonbear said:
He's pretty good looking too, with just the right amount of Australian accent. :biggrin:

There goes that hotness factor again.

Crops up in the strangest places.
 
  • #58
Moonbear said:
How do you know? Did you ever taste his food? :biggrin: That's the funniest thing, really, about any televised cooking show. Nobody knows if anything they cook tastes any good, because we're not tasting it. At least Emeril had a studio audience. They could have all been plants, but SOMEONE had to eat the food on camera without making a face. Then again, I've seen some guest chefs on shows like the Today Show where the host then was given a taste of the food just prepared, and you could just TELL they were struggling to keep a smile on their face and pretend it tasted good as they tried to swallow it. :smile: Bad chefs and bad food can be much more entertaining if there's a taster involved who isn't supposed to let on that it's bad food. :biggrin:

I was going to say exactly that. Everyone knows that they edit the scenes in cooking shows to make it look like everything they make is, fantastic. Cook for me and then I'll tell you what I think.
 
  • #59
~christina~ said:
I was going to say exactly that. Everyone knows that they edit the scenes in cooking shows to make it look like everything they make is, fantastic. Cook for me and then I'll tell you what I think.
But, but, he cooked in a kilt! He cooked in Renaisance garb! He cooked in Colonial garb! Are you saying it's not real?
 
  • #60
Evo said:
But, but, he cooked in a kilt! He cooked in Renaisance garb! He cooked in Colonial garb! Are you saying it's not real?

Does he have good legs? :biggrin:
 
  • #61
Moonbear said:
Does he have good legs? :biggrin:
Great legs. :rolleyes:
 
  • #62
Evo said:
Great legs. :rolleyes:

Oh, then I'm sure his food is delicious! :biggrin: :smile:
 
  • #63
Evo said:
But, but, he cooked in a kilt! He cooked in Renaisance garb! He cooked in Colonial garb! Are you saying it's not real?

:smile: yes, he's funny. Oh, that's real.
Moonbear said:
He's pretty good looking too, with just the right amount of Australian accent. :biggrin:

And I also thought he was british, so where did he pick up that Australian accent?
 
  • #64
~christina~ said:
And I also thought he was british, so where did he pick up that Australian accent?

I don't know if he's British or Australian, but he had a show where he picked up another very pretty woman driving a sporty convertible, and she was British and asked if his accent was Australian, which he confirmed. If he didn't have a whole camera crew with him, I'm sure he'd have a lot of angry husbands chasing after him by now. :biggrin:
 
  • #65
Didn't the British send criminals to Australia, perhaps he meant British ancestry? :rolleyes:

You guys are killing me. :-p

Someone hand me a green corndog.
 
  • #67
Evo said:
Didn't the British send criminals to Australia, perhaps he meant British ancestry? :rolleyes:

You guys are killing me. :-p

Someone hand me a green corndog.
lol
I'm not sure you'd want a,"green corndog" because it might be a bit moldy. :wink:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Irvine

British all the way, it must be one of his lies again. :rolleyes:
 
  • #68
Dinner Impossible - New Season

http://www.cleveland.com/tv/index.ssf/2008/07/michael_symons_first_dinner_im.html

Looks like the write in effort failed to impress.
 
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  • #69
LowlyPion said:
Dinner Impossible - New Season

http://www.cleveland.com/tv/index.ssf/2008/07/michael_symons_first_dinner_im.html

Looks like the write in effort failed to impress.
Symons has failed to impress me so far. Maybe some kind of personality will emerge on this show.

They need to cancel the "Next Food Network Star" that's currently on, I can't imagine any of three remaining contestants having a show. I know Zz said he had to stop watching it.
 
  • #70
~christina~ said:
lol
I'm not sure you'd want a,"green corndog" because it might be a bit moldy. :wink:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Irvine

British all the way, it must be one of his lies again. :rolleyes:

Um...I wasn't talking about Robert Irvine, I was talking about Curtis when I mentioned the Aussie accent. :rolleyes: I don't know who Robert Irvine is yet...haven't seen his show...he's the one with cute legs according to Evo.
 

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