‘Emeril Green’: Excellent Information and Food You Want to Cook and Eat

Emeril Green (Planet Green)

There’s a new and wonderful cooking show on in case it’s passed your attention. It certainly may have as it’s part of the new Planet Green channel on cable from the folks at Discovery. Unless you’re madly into saving the world from itself, are reincarnated hippies or a card-carrying member of Greenpeace you might not watch this network. So it is very possible you’ve missed this new show. If that’s the case, your missing a good one.

I’m talking of course about Emeril Green, the first new show in over five years from master chef Emeril Lagasse — and his first ever away from the Food Network. I didn’t know what this show was going to be about. I honestly expected a version of Jamie at Home where Jamie Oliver grows his own veggies then walks into a shack and cooks. This is nothing like that actually.

What it is something like is the cooking show genre called “help me” shows. You’ve seen those with Tyler Florence’s older Rescue 911 or the current Rescue Chef with Danny Boome or Take Home Chef with Curtis Stone. This is like those for sure, but it has two things going for it, one is unique twist and the second is obvious, it has Emeril.

First off the entire show is in a supermarket, a Whole Foods store in Washington, DC to be specific. And this special supermarket that has places set up for cooking — including an entire kitchen. So when Emeril wants to show the person he’s helping fresh diakon, he walks down the produce aisle and picks it up. (Aha, so that’s what it looks like, a friend of mine watching the show with me exclaimed) If he wants to talk about exotic ingredients he walks down the Asian aisle and says, let’s pick up some Sriracha hot sauce (funny, I’d seen Tyler this in something a week ago and I couldn’t remember the name, now I know the name and saw what it looks like.) In short, it’s the world’s greatest pantry: It’s an entire supermarket as a pantry!

Having viewed at least 14 or 15 Emeril Green episodes now I can tell you this: This is an excellent teaching show. And I mean that from beginners to more established cooks too. Why beginners? Pretty obvious; it goes through the paces. Why more established cooks, because as the bunch of shows demonstrate not everyone knows everything. The very first episode, “Fish Tales” has to do with a very experienced home cook, but one who just had a block when it came to fish. And another episode was yet another experienced cook who wanted to make Southern food for her husband, but being she’s a seafood-vegetarian (whatever they call that) she didn’t know how to make a meatless yet full-bodied Southern meal. I know of people who are exactly like both those folks, experience but you can’t know everything. Well, except a five star chef, natch.

Does the teaching get in the way if you are experienced? Nope! I’m pretty good with fish, but not great; I learned a few things. I have zero problems with pork and from that episode I didn’t learn anything new but it didn’t matter because I got to see some excellent dishes made. And that’s the beauty of this new show; in fact that’s the beauty of any really good cooking show in my opinion: find a new recipe, get some new ideas, maybe learn a little tip or a new technique. If you know the ingredients well, the teaching is done in a way that doesn’t take anything away from it; and if you don’t know the ingredient well, you learn even more. Emeril Green nicely hits this balance. It’s a lot more instructive than Emeril Live was, it’s much more like Essence of Emeril and then some.

If there’s any gripe at all about this show, it was something that was apparent only on the two very first episodes, where Emeril was slightly nervous and a few hokey things came out of his mouth — like “we’re going to tackle her fish problem” and “we’re going to toss her in the deep end now” or “we help her come face to face with her foul fish phobia” — which thankfully all ended after the first two episodes and he didn’t do anything like that since. So we’ll dismiss that as a shake out of the concept or as opening show jitters. Hey Emeril is a pro; it doesn’t take him long with his experience to slip more comfortably into a groove. And by episode three he had it down

In short, think of this concept — at first seeming a tad strange because it’s not been done before, certainly not to this degree — of cooking and gathering ingredients at a super market as the world’s ultimate pantry. I know I’ve mentioned this but it’s worth mentioning yet again. How would you love to — as he did during the Asian meat show — in the middle of cooking say I want a radish and walk 20 feet and pick up radishes super fresh off the produce shelf and start slicing?! Wow! Cook’s dream come true. Same thing when he’s showing people fish; entire whole fish, maybe 30 varieties sitting there.

Need advice on meat? Emeril and the person he’s helping walk over to the butcher, and of course he’s laden with hundreds of “show and tell” beef cuts right there. During a couple of other episodes a nutrionist is handily found down another aisle; again not your usual cooking show but something more added. So not only kitchen neophytes, but an experienced cook, a real foodie, can quickly fall in love with this idea; I know I have. The only bad thing is how do I go about figuring out how I can move into and live inside a super market too!

Among some of the highlights from the first group of shows. Emeril using lentils, definitely one of those foods you do not see used enough on television cooking shows. A woman showed Emeril (yes it can happen, love the give and take) that for making Cuban beans you need cloves, and he showed her how putting it ham hocks to it ups the flavor. Making a nice east makes west meal using bib lettuce leaves instead of bread. And speaking of leaves, one dish was an entire snapper with citrus in the oven, roasted and poached in a giant banana leaf. (I think he has the “green” part down.) Or when he showed a fire fighter how to make as a bit of a side a chicory coffee with orange peel studded with cloves.

In the end, the food looks sensational and you really want to both eat it and make it yourself. You learn some techniques, some new ingredients. He made a mojito with Jamaican ugli fruit — now I have to try that. It’s Emeril, probably the most comfortable chef to be around and one of the most knowledgeable, and all with a pantry as big as a supermarket. What’s not to love here? Both because I hate to give any show a five out of five star rating — I like to see how they do over the longer haul before crowning my top rating — and because I don’t have half stars, Emeril Green gets four out of five stars.

The TCB Ratings System : 5 stars : a sumptuous feast time and time again
: 4 stars : so good you want second helpings
: 3 stars : a decent meal but it needs spice
: 2 stars : brown-bag lunch with stale bread
: 1 star : a TV dinner from the Sixties
: 0 stars : I’d rather have salmonella

NFNS Recap with Video: Episode 8

If you don’t get it by now, simple: Don’t read the review or look at the video if you haven’t already seen the show last Sunday and are still planning to catch one of the repeats during the week. That said, here’s my review for the eighth (of nine) episode of Next Food Network Star.

First challenge each contestant had to do a promo and remember roughly three lines and deliver. Lisa was horrible and couldn’t remember a thing. Adam was good which was no surprise as that’s his strength. Aaron with some coaching from Bobby Flay was actually the best; he really stepped up. I do have to say that when it came to Lisa and to Adam, at least the way they edited the show, this week’s guest Guy Fieri — who we might have to recall was the winner of the second season of NFNS and the biggest name and best to ever come out of this series — wasn’t very supportive and of no help to the contestants. Again, that’s the way it came off from the editing; as usual who knows how it went off in real life.

The main challenge was cooking a buffet that would be judged by Vegas performers and the top chefs at the Wynn Hotel and Casino. And they were given free reign, a thousand dollar budget and six hours to cook. Plus they had sous chefs, namely former contestants Shane, Kelsey and Jen. For the record Lisa picked Kelsey, Adam picked Shane and Aaron got Jen. They then had to win over folks with their food and a short presentation.

Adam knowing he had to show major food chops directed all of his attention to that, including building smokers in the back kitchen. His food ended up being the favorite and demonstrated yes he can cook and cook well. Because of his focus though his opening was blah. Lisa who can apparently sing very well impressed the audience. Her food though was either great or bad with half her lamb chops having burned, some got good piece others got dry. And Aaron tried to pull it out with his intro which was very weird and bad. Oddly it was his absolute worse meal of the entire series, making three lame pasta dishes among his offerings.

In the end, they kicked no one off. Instead of going down to two, all three go head to head next week. Sound familiar? As they’ve said on the food forums online, shades of Top Chef. But then as one person said, Top Chef ripped off NFNS for their series idea, so let’s call it even. Next week then the final episode and the crowning of the Next Food Network Star.

It’s Chef’s Week on Martha Stewart

It’s time for another big Martha Stewart cooking week block! Remember as The Martha Stewart Show is syndicated, the channel and times vary by location. (You can find your time and chcannel at the handy Martha finder here, btw.) And if you miss one and forgot to TIVO it, each show is repeated the successive evening on the Fine Living channel at 8pm Eastern. Listings below are for the original first syndicated air dates (so for FL it’s the next day).

Monday: New Orleans restaurateurs Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan prepare two cocktails, sazerac and sidecar; chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson makes an Italian appetizer, frico caldo; Jimmy Bradley makes fried green beans; chef Frank Stitt prepares pickled shrimp; chef Michel Roux prepares a chocolate-raspberry tart.

Tuesday: Chef Jamie Oliver prepares squid linguine; chef Jim Botsacos of NYC’s Molyvos prepares roasted jumbo prawns; chef David Chang of Momofuku demonstrates a simple way to make salt-and-sugar pickles; chef Michelle Bernstein of Michy’s prepares heart-healthy banana-wrapped snapper; and Fabio Trabocchi cooks up grilled pork chops.

Wednesday: Martha prepares pear galette; pastry chefs Emily Luchetti, Pichet Ong, Johnny Iuzzini and Gina DePalma from Babbo prepare recipes for chocolate-caramel bread pudding, rice pudding with jasmine and coconut milk, German sable cookies and panforte.

Thursday: Amish friendship bread; chef Lidia Bastianich prepares a chocolate, hazelnut and orange torte; pastry chefs Beth Pilar and Ellen Sternau make peanut butter and chocolate ice-cream sandwiches; cook Virginia Willis prepares blackberry cobbler.

Friday: Chef Eric Ripert prepares hamachi tandoori; Everyday Baking host John Barricelli prepares single-serving pies filled with sausage and feta cheese; cookbook author Sara Foster provides three quesadilla recipes; and chef Suzanne Goin makes caramelized bread pudding.

NFNS Video Preview: Episode 8

Here’s the video preview of what’s happening on this week’s episode of The Next Food Network Star on Sunday night at 10pm.

The remaining three finalists shoot scripted promos at iconic Las Vegas locations. Then they meet Season Two winner Guy Fieri and are told to each create a lavish buffet for the ultimate Vegas crowd – entertainers from famous Vegas shows and top Vegas chefs.

Also new and worthy on Sunday night is a new Iron Chef America where Bobby Flay takes on Gabrielle Hamilton of NYC’s Prune. I first saw Hamilton on television during an episode of No Reservations this spring when Anthony Bourdain came back to cover NYC. He, Eric Ripert and two other chefs needed a place to chow down. Where do top chefs go to eat? I mean wherever they go must be incredible. And yes, they went to Hamilton’s Prune to feast. That to me is impressive so this should be an excellent battle. That’s on at 9pm Eastern before NFNS.

And flanking it like a bookend at 11pm is our first preview of the revamped Dinner: Impossible with new chef in charge (another Iron Chef), Michael Symon taking over the reigns of departing Robert Irvine. His first mission is to Wildwood, NJ where he has to upscale boardwalk food. This is a teaser. The actual show which is moving from the half-hour to an hour format officially starts in August.

NFNS Recap with Video: Episode 7

If you don’t get it by now, simple. Don’t read the review or look at the video if you haven’t already seen the show last Sunday. If you’re waiting to watch one of the catch up repeats during the week, don’t click. With that said, here’s my review for the seventh episode of Next Food Network Star.

Another enjoyable episode. And wow — I’m in near shock — they actually gave the for remaining contestants, Kelsey, Adam, Lisa and Aaron, and entire 75 minutes to cook. Long overdue giving them some actual time (beyond 30-40 minutes) to cook their dishes instead of “make me 200 meals in two minutes” crapola that makes for artificial drama.

In short, the remaining four go to Vegas (baby!) and they do a Bobby Flay style “Throwdown”. They cook outside in front of the judges, including this week’s guest judge Paula Deen and they have the following to do: To cook their own signature dish, to cook their version of the signature dish of the other finalist they’re paired with or throwing down against, to “up” both of them “Vegas style” while answering both judges questions and the questions of Dana Devon from the E network who gives them a mock interview back where they are cooking.

In short, Adam makes his mac and cheese dish which they love. Lisa makes her cassoulet dish which they love. Lisa’s version of doing Adam’s dish sinks miserably. So does Adam’s version of Lisas. Next, Aaron makes his chicken parm and they love it. He also makes a better version of Kelsey’s dish! Kelsey decides for some reason that “Vegas style” meant turning her normal home-cooked dishes into five-star restaurant type servings. She figures she’s showing them her versatility; the judges feel she’s left her point of view. That aside though, neither her own revamped dish nor her attempt at Aaron’s passes muster especially since she overcooked both meals.

On the personality side with fielding judges questions and answering Dana Devon’s questions. They don’t like that Aaron stopped cooking to answer. They don’t like that Adam continued cooking and all but ignored the interviewer. Kelsey and Lisa did relatively alright in that area. Though Kelsey did a big no-no. The judges have been saying she needs to be more authoritive and stop bringing up she’s just out of culinary school. And she mentioned that again. You can guess by now, yep, Kelsey hit the skids and is out.

Overall show was good. I have nothing to rap against the judges or anything else but one minor but wierd and jarring criticism: The show’s editing during the first half of the judges table scene. I seriously think the editor had to be high on something. It went like this:

Judge gives big praise to contestant A.
Contestant A scowls.
Judge then says something neutral to contestant A.
Contestant A gushes with pride and says thank you repeatedly.
Judges say you can return to your room while we talk.
Shot of contestants standing there waiting for something to start.

Huh???! Don’t they even look at the show before airing it? Really the rest of the show was edited fine and was overall fun to watch. But that one part was three or four minutes of disconnected strangeness worthy of being in a Lewis Carroll novel. If that had not been there, might have been a perfect show. Either way it was an excellent one. Can’t wait til next week.