Review: Down Home with the Neely’s
Down Home with the Neely’s (The Food Network) 
Well, Lordy! Black people can cook! Hey hey, that’s not news to me, but it is apparently the new-found revelation of the Food Network. That’s right. Just why it has taken the Food Network until late in 2007 (Ingrid Hoffmann’s Simply Delicioso) to finally have a Latin cooking show? And not until 2008 to have a cooking show where the cooks are black? I mean, really! (No, sorry, Al Roker eating diner food does not count. I said cook, not eat.) Ok, let me chill. Past is past. Let’s just call it pasta water under the bridge for now. But I had to get that out. It’s been gnawing inside for way too long.
In any event the hosts and cooks, Pat (the hubbie) and Gina Neely, make for fun watching. Mind you, they have big personalities and are totally wild. This might not appeal to a few folks, though I’d rather see someone’s personality “spice” up a show than watch the other extreme, the boring and the bored. Since Rachel and Paula also have big personalities I’m confident these two are likewise going to be a hit. It really is fun to watch them in a kitchen, and to be candid this is probably the first time I’ve seen a two-host, two cooks in the kitchen show actually succeed. They both are good on their own and together they have great chemistry. And you can tell the affection and fun they have is genuine; it’s just impossible to ever script this.
Do they get a tad too silly? Sometimes. Does it get a tad too sickening sweet? Almost, but a) they draw back from the edge and b) because you know they’re sincere, being themselves it works. Alright, so enough with personality, let’s get down to it: How’s the cooking? He and his brothers own Neely’s which has two locations in Memphis and one in Nashville, and I’ve seen their restaurant many many times over the years as among the best BBQ joints in the nation. In fact you literally cannot do an American barbecue show without mentioning them. So they both can cook and cook well.
Three shows I’ve seen now and I definitely want to eat and make the dishes they’ve come up with. So what’s the verdict? It took way too long, FN, but at least you got it right the first time. Neelys make delcious food and you have a fun time watching them do it too.
: 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
