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I didn't like Jag from the beginning... we already have Emeril.
We don't need a hispanic one.
I will say that there isn't much diversity on Food Network when it comes to race... but that doesn't mean that he should be voted in just because of it.

His ingredients lists are huge... and unless you live in "that part of town" you won't be able to find most things on his list... even at a well stocked Whole Foods.

I read an article a few weeks ago that basically exposed Jag's questionable service record and whether or not he graduated from cooking school. I have to say, he's the type of guy I would not mind going out with for a few beers but I wouldn't watch him if he had his own show. The tv thing just didn't come naturally to him. Nice guy though, I think he'll have a great future in someone's kitchen.
I would have to agree that there isn't much diversity at the food network in terms of the hosts or the food that is prepared. I thing that may be why I enjoy shows like Paula Deen and Nigella Lawson, since they seem to work outside of the box the other chefs/cooks seem to be working within. And yes, I know they cover Italian but there's more cultures out there to explore. (BTW, Simply Deliciouso is SIMPLY ANNOYING!)
But, I can not help but spend my Saturday and Sunday mornings watching the food network and dreaming of the day that I can live in a house like Ina Garten's house and invite Paula, Rachel and Elton over for lunch and cocktails in the garden. Oh well, I guess I'll have to stick to chinese takeout and Apartment Therapy.

the whole thing was confusing for me. I thought Amy NAILED the RR episode, and feel like she's the best candidate for this job, hosting her own cooking show. Rory seemed forced and fake, and that outburst during the sugared-asparagus..what was that?! Jag has always been a mess, and I was truly shocked when they chose him..

Honestly, i almost think the whole thing was a set up for good tv. The two women are a little too nice, and it could make for a boring final episode.. no Ilan vs Marcel, that's for sure.

Lane emailed in to represent a group of fans from University of Alabama:
"We will boycott the Food Network if Rory is chosen. She is a horse toothed annoyance who does not deserve to have her own show."
AMEN - from a Texan - to say she is "jarring" is quite the understatement

Ugh...I have to say that as much as I love food and could dwell on it all day (and often do), I hardly ever watch the Food Network anymore.

It's just a lot of the SAME stuff over and over delivered by mostly uninteresting and over-the-top *personalities* who are often more interested in giving a performance than an intelligent/informative presentation on food and cooking. It just seems more about the hoopla than the food now (Sandra Lee, anyone?).

I've since switched to watching *real* cooking shows on PBS (New Scandinavian Cooking, Jacques Pepin, Rick Bayless, etc.). These are real chefs who actually know a thing or two about food and can teach about more than the same 3 or 4 obvious "tips" and facts they tend to repeat ad nauseam on "the Network" (like how it's important to salt pasta water and that saffron is way expensive).

The few times I've let myself watch some of this season's Food Network Star, I've been nothing but underwhelmed and unimpressed by these so called "cooks" (I wouldn't dream of referring to any of them as "chefs.")

And don't even get me started on the whole diversity issue. It seems like they're *trying* to get some more non-white/non-Italian cooking folks on air, but apparently they're not trying hard enough as you can see from the remaining contestants AND the past winners. They couldn't even keep Ming Tsai from drifting over to PBS.

There are so many other great food cultures out there...why is the FOOD Network still stuck in the American/Italian doldrums? I recently saw a commercial for some new show with a Latina woman, but her off-putting and, again, over the top, persona was enough to keep me uninterested.

The only thing I can stand to watch on Network anymore is Nigella's show. I can forgive myself b/c she's British. Oh, and Boy Meets Grill is still pretty decent as I like his recipes, but how arrogant can Flay get with his new "Throwdown" show?

Remember the good ol' days of "Two Fat Ladies," "Taste w/ David Rosengarten" (weird guy, but definitely knows his food), and even that show where some guy went around having meals w/ celebrities and talking food was kind of interesting?

Ahh...I could go on, but I think it's time to make dinner now.

Not only did JAG lie, he offered to reveal the other winner to military times if they would "help get him out of this" and revealed he was also one of the final 2.

I really didn't like any of the choices this time. But I am glad they found out about JAG and he's out of it now.

http://www.foodnetworkfans.com/forum/showthread.php?t=413

I was SO upset when they sent Amy home! She's been my favorite since the first episode. She's great on-camera when she doesn't get tense and "professorly" as my fiance put it, her recipes are easy enough to follow along with at home, she's smart, she's funny...

Yes, the network seriously lacks diversity. Yes, the recipes aren't usually very complicated. And yes, they don't go into a ton of detail. But what they provide is great for a lot of people out there. I've been cooking since I was 6 years old (scrambled eggs on Saturday mornings with my dad, good times), but my fiance could barely manage to make ramen when he moved out of his parents' house. Watching "the Network" has helped him learn how to cook, and now I can even get a palatable meal out of him without hovering in the kitchen.

We'll overlook the half-cup of dried lavender in rice he made one time.

I was shocked, absolutely shocked when they chose to keep Jag. His recipes are way too complicated, I've never heard of half the stuff he uses and wouldn't bother to hunt it out because I hate spicy food anyway, and he throws temper tantrums whenever things don't go right. Why would they want a two year old on their Network?

Rory would have been, in my mind, worth watching once or twice. She would probably be relegated to the same mental space Sandra Lee has in my head right now--someone to watch for the fun of mocking.

I wish they'd put "Two Fat Ladies" and "Doorknock Dinners" back on the air.

"Yes, the network seriously lacks diversity. Yes, the recipes aren't usually very complicated. And yes, they don't go into a ton of detail. But what they provide is great for a lot of people out there."

Yes, that seems to be an argument Food Network proponents have made before. I understand where they're coming from and it's great to see that it has gotten a lot more people into the kitchen, but why not mix up some of the "lighter/beginners" shows with one or two more intellectual fares? So once they have people hooked on cooking, give them something to expand their knowledge/skills a bit more.

Or at least air some shows that are more focused on food than running competitions. My gracious, if anyone knows how to make a sport out of food, it's the Food Network.

I guess it can be argued, though, that there are other outlets for people once they have the basics down. However, it's still sad to see that the Food Network once actually featured some of those outlets, but they've all since been dumbed down. Kind of reminds me of the way AMC went...

As I'm sure you know already, good food doesn't have to be complicated or consist of 20 ingredients. Jacques Pepin's "Fast Food My Way" show is a perfect example of simple cooking demonstrated in an intelligent, informative way without the unnecessary fanfare. I mean, does it not insult your (that's a general "you") intelligence when Network stars feel like they have to use words like "Awesome!", "OUT OF THIS WORLD!", and "Jacked Up!" to reach out to people about food?

Btw, completely agree with your thoughts on Sandra Lee's show. But you can get only so much entertainment out of mocking her before getting frustrated with just how retarded her show is.

I agree, it'd be nice if there were some beyond-beginner shows on the network. But I suspect the network's afraid of scaring away the people who can't/don't want to do those sorts of recipes. They're doing really well in their niche, and changing things up would risk something they've worked for years to carve out for themselves. But at least we have Alton.

The made-up words are frustrating, I agree.

And I like the competitions, they're fun to watch. I love the crazy cakes ones the most, though the tepenyaki (I think?) was fun too.

i watch the food network at night go to to sleep.

that said, i like anything and everything alton brown, ace of cakes, everyday italian, and barefoot contessa.

that's it.

sandra lee is like "let's buy a store bought cake, put some icing on it, draw in some waves with a toothpick, andput a big fat plastic starfish on it - tada! - semi homemade!"

not a dern bit of it is even one hundreth homemade. bleh.

oh and although i don't like rachel ray's show, after reading an article about her, she doesn't bother me quite as much - i still don't watch her show because her personality kills me - but she is actually very down to earth. plus, she loves law and order so that's redeeming for me.

I watched every episode of The Next Food Network Star this season, and I must say that Giada and Rachel Ray were kind of tough on the contestants. I was somewhat taken aback by this because both ladies project a sweet, bubbly, upbeat personality on their shows.

There's something to be said for giving objective assessments of the contestants' cooking -- after all, that was their job -- but I think they could have been a bit kinder in some of their criticisms. I've seen the biographies on Giada and Rachel on The Food Network, and both had a difficult time adjusting to the demands of their shows. From what I could see, the producers of the shows were quite patient and kind to both ladies as they gradually learned the ropes.

That's why I was surprised that neither extended the same kindness to the contestants. Some of their criticisms were harsh and delivered in a rather cold-blooded manner. While I accept that their job was to deliver constructive criticism, I think they could have softened their critiques with some recognition of how tough it is to be spot-on in a cook-off in which the contestants are given little time to practice and prepare. After all, when they were doing practice runs of their shows, both Giada and Rachel had the benefit of having a staff prepare some of the food for them beforehand, and both were given several takes to improve their delivery.

In sum, I think Giada and Rachel came off as somewhat arrogant as judges on the show. They seem to have forgotten how tough it was for them to get started on the network. Indeed, if both of them had been contestants on the same show, I wonder if they would have been booted off
themselves. How soon some people forget where they came from!

In reference to my previous post on Giada and Rachel as judges on The Next Food Network Star, I could say the same thing about the self-professed "food scientist" Alton.

On his show, "Good Eats," he comes across as a good-natured, likeable fellow, but as a judge on TNFNS, he took himself too seriously and came across like a harsh school marm. Indeed, at times he seemed more interested in impressing viewers with his food-knowledge trivia than in giving an objective assessment of the contestants' skills.

If Alton is going to be a judge on future seasons of the show, I hope he learns some humility and stops acting like the food nerd he seems to be.

And finally, a word or two about the finale of this season's The Next Food Network Star. While Rory does appear to have "horse teeth," as some critics claim, and her screen presence does come across as a bit forced and fake, she clearly deserved to win because Amy, the eventual winner, had been voted off by the judges in the previous show. That left Jag and Rory, and since Jag was later disqualified, Rory should have been proclaimed the winner.

It was a grave injustice to put Amy back on the show after she had been voted off. The judges clearly thought Rory was the better choice, and that should have been the end of it.

The only reason I can think of why Amy was given a second chance was that the producers had contracted to let the viewers choose the winner, and if the judges had selected Rory, the viewers' opinions wouldn't have counted. So it came down to what was more important -- to render the fairest judgement in the competition or to please the fans by letting them participate in the choice. And allowing the fans to decide cost Rory what she legitimately had earned.

This brings up the question as to why the viewers chose Amy over Rory, despite the latter's superior performance in the competition and Amy's elimination in the previous episode.

My best guess is that Amy was the beneficiary of the sympathy vote, a common phenomenon in TV reality contests.
During the taping of the show, she constantly cried about how much she missed her family, and how much her family means to her (as if her family means more to her than the other contestants'), and it is just this type of pathos that tends to win votes from viewers.

What makes the whole thing even more difficult to swallow is that at one point Amy was so overwhelmed with missing her family that she told the judges she didn't think she wanted it badly enough and that she should be voted off so she could return to her family. Although she changed her mind, I'm sure that was one of the reasons the judges decided to eventually vote her off the show -- they didn't want to sign someone who was unsure about her commitment to the network. Indeed, one of the judges even voiced that concern when Amy volunteered to quit the show. If she missed her family so much then, how would she handle the demands of having her own show, which requires a great deal of traveling and time away from family?

Of course, the majority of viewers didn't seem to be concerned about that (or what was fair to Rory), and they cast their votes for Amy in the end. Not that Amy was a bad choice -- she clearly showed great potential and will probably do fine on her own show -- but she's got to feel a bit conflicted about winning in the manner in which she did.

I hope she sticks it out and finds a way to balance her desire to be with her family with her ambitions.

The controversial Jag episode has led to quite a few conspiracy theories on the blogosphere. My favorite: the Food Network knew about Jag's "little problem", and saved the finalist swap-out until the end. The reason? They were hoping that Rory (and her two most obvious assets) would win.

The theory goes that by sending Amy home, then bringing her back, they were positioning her as an also-ran who would not get the popular votes necessary to be TNFNS. The plan backfired, and now they have to make do with Amy (who I liked the most), decked out in her Target dress (http://tinyurl.com/2qrpxm).

I am in total agreement with barneyfife about Rory. She got sideswiped. Since Amy was already eliminated by the judges, it was not fair to Rory to have a tv audience vote decide the finale. I do not know how they could have changed the original rules but there must have been some clauses in effect to cover instances where someone withdrew or was disqualified, etc. I think Rory should get the car or something. I do feel that they wronged her. I would like to know how close the vote was. My mother said it was never very clear how to vote if you didn't have a computer. We only watched this program to see how Rory did each week because we live in neighboring towns and are familiar with Rory and her restaurant that is to open soon in Vega.

Jag came across as a repulsive, spastic, macho-misogynist dud. "Honey" this, "baby" that... Enough already. His reckoning was long over due.

Anyone who believes that he wasn't artifically kept around because of his ethnicity (as opposed to his non-existent capabilities as a likeable food expert and entertainer) and that the scandal wasn't contrived solely for our entertainment lives in a beautiful warm, fuzzy place where everything is wonderful all of the time... (I TRULY envy you.) In the real world, upper-management are mongering puppeteers (I know) - so why would the entertainment industry be any less calculating and devious? Integrity or ratings... hmmm???

ABSOLUTELY Food Network has a serious diversity deficiency, and that's PROBABLY why they clung to Jag long after his freshness date. But it back-fired: over-exposing the dud was very cruel and insulting to the pitiful dud and everyone knows it (even if you don't want to believe it). Jag was used and abused. I almost feel sorry for him.

Culturally incompetent FN needs to try A LOT harder.