Famous TV cooks

Graham Kerr - the galloping gourmet!

That guy from Seattle, I think. Jeff something. Did 3 ancient cuisines. Anyway he turned out to be some kind of perv.

Jeff Smith, the "Frugal Gourmet." He died in 2004.

I believe some woman named Julia Something is rather well known as a TV chef...

Isn't there that French skiier guy, um, Jaques, um um...

There's a really obnoxious one now on PBS named Zonda who is a very happy nutritionist.
Rick Bayless is tolerable and he shows cool places in Mexico on his show.
Lidia Bastinovich is ok once in a while.
Ming Tsai is ok but I get tired of him calling his audience guys.
That's who's on pbs in this part of the country.

Well, from the Graham Kerr era (or even before) - Fanny Craddock, possibly the world's first TV chef.

Now, there are a plethora of them in the UK, my favourites being Gordon Ramsay (multi Michelin starred) and Rick Stein (best fish chef ever IMHO).

Methinks (as Haggis would say) that Pierre Boulle is having a slight piss-take. The Galloping Gourmet was an awful cook. Compare him with Nutrax's Julia Something - no contest.
And Fanny Craddock - oh God. I never saw her on TV. Johnny (wasn't it) and Fanny were a double act. I had one of their books way way back. Why didn't I keep it? Just to show how awful British cooking used to be.

I have kind of started to like Bobby Flay and I enjoy Giada de Lorentis. I loved the two fat ladies from Britain.

Gordon Ramsey is just too obnoxious for me.

I simply love watching Paula Dean and Barefoot Contessa, have never cooked a single thing they make as I cannot justify pounds and pounds of butter, gallons of heavy cream, etc. etc., in every single thing I eat, but oh, I wish I could!

British food and cooking is still the same, but now foreign food and cooking has been imported to Britain.

Whats the difference between Fanny Craddock and a cross country run?.

One is a pant in the country, the other is a ???, use your imagination.

Two Fat Ladies were a hoot!

#11 I heard them pronounce Jalapenos and thought I'd die laughing. Yikes!

Yes, Graham Kerr's cooking is sketchy. The wine poached pear w/chocolate sauce springs immediately to mind. What a disaster!

Who was that Cajon guy who would tell good ole boy jokes? Justin Something

I still make some of the "Two Fat Ladies" disgusting recipies.

Whenever I am feeling particularily gay, I make and serve "Gentleman's Savoury Delights".

Graham Kerr was amusing in his initial incarnation. However, he recorded a clean sober healthy living series some time later that was an utter bore. I've never tried the two fat ladies recipes or even Paula Deen but lived vicariously. I have tried some of Julia's and have a couple of her cookbooks.
I liked that pastry chef - Spanish surname? Jacques Torres - remember Dessert Circus? Anyway googled for him and found this. Oh la la. I could lose myself for hours there.

The Muppet Chef - way ahead of the pack.

The earliest I remember is [LDione Lucas]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dione_Lucas[/L]. That was in the 1950s although wikipedia at the link says she was on TV in 1948-49. Does your Fanny Craddock beat that?

I still have my Aunt Mary's copy of her Cordon Bleu Cookbook, although I can't say I make it my bedside reading.

I never liked the Frugal Gourmet and had missed the sexual abuse stories. Always a pleasure to have my prejudices confirmed.

Madame Benoit-a Canadian icon

Fanny Craddock and her monocle-wearing husband, Johnny Craddock, were almost a panto double act on the BBC in the late 50s, 60s and quite possibly still around into the early 70s'. She was an absolute ogre, who henpecked her hapless husband in front of millions of viewers every time he lagged behind or fell in the soup! (To misquote the BBC's radio lampoon, Round-the-Horne, circa 1960s). She was a teriffic snob. The food demos ranked as an afterthought after her own 'ego-demo', with poor Johnny relegated to something of a cross between a Col. Blimp and a theatre spear carrier! They were not the first of their kind on the BBC - Phillip Harben held that distinction. He was every inch a 'product' of the late 40s and 1950s BBC: correct, beautifully spoken and a trifle dull. The great celebs and characters came much later, with the Galloping Kerr the first of his kind. Keith Floyd has fetched-up in Thailand some where on the islands. And what can we say about the Kitchen Goddess, the delicious and amply proportioned Nigella Lawson. Take care: we don't want to get the GS moderator waving a big stick at us! (Or do we?) The Two Fat ladies were a hoot. Sadly one died; the other soldiers on. Clarissa - the survivor - (is that her name?) has had an unsual life. Before she became a TV foodie, she was an heiress to a considerable fortune which she promptly drank away - her late father had been one of Britain's most famous surgeons. Clarrisa practised as a barrister but was for some reason (probably connected to her over fondness for the 'bottle') defrocked from the Bar (pun intended). I believe she is now teetotal.

One last thought: Fanny Craddock vs. Gordon Ramsey. I'd put my money on Fanny! She's marmalize him!

#10. isn't that a Spoonerism? Or could it be a hdden pun on the word 'fanny' which has very different meanings in the US and UK! Bob Hope once got himself into 'hotwater' when he used the word in the American sense in front of millions of British TV viewers. The irony is that Bob was born in Eltham, London. Ah but he did emmigrate to the US as a child when, so the story goes, he realised he'd 'never make King'. I'm a Jack Benny man myself.