The Unfettered Critic – September 2025

THROUGH OUR amazing powers of anticipatory perception, Dear Readers, we already detect you muttering, “Hey, Critics—haven’t you talked about television food shows before?”

Well, yes. But in our defense, please note that we’ve only mentioned food shows in passing while filling column inches about other stuff. We’ll be more specific this time.

We’ve never reviewed The Food Network, because how the heck would one review an entire network? But their mission is to feature good food, and because we’re all for good food, it’s great a place to start.

Televised food shows first appeared as cooking “lessons,” with people like The French Chef demonstrating the proper way to sous-vide. These days, though, the lessons have devolved into cooking competitions. Nobody wishes us “Bon Appetit!” over a steaming Pot-au-Feu. Instead, you’ll find shows with a host pointing to a countdown clock, and instructing the “chef contestants” to get their food on the table in twenty minutes—or else.

The upside is that the chefs have become so proficient that we almost can smell the delicacies. It all looks so tempting that we wish we were participating! (Wait—see below!)

So rather than review the network, or even the shows, let’s discuss a couple of our favorite hosts, the people that critique the skills of the people cooking. Viewers develop a relationship with these folks. We enjoy their wit, and their ingenuity at encouraging contestants.

On some shows, the hosts actually are contestants. In those cases, we can’t help but wonder if the celebrity is more driven by the culinary endeavor—or the competing itself.

Looking at you, Bobby Flay.

One of America’s most successful restauranteurs—and certainly one of the most familiar faces on The Food Network—Flay was an original competitor on Iron Chef America in 2005. He soon headed up several shows where he pit himself against other chefs in an attempt to outdo them at their own specialties. Currently he’s the star of Beat Bobby Flay! With his crispy rice and perfectly chosen chili pepper, he tends to win about two-thirds of the matches. The dishes that end up on the judges’ table look so great that—we admit it—we’re hooked.

Also excelling on The Food Network, we really like Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, who often participates as a judge on Bobby’s show, apparently for the fun of trying to deflate Flay’s ego. She’s also a regular judge on viewer fave Chopped, where she advises overzealous chefs to focus on technique rather than the number of ingredients. “Get out of the grocery store and stand at the stove,” she snaps.

She’s got her own Flay-type competition show, Alex Vs. America, where she competes against master chefs from across the country. It’s not original, but it’s fun.

Sadly, we can’t say the same about Alex’s current endeavor, Supermarket Stakeout. On this one, she challenges chefs to blindly purchase carted goods from strangers exiting a grocery store, and then transform whatever they get into a delicious dish in the store’s parking lot. It seems less about food than…well, remember that warning years ago about television becoming a vast wasteland? Yeah, that.

We forgive Alex for this show because she’s an incomparable queen in the kitchen. We’ve visited her New York City restaurant, Butter, and found the experience delightfully incomparable. Everything about it was perfect, from the Parkerhouse rolls (with house-made butter) to the crispy-skinned, pan-seared Branzino.

Being attended to by the gracious staff at a world-class chef’s premises was the real-life equivalent of participating in The Food Network.

They did the cooking, but we definitely were the winners!