"CookingShows" news and stories

Photo: Stephane De Sakutin, AFP/Getty Images

Hot-headed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is finally waking up from his kitchen nightmare.

The reality show "Kitchen Nightmares" put Ramsay in failing restaurants across America for one week so the tell-it-like-it-is chef can try to turn the struggling businesses around. But the show proved too troublesome for the salty U.K. chef, who says he's through with it.

The foul-mouthed Brit admits the show's title is a little too fitting: "If the restaurants succeed, there's no praise," Ramsay told The Sun. "If they're screwed, we're blamed and get lawyers' letters."

More than two-thirds of the restaurants Ramsay "helped" ending up being sold or shut down, the paper said.

Slashfood attempted to contact the production company, Granada Entertainment, to clarify if both the American and British versions of the "Kitchen Nightmares" are canceled -- our calls were not returned.

[Via The Sun]

The Oakland Outlaws. Photo: The Bay Area Derby Girls

If Brian Boitano's Food Network debut had us a little worried, the mere description of episode two gave us hope: "While hosting a dinner party of an all-girl roller derby team, Brian creates simple yet delicious recipes using bacon." Roller derby and bacon? It's like poetry to our ears.

Sure, the utterly canned social-event premise is still there, and Brian's repertoire is still limited to fussy little canapés and fad martinis (in this case, the dreaded bacontini). But not only did the food this week actually make our mouth water, the host managed to work in a costume change from his former career: a plunging v-necked, rhinestone-covered figure skating unitard. Shame? Brian doesn't know the meaning of the word.

In an episode devoted to pig fat, our host hammed it up, of course, but with nowhere near as many cutaways to him dancing, cackling and performing in animated skits. (If this is the last time he uses a couple of parsley sprigs as false eyelashes, however, that'd be fine by us.)

Brian Boitano is renowned for his 1988 Olympic gold medal in figure skating and infamous for a song from 1999's "South Park" movie. But now the professional skater is working a different arena -- the cooking show.

On Sunday, Boitano makes his Food Network debut with "What Would Brian Boitano Make?" Quite possibly one of the campiest cooking shows to hit TV, it follows the Olympian as he makes meals for the likes of a bachelor friend, a handyman, a new mom and roller derby girls, all from the comforts of his real-life kitchen.

Boitano spoke with Slashfood about his cooking-show debut, being a "clean eater," his "South Park" song and the one kitchen gadget he can't live without (Slap Chop anyone?).

Have you always been a cook?
Well, not always. After the Olympics I really started to discover food. I always wanted to eat food, but I never ate food before the Olympics because I was always on a diet, and what I ate wasn't that interesting. Then after I started discovering food and wanting to prepare it, and then discovering different recipes and ways to prepare it -- just by trial and error. So it's like all self-taught, and just having friends over and finding out what they like, and what I like to serve.

So I've always, always loved food. In fact, for my 'up close and personal' in the '88 Olympics, I did a thing where I went to a restaurant and said I wanted to open a restaurant. So I've always wanted to have a restaurant and that kind of thing since I've been 20.

Wanting to get in on the unscripted programming action, Reuters reports that the Lifetime network is cooking up 3 new shows -- one on weight loss (yawn), one on clairvoyance, and one on cooking.

The latter, called Mom's Cooking, will be a half-hour weekday series that focuses on moms teaching their daughters how to cook their favorite childhood recipes. So far, the channel has ordered 20 episodes with half of them to be shot in New York, and half in Atlanta. I have to give them props for the idea -- it'll be nice to get some classic home cooking on TV that's not from Paula Deen. And getting kids to cook makes it even better.

However ... I wish it wasn't only catered to women, because believe it or not, guys have beloved homemade recipes too. Yes, I know it's "television for women," but at the very least -- mom could teach son sometimes, or Dad could teach daughter. There's no reason for television shows in 2008 to stick so rigidly to old stereotypes.

So, this question is for you guys out there -- What beloved recipes did you learn from mom or dad?

Earlier today, Joanne gave you the results of the Food Network Awards, and now chef/writer/adventurer Anthony Bourdain gives his opinion of the ceremony.

Bourdain hasn't been shy in giving his opinion on what he thinks has become of the Food Network (too much focus on "star" chefs, bad food being cooked, an emphasis on too many things that have nothing to do with cooking, etc), and he has some choice words for the awards show: