"George Duran" news and stories

I believe it was H.L. Mencken who said, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." That quote goes along way toward explaining the popularity of George Duran's idiotic Food Network show Ham on the Street. I know we here at Slashfood have no love for the man's antics, comedic or culinary.

Joanne Ostrow, TV critic for The Denver Post, is clearly a big Duran fan. I'm willing to cut her a break when she writes that the show deserves "a wider, hungrier audience" mainly because she's not a food journalist. However, I lose all faith when I read that she feels that Duran "succeeds in being hip without trying." His show is the antithesis of hip and goes beyond being unentertaining to become simply annoying. Perhaps, this is sour grapes on my part. The first time I watched, I thought, "Dang, I could do this, and much, much better."

There was one bright spot in Ostrow's review of the show though. Duran's producer, Allison Page, says that he speaks so longingly of France, that she fears he may return their one day. A note to Ham fans, it  won't be any time soon, the second season starts in July. Today's show will examine microwave foods. I can't hardly wait.

Source

I was pretty excited this week at the prospect of watching Food Network's new show, Ham on the Street. In the last year, I've become more and more disenchanted by the the Food Network's programming, new branding, and new celebrity "chef" hosts, particularly with the news that personal favorites of mine would not be returning (and I swear it has nothing to do with the fact that we share the same name).

But Ham on the Street promised to be sarcastic, a little irreverent, and I was hoping that it might be funny they way Tony Bourdain is funny to me.

It wasn't funny. Not even close. I swear I wanted to change the channel at 10:34 PM, but i made myself watch the whole thing.

George Duran used to be a comic, but he's not very funny. In fact, Duran's a wee bit dull. Is it just me? Anyone? Or maybe I was the only one watching the show last night anyway. The topic of choice, breakfast, had so much potential, and even each individual "segment" could have been done well, but it wasn't. And it wasnt even very educational. Okay, scratch that. At least I learned how to make a version of pain au chocolat. It just felt like an almost-funny comedian doing a combination of the worst parts of "Unwrapped" and "The Secret Life of..."

And at least Jim O' Connor of "The Secret Life of..." is cute.

I actually have no idea who George Duran is, but the commercials on the Food Network for his new show that premieres tonight at 10:30 PM, Ham on the Street, caught my attention. Hold your breath now. I am actually going to watch the premiere of it tonight. On the Food Network. Crazy.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the Food Network is falling out of favor with a lot of people, including me. Its new brand of "Not Just Cooking" (or some phrase along those lines) really translates to something I shouldn't post, and their new breed of "chefs" and acting school hosts that replace the great ones like Sara Moulton leave something to be desired.

For some reason, though, Ham on the Street seems like it may actually be entertaining. Granted, one of the reasons I'm not in love with Food TV anymore is that they have gone off the deep-end with purely-entertainment programming, but still, who couldn't at least give one chance to this guy who ends his message with "we here at Ham on the Street are just here to have some food, have more fun... and always avoid incarceration."

Expect some opinions tomorrow. Or even late tonight.