{"id":891254,"date":"2026-02-09T04:23:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T10:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/the-lost-joy-of-the-food-network-chef-as-teacher\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T04:23:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T10:23:55","slug":"the-lost-joy-of-the-food-network-chef-as-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/the-lost-joy-of-the-food-network-chef-as-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"The lost joy of the Food Network chef as teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recipes <\/p>\n<article id=\"post-884599\" data-post-id=\"884599\">\n<section>\n<p>commentary<\/p>\n<h2>Recipes TikTok is where the recipes are, but it&#8217;s a poor substitute for a TV expert&#8217;s instruction<\/h2>\n<div>\n<p><h3>\n                    <span>Published<\/span><br \/>\n                    <time datetime=\"2026-01-30T12:00:59-05:00\"><br \/>\n                        January 30, 2026 12:00PM (EST)                    <\/time><br \/>\n                <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div>\n<p><img width=\"1692\" height=\"1142\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/master-chef-junior.jpg\" alt=\"recipes Contestant Michael, Gordon Ramsay and Tilly Ramsay in \"MasterChef Junior\" (Greg Gayne\/Fox Media)\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" >    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Contestant Michael, Gordon Ramsay and Tilly Ramsay in &#8220;MasterChef Junior&#8221; (Greg Gayne\/Fox Media)        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<section>\n<p>As I encounter more middle-aged people who are only recently coming around to the concept of cooking as a crucial, money-saving life skill, it seems the concurrent embrace of individualized social media and decline in instructive TV content may have something to do with their being late to that discovery. After all, foodie content is everywhere these days. Approachable, practical counsel on how to make it, however, is no longer as passively accessible as it once was.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what I mean by \u201cpassively accessible,\u201d using my own admittedly dated experience as an example: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/julia-child\">Julia Child<\/a> played a central part in developing my confidence in the kitchen. I thought of her as a babysitter of sorts, although I never met the woman in person. But \u201cThe French Chef\u201d and \u201cJulia &#038; Company\u201d share equal space in my memory with PBS\u2019 children\u2019s programming because to me, they all served the same purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Foodie content is everywhere these days. Approachable, practical counsel on how to make it, however, is no longer as passively accessible as it once was.<\/p>\n<p>While \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/sesame-street\">Sesame Street<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Electric Company\u201d sharpened my literacy, Child helped me understand that the kitchen is a creative lab. By the time I was five or six, I was trusted with chopping boiled eggs to be folded into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2023\/08\/25\/little-bit-of-this-whole-lot-of-that-a-curry-tuna-salad-sandwich-inspired-by-my\/\">tuna salad<\/a>. Soon after that, I mixed up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/brownies\">brownie batter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2023\/08\/12\/is-eating-raw-cookie-dough-really-that-for-you-nutrition-experts-weigh-in\/\">cookie dough<\/a>. Many decades later, creating meals from scratch \u2013 not because I have to, but because I want to \u2013 is a cherished avocation.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, I expanded my teacher roster to include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/nigella-lawson\">Nigella Lawson<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/ina-garten\">Ina Garten<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/martha-stewart\">Martha Stewart<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/alton-brown\">Alton Brown<\/a> and others, each of whom diversified my skillset. On Food Network, Brown\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2019\/08\/26\/alton-browns-delightfully-nerdy-utterly-satisfying-good-eats-is-back-and-not-a-moment-too-soon\/\">Good Eats<\/a>\u201d exposed me to the science behind culinary methodology. Syndicated episodes of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/martha-stewart-living\">Martha Stewart Living<\/a>\u201d upheld the attainability of elegance and the value of precise execution, appealing to my inner overachiever. Lawson\u2019s \u201cNigella Feasts\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2024\/07\/31\/barefoot-in-paris-why-ina-garten-is-the-perfect-culinary-guide-for-the-olympics\/\">The Barefoot Contessa<\/a>\u201d gave me permission to relax, which, in the long run, is better for my blood pressure.<\/p>\n<p>I will never know whether I would have sought out those lessons or eaten as well during my broke 20s if my malleable toddler brain hadn\u2019t absorbed Child\u2019s lessons and coaxed me to put the most remedial of them into action, albeit with plenty of adult supervision and assistance. What I have noticed, however, is the lack of their equivalents in our present media maelstrom.<\/p>\n<p>Today, budding chefs and other nascent artisans are tossed into the algorithmic rapids to figure out for themselves, say, the difference between frying and saut\u00e9ing, or what it means to cook pasta to the al dente phase. This is not to say that information isn\u2019t available; quite the opposite. Between influencer blogs, #<a href=\"https:\/\/food52.com\/story\/28640-iconic-tik-tok-food-recipes\">FoodTok<\/a>, and similar content on Instagram, YouTube and other platforms, hundreds of versions of such lessons (of varying utility and quality, granted) can be put into practice in any of the millions of recipes available to try.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, culinary competition is its own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2008\/04\/06\/chef_shows\/\">highly prolific reality TV subgenre<\/a>. On Fox, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/gordon-ramsay\">Gordon Ramsay<\/a>\u2019s \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d franchise has been forging celebrity chefs in the fires of the host\u2019s verbal abuse for decades. Bravo responded with a politer version in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/top-chef\">Top Chef<\/a>.\u201d Netflix churns out an array of contests pitting dish against dish, including \u201cNext Gen Chef\u201d \u2014 an entirely separate show from the Ramsay co-hosted \u201cNext Level Chef,\u201d which premiered a new season this week.<\/p>\n<p>As for Food Network, the one-time standard bearer of instruction and inspiration long ago abandoned that original mandate in favor of \u201cChopped\u201d and other high noon-style cooking and baking battles, along with endless reruns of Guy Fieri\u2019s \u201cDiners, Drive-Ins and Dives.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_884824\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-884824\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Next-Gen-Chef-9jpg.jpg\" alt width=\"1692\" height=\"1142\"  ><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-884824\"><span>(Netflix)<\/span> Chef Courtney Evans in \u201cNext Gen Chef\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Fieri also hosts \u201cGuy Fieri\u2019s Tournament of Champions\u201d and \u201cGuy\u2019s Grocery Games,\u201d and has a new series, \u201cFlavortown Food Fight,\u201d set to premiere in March. It will join \u201cBaking Championship: Next Gen,\u201d \u201cWorst Cooks in America,\u201d \u201cBeat Bobby Flay\u201d and . . . you get the idea.<\/p>\n<p>Let me clarify that this is not some \u201cdinosaur rails against extinction-level comet collision\u201d rant. There\u2019s no reversing this trajectory, and most adventurous culinary enthusiasts wouldn\u2019t want that. But we might remark on the breadth of its impact as another result of transformed educational priorities, monoculture\u2019s demise and individualized information streams.<\/p>\n<p>This is how technological progress works. The old gives way to the new. But that also marks a clear transformation in culinary programming from emphasizing the development of proficiency to encouraging consumption.<\/p>\n<p>For much of the 1900s, family and consumer sciences, more broadly known as home economics, were a staple of educational curricula in most American communities. (I didn\u2019t attend a school where such classes were offered, hence my mother\u2019s embrace of Child\u2019s supplemental education and other PBS shows.) Such classes helped students develop confidence in the kitchen and other areas of household maintenance, including budgeting. But enrollment in FCS classes has been in steady decline since the late 20th century. Their availability was further endangered in the aughts by the shifted emphasis to testing instead of skill development spurred by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, as explained <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thesalt\/2018\/06\/14\/618329461\/despite-a-revamped-focus-on-real-life-skills-home-ec-classes-fade-away\">in a 2018 NPR story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This was also when Stewart\u2019s \u201cLiving,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2024\/01\/30\/they-have-a-formula-why-some-of-the-networks-original-stars-are-moving-on\/\">Rachael Ray<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2023\/09\/04\/the-forgotten-art-of-cooking-with-your-hands\/\">Emeril Lagasse<\/a> and other Food Network celebrities were ascendant, serving much of the same purpose Child and her contemporaries did for a new generation of young adults and their children. Social media\u2019s explosion in the mid-aughts initially amplified these celebrities\u2019 ubiquity until legions of their loyal TV viewers and pupils launched their own blogs and social media channels.<\/p>\n<p>This is how technological progress works. The old gives way to the new. But that also marks a clear transformation in culinary programming from emphasizing the development of proficiency to encouraging consumption, and the fade-out of the shared cultural exploration Food Network once chaperoned.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not the only one who\u2019s noticed this. \u201cI can tell you when Food Network started losing the plot, baby,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/11\/26\/business\/video\/thanksgiving-dinner-food-groceries-expensive-digvid\">Tori Paschal<\/a>, a digital creator who posted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@tori_cemone\/video\/7592776106114075918\">this spot-on, hilarious observation in a TikTok video.<\/a> \u201cIt was when my damn lineup became more cooking challenges than actual cooking, like it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paschal goes on to list some of the channel\u2019s Hall of Famers, including Lagasse, Brown, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/giada-de-laurentiis\">Giada DeLaurentiis<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/paula-deen\">Paula Deen<\/a> (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2025\/09\/18\/paula-deens-scandals-a-complete-timeline\/\">before we found out how racist she was<\/a>,\u201d she said) before saying, with no small portion of frustration in her voice, \u201cBefore there was TikTok and before there was YouTube, we all had to go to Food Network. Rachael Ray gave us EVOO \u2014 extra virgin olive oil. Gotta have a garbage bowl when you\u2019re cooking!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSandra Lee [was] the very first housewife to show us<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cExwfqhWbUw\"> how cool day drinking was<\/a>, but we couldn\u2019t comprehend because we were 10, 12 years old, and it\u2019s noon and we were at our grandmama\u2019s house,\u201d Paschal continued to riff. \u201cFood Network started losing its originality when it started to be more \u2018Iron Chef America\u2019 . . . cake-offs and \u2018Iron Chef\u2019 and \u2018Chopped\u2019 and all that. I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, everybody doing it for the money, ain\u2019t nobody doing it for the food no more.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_884826\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-884826\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Be-My-Guest-with-Ina-Garten.jpg\" alt width=\"1692\" height=\"1142\"  ><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-884826\"><span>(Food Network)<\/span> Jennifer Garner and Ina Garten in \u201cBe My Guest with Ina Garten\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mind you, the Food Network greats are still seen as authorities, but primarily in their capacity as competition judges or hosts. On \u201cBe My Guest with Ina Garten,\u201d the Barefoot Contessa shares her cutting board with A-list celebrities like Jennifer Garner and Tina Fey, which is a bit light on utility and the common touch. Lawson, meanwhile, has just been announced as Prue Leith\u2019s replacement on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/the-great-british-baking-show\">The Great British Baking Show<\/a>,\u201d which, in its way, encourages amateurs to hone their baking technique by featuring other amateurs showcasing theirs, step by step . . . in, yes, a baking tourney.<\/p>\n<p>Shows like these and \u201cTop Chef\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 which I love, by the way \u2014 teach us to genuflect at the altars of celebrity culinarians, viewing their restaurants and signature dishes as luxury experiences as opposed to showing regular folks how to think innovatively about dinner. They can create an intimidating aura around the kitchen, and while that often makes fantastic television, it also distances us from the accessibility yesterday\u2019s TV chefs used to preach.<\/p>\n<p>Filling that gap, we have the Internet and dozens of influencers post short montages of their latest creations, which may not necessarily pass our taste tests. Since AI invaded social media, some of those influencers aren\u2019t even human. It follows that their tips and hacks don\u2019t work. They were never meant to, because the prevailing understanding is that content is primarily a feast for the eyes and shortened attention spans.<\/p>\n<p>Shows like \u201cTop Chef\u201d\u00a0teach us to genuflect at the altars of celebrity culinarians, viewing their restaurants and signature dishes as luxury experiences as opposed to showing regular folks how to think innovatively about dinner.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, New York Magazine tech columnist John Herrman published a piece called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/article\/instagram-reels-and-the-new-era-of-desocialized-media.html\">Welcome to desocialized media<\/a>\u201d that explains the contradictory outcome of the social media revolution, where algorithms are tailored to deliver what they determine we want to us instead of encouraging exploration. He calls this \u201c[the] long (and nearly complete) process of platform desocialization.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_884827\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-884827\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/great-brit-bake-off.jpg\" alt width=\"1692\" height=\"1142\"  ><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-884827\"><span>(Channel 4 \/ Love Productions )<\/span> Dylan Bachelet in \u201cThe Great British Bake Off\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cPlatforms originally defined by keeping up with people you know, or have at least heard of, become something fundamentally different,\u201d Herrman writes, adding the pivot from encountering things on purpose to seeing content an algorithm predicts we\u2019ll engage with, \u201cremains an underrated factor in just how strange the internet \u2014 and downstream entertainment, and media, and politics \u2014 can feel in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And, I\u2019ll add, how additionally removed we might feel from acts and practices that strengthen our life satisfaction, like cooking.<\/p>\n<p>That skill and any deeper affinity we may develop for it is typically passed from one person to another.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong><em><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">Want more from culture than just the latest trend? The Swell highlights art made to last.<\/i><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/newsletter?utm_source=onsite&#038;utm_medium=organic&#038;utm_campaign=the-swell-edit-signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up here<\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>My mother shaped my love of gastronomy more intimately than Julia Child. But I was her fifth kid, and by the time I came along, she\u2019d returned to work. Plopping her youngest in front of our local public TV station\u2019s daytime lineup meant she didn\u2019t have to worry about me being exposed to what she viewed as unsavory material. As a bonus, I\u2019d learn a few things while she availed herself of uninterrupted free time, which wasn\u2019t really free, since I\u2019d often hear a running vacuum or dishes clanking in the sink.<\/p>\n<p>Because of what I picked up from \u201cThe French Chef,\u201d I eventually shadowed and assisted her in chopping vegetables or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2025\/10\/15\/the-secret-to-perfect-buttery-pie-crust\/\">cutting shortening into flour<\/a> without hesitation, internalizing many of her recipes to the degree that I can make them taste just like they did when she prepared them. It keeps her present in my life nearly a decade after she died.<\/p>\n<p>An endless buffet of Internet content is available to help anyone of any age develop the same competency and desire. Finding it starts with the urge to make something, along with the desire to learn and improve at making it. Such appetites sharpen with maturity, but are much more enjoyable if we learn the baby steps when we\u2019re young.<\/p>\n<p>But it seems we haven\u2019t quite figured out an updated recipe substitute for what we had in the time before TikTok and \u201cChopped.\u201d Maybe one isn\u2019t forthcoming. But I echo Paschal\u2019s mourning: \u201cLord, don\u2019t it just break your heart,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like looking at somebody who has so much potential, then it just went downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who\u2019s contended with a broken sauce or a burnt roast knows that happens on occasion. They also know they can start over and remake what was lost. Contestants on \u201cThe Great British Baking Show\u201d do that all the time.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/section>\n<hr>\n<section>\n<h2>Recipes<br \/>\n            Related Topics            <span><br \/>\n                &#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;            <\/span><br \/>\n        <\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<section data-post-id=\"884599\" data-terms=\"commentary,food,food-network,gordon-ramsay,guy-fieri,ina-garten,nigella-lawson,the-great-british-baking-show,tiktok,top-chef,tv\">\n<h2>Recipes<br \/>\n        <span><br \/>\n            Related Articles        <\/span><br \/>\n    <\/h2>\n<div>\n        <template><br \/>\n            <a href><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/themes\/salon\/assets\/img\/salon-placeholder.webp\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"recipes Salon placeholder\">\n                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>                <span><\/span><br \/>\n            <\/a><br \/>\n        <\/template>\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n<hr><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2026\/01\/30\/the-lost-joy-of-the-food-network-chef-as-teacher\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recipes commentary Recipes TikTok is where the recipes are, but it&#8217;s a poor substitute for a TV expert&#8217;s instruction Published January 30, 2026 12:00PM (EST) Contestant Michael, Gordon Ramsay and Tilly Ramsay in &#8220;MasterChef Junior&#8221; (Greg Gayne\/Fox Media) As I encounter more middle-aged people who are only recently coming around to the concept of cooking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":891255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1413,31427],"tags":[131512],"class_list":{"0":"post-891254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-network","8":"category-teacher","9":"tag-popular-recipes"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}