Good Guy Fieri rant on Salon ...

I like Guy Fieri. Sue me.

DDD is one of my favorite shows.

To me, what is more absurb is the stupid game shows relating to food. They are all the same.....I will wait for quality food. I don't want my chef to rush to get my plate out in a certain time. I would like for them to think about what they are going to prepare. I just think the premise fo cooking food in a time constraint is just ridiculous.

This. I don't see why everyone is dissing Guy, he goes around the country showcasing locally owned restaurants. What is so bad about that??? These game shows though, my god that is all that is on anymore.

I think the biggest problem with DDD is that he has his schtick and he does not vary from it at all. I reached the point where I couldn't handle hearing "That's off the chain that's money winner winner chicken dinner" for the four or five times an episode and just turned it off. I appreciate him going to little local joints, but frankly, anyone could be doing that.

[Robin Garr]

I like Guy Fieri. Sue me.

DDD is one of my favorite shows.

No need for litigation. This would be a dull place if we all agreed on anything!

Anyone could do it, but can they get paid for it???? I may not like most hosts but I have the choice to watch or change the channel.

I don't mind DDD, but when I labeled him a tour guide instead of a (now) active cook, that is why. He doesn't cook on the show, but shows other people cooking -- nothing wrong with that, per se. And, given the name of the show, one can't expect a health-fest.

As for his other shows, I don't care for them or watch them, but don't think that prohibits me from critiquing them either. It's all fair game.

I think Guy is low hanging fruit. I don't know that his TGIF take on food and life is really anything more than an appeal to an audience that wouldn't watch Food Network before he was on. He gets ratings and causes controversy and that makes for television (not good television, just the plain ass vanilla kind). And to be honest when you watch the guy from Smash Mouth eat really good looking hot wings and he hits you with a catch phrase it is effective at selling greasy food porn. I mean John Madden got me hyped about field goals for the same reason! I don't know that he is really there to appeal to the true culinary connoisseur. I don't hate him, I just recognize his gimmick and move on. It's like Ted Nugent on the Sportsman's channel, or Jillian Michael's on fitness shows, or Dr. Oz on daytime tv. These are people who sell ads, you can like them, you can hate them, but people tune in, so they keep shows on tv.

Me personally I would like Rod Serling to somehow through the magic of CGI, host a cooking show. It would be weird, and creepy, and the dishes could have a twist at the end, like it was really made out of people, or the chef was dead the entire time. It could be called "To Serve Man". Very hip idea. Call my agent for more details.

Yeah, but Madden was a real football legend with honest to goodness credentials. He was an expert in his field. Fieri is just a tool. (meant in all manners of understanding of the term)

Yeah, but Madden was a real football legend with honest to goodness credentials. He was an expert in his field. Fieri is just a tool. (meant in all manners of understanding of the term)

Agreed, but I never saw Madden play football and always knew him as a talking head on TV and it still worked it's magic. "BOOM!"

Shall we review the reviewer?

Mr Farce (I meant that) is an Academic that has never spent a day of his life in a professional kitchen or around the Nielsen families that drive these ratings. Nothing qualifies you as a person that can speak of this subject- except your sensationalism.

Turn the channel, Hulu, subscribe to Food Channel or just listen to NPR to get your relax on...

Have you ever promoted a Mom-n-Pop restaurant? Guy does. Every restaurant he features proudly proclaims themselves 'On Food Network' and gains the thousands of dollars in revenue from this marketing. And yet you want to be a sour-puss because your daily routine has been disrupted?

PS. Bobby Flay is a terrific Chef and built this house. Go shake his hand and be a douche to his face. No, that's right- you prefer to behave this way from afar.

Nothing qualifies you as a person that can speak of this subject

So, who is allowed to speak of this subject? I don't get the idea that some people are qualified and some are not. I'm curious to know the criteria.

As for your point about his promoting local restaurants (as people do here, albeit on a smaller scale), I think that's a fair one.

I dunno, it's always been a niche channel, but when they got away from focusing on the cooking(admittedly they were close to bankruptcy at the time(even if it was generally better programming)) to focusing on the personalities it seems like they had one big runup in ratings and advertising dollars, but the more interesting ones have moved on to other projects, Fieri/Deen/Ray/not even sure who else they have nowadays seem to be a lot more one hit wonder, they've got their one thing that they do and that's about it, and don't seem to be able to fill the void,

I mean it's great that Fieri is promoting local places around the country, but if they're losing viewers and not bringing in new ones...welp.

Nothing qualifies you as a person that can speak of this subject

So, who is allowed to speak of this subject? I don't get the idea that some people are qualified and some are not. I'm curious to know the criteria.

As for your point about his promoting local restaurants (as people do here, albeit on a smaller scale), I think that's a fair one.

A person's qualifications to criticize a culinary public speaker should be the standard. I'm pretty liberal on this...

'(x) worked his way through college as a server at (y).'

'(x) is a foodie and has spent a summer picking grapes in Bordeaux.'

A Chef, Sommelier, or Captain. A PR person who works with restaurants. A Public Speaker of note, etc. etc.

If you have a skill-set that doesn't apply to the subject matter- then you create a credibility gap for me. I don't ask my mechanic for legal advice!

Salon used his position at Harvard as proof that he knows something about this. He doesn't, and it's a stupid rant that amounts to nothing more than a yelp review. Fine for forums and online reviews- shameful if released as a journalistic op-ed.

And second, it is true that he didn't win the first FNS. It was the second. That led to his show in which he, to his credit, earned a great deal of fame. Still, stating he won the 1st instead of the 2nd is not, imo, a major error.

That isnt "major" except in the sense its something an editor should catch and correct before publication.

A person's qualifications to criticize a culinary public speaker should be the standard. I'm pretty liberal on this...

'(x) worked his way through college as a server at (y).'

'(x) is a foodie and has spent a summer picking grapes in Bordeaux.'

A Chef, Sommelier, or Captain. A PR person who works with restaurants. A Public Speaker of note, etc. etc.

If you have a skill-set that doesn't apply to the subject matter- then you create a credibility gap for me. I don't ask my mechanic for legal advice!

Salon used his position at Harvard as proof that he knows something about this. He doesn't, and it's a stupid rant that amounts to nothing more than a yelp review. Fine for forums and online reviews- shameful if released as a journalistic op-ed.

Stephen .. I have done none of the above things. I guess that means I should not criticize someone like Fieri, even though I find him completely irritating.

I don't know if Robin qualifies. Although he may be classified as a foodie, I don't know if he spent a summer picking grapes.