This Saturday morning I went on a walk with Chef Deb (Deborah Rankine) who is on YouTube and also has a blog, a TV show and gives cooking classes in Canada. She gave me a copy of her book. Her web site is: www.thefridgewhisperer.ca and www.culinarycaravan.com We met through the Internet, I saw her on YouTube and sent in a comment about one of her recipes. She answered asking me about restaurants in Rome and then told me she was coming to Rome with her family for a visit.
She said she wanted to see a local fresh produce market in Rome where Romans shop for food. I met her at Porta Pia and we went around the corner to the market of Piazza Alessandria. She bought wine and olive oil, cheese and other Italian specialities. I also took her to 2 enotecas and for coffee in our little local bar. We went to Bartocci on Via Alessandria where she saw the staff make fresh gelato. She got quite a tour of the food shops in our area.
Tomorrow she goes to the Amalfi coast with the family. It was fun to meet her and to be able to show her around my neighborhood.
I was looking on YouTube.com at a series of videos by Chef Deb Rankine who is a Canadian Chef showing what can be done in terms of cooking simple recipes for people who don't have a lot of skills in the kitchen and who may feel intimidated by preparing any type of food not already in a box.
Chef Deb is quite good as a teacher and her recipes are easy for anyone who might want to gather some courage and try preparing a meal that looks good and taste good. However the producer of the show probably thought it would be a good idea to add 2 side kicks for action and fun. The only problem is that they are both stereotypes and diminish all together the value of what Chef Deb is preparing and explaining.
One is the typical caricature of the male, Christian is overweight, middle age, badly dressed, not terribly interested in what is going on and making inane comments. You know that this guy would not be able to boil water even if his life depended on it. In fact you wonder why he is even on the show. Was it to show that men too can cook?
The other is the young career female Kasha, who has to show that she is smarter than the counterpart male and is trying to show off in front of Chef Deb. You know that she cannot cook either, she gushes and makes equally inane comments. When she is told to be careful to avoid cross contamination while preparing poultry, she makes a face. When she puts on latex gloves to prepare the meat the indication is that she might also give bozo next to her a prostate examination.
All this is done to tell the public watching, don't worry folks, cooking does not require a lot of brain power and none of this will be a mental challenge. In other words lets keep this cooking show at the lowest common denominator.
The other thing that is annoying is that the show has to be geared towards families of 4 to 6 people. Why is that? Is it possible to explain a recipe without having to tell everyone in advance this will serve so many people, is the public that dumb.
It seems that we love on Canadian television to stick to stereotypes. Women cook, men can't, cooking shows are for families and no one else. Single people don't need to cook because they have no responsibilities. Don't challenge the public's intelligence with big words and concepts, keep it real simple.
My question to Chef Deb is who told you that Havarti Cheese is a Mediterranean food? Never heard of Pecorino goat cheese or Mozarella?
