I read foodnetworkaddict.com just about every day. Jacob Strauss, the creator, is a wickedly funny and perceptive critic of the network. The guy often skewers us. And me. But even when he’s at his most merciless, most times he makes me laugh out loud. And occasionally his criticism really hits home. Check it out.
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I never tire of mac and cheese recipes. Keep 'em coming!
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Bob,
It’s nice to hear you actually listen to the viewers. foodnetworkaddict.com really is an amazing site.
Hi Bob,
Glad for any blog with you. For many of us, seriously, we really needed the more creative, high-brow thing that Lisa Garza could bring on… PLEASE PLEASE have your network work with her, or else encourage her to to Bravo TV, which would be a wonderful venue for her as well. Competition bites, but I’ve completely switched over to Bravo or Travel at this point.
I love foodnetworkaddict.com as well. Fun to hear more about “behind the scenes”.
One note, I, too, don’t like the new foodnetwork.com website. I like the old format of finding the recipes from today’s show easily - new format, too many “clicks”. Thanks for reading!
So you have a blog and you read Food Network Addict - then why does it seem that the Food Network hates bloggers? I have repeatedly asked - via proper PR channels - to be able to ask questions of Lisa Garza and have not even gotten the dignity of a response of any sort. That’s not particularly good “public relations” at all.
I read the Foodnetwork Addict and this guy seems to know what end is up.
Tell me something Bob. If you read this site, do you take anything from it ? I mean there are some people that are plenty pissed with you and the network, especially after that debacle of series which McCargo “won”.
Dude, you know, I know, thewhole world knows that thing was fixed. I think the one thing people don’t like the most is having their intelligence insulted by seemingly holding an honest competiton.
heck if you wanted a black man to host a show, give em show, don’t drag and destroy other dreams by doing what you did. Nobody can stomach stuff like that.
No wonder you had an outcry. You sent home some very decent people that were way better in many ways than Aaron and in my opinion, the show was an absolute disgrace.
So hopefully you too can learn from reading Jacob’s blog.
Well it seems my invite to come read our forum of over a 1000 members and points of view was deleted, seems like than you do not want to read what your viewers think, but a blogger who has one point of view and will appear on your network. That pretty much sums up the network I guess, we as viewers are going to get what you decide we need to see and you are not going to listen to what your viewers really want, I do not know who you are polling to find out what you viewers want to see, but it seems not your viewers. That just tells me what type of personal they have working at the network it is no wonder your long time chefs are leaving, I would to.
My response to Rondell on “the black man”
as it was so put:is “WOW”. Tell us how you really feel.
Bob, Glad to hear you read FNA. By not being owned by Food Network he is free to say what he feels. I hope that you try within the corporate environment to be as open as you can here.
The DC NFNS casting was a disaster. I arrived at 10 and there were about 40 or so people already there. Not too bad but then the waiting began. 4 hours to get through 40 people? When I left around 2:30pm, there were still 60+ people to go and only a half hour left in the casting. The people who went later in the day were rushed through in literally 2 minutes while the people who went earlier in the day got 10-15 minutes per person. I feel like I should have just submitted a video instead of going to the casting, but now I can’t since you can’t submit an application twice. I attended the NY casting last year and it wasn’t like this at all - it was handled efficiently and professionally. I’m not knocking you guys, but someone needs to make sure these things are handled correctly. There were a lot of upset people in DC.
i’m a fan of it too. i think his love for ina is hilarious. i love her too and can’t wait for new episodes.
I do not like the new foodnetwork.com website. It takes too long to download any of the pages. There’s too many clicks to get anywhere on the site and it’s too hard to find anything. I’ve found that some of the recipes that I saved do not come up, when I go to bring them up to look at them. I liked the old format better. Thank you for reading this.
Your new format for the tv schedule is much less user friendly. The old format where all the programs for the day was listed in one screen WITH RECIPES was much better. I would often decide to view a program because the recipes looked interesting. Now it’s just too much trouble.
Please go back to the old TV format! It’s soooo much user friendly than the new.
And please get rid of those auto-play video. Keep the videos, but let us be the ones to push the “play” button. It slows things down and I hate having that thing start every time I go to a show’s page.
Your new website is not USER FRIENDLY AT ALL!!!!!! It sucks.
Having difficulty viewing the new website. Although I see the horizontal banner, there is a verical divider that starts under the “search” button. Wrote FN but no response. My computer is pc format and 1 year old.
Follow up to previous posting. Also, all pages show to the left of the vertical divider…nothing to right, other than top horizontal banner.
I sure do miss the OLD Food Network website. It was perfect as it was. The new one is agonizingly slow. It takes more than a dozen clicks to plow thru TV programming and desired recipes where it took two clicks with the old website. New website will not stay on my Pacific time zone. I emailed and questioned FoodNetwork staff and they said it cannot be made to stay on anything but Eastern time. Interesting, though, that the old website stayed on my Pacific time zone. Can’t stand all the ads and pop-ups on the new. PLEASE bring back the old website!!! The new is NOT an improvement.
Hi, Bob. I’m not having trouble navigating the new FN site (it is pretty “busy,” though), but as I mentioned before, please bring back the monthly calendar. It was great to be able to click on a date and see schedule for that day.
I agree with Marla above, I used to check out a whole month’s worth of programming in a visit. Now I can only see the current week. It stinks!
I hope you read Food Network Musings. It’s funny, insightful, articulate and has spot on comments about the Food Network. Read it, enjoy it and learn something.
i,too, do not like the new web site, but i do enjoy these blogs
Bob, kudos to you for continuing your blog. It took some time and searching (loathe the new FN website, ugh) but here you are! Thanks for the recipe!;) OK a lot of people want to be entertained at night but everytime I see an ad for Paula’s Party, I cringe…with embarassement for her and us viewers. It’a all too O.T.T. and not in a good way. After seeing an earlier video of her, I couldn’t believe it was the same person. Current Paula’s persona needs to return to a kinder, gentler one, please?
Bob - I love the Food Network BUT really do not like the new website. It takes so long to navigate my way through. The calendar is really a step backward from the old one. Please bring the old one back. I do like some of the features such as your blog, but all in all I miss the original one. I am a huge fan, but your new website is defeating me.
Why do you remove negative comments?
Bob, it seems you have a can of worms spewing all over the place on this web site, the blog and everywhere else. People never receive return contacts and have legit questions. I have to say, I have been #1 fan of the network and website for many years, yet the direction and viewing of both the TV shows and website is down hill bigtime. I would hate to see you lose it…….but the programing is no where near as good as old days. The debacle of NFNS of the last years and actually having us duped into Aaron as the winner is shameful. I am sorry you think we are so stupid. I don’t care if Aaron was green and from Mars, but he was not the best BY ANY MEANS. You really wanted Nipa and even when she flamed out you broke any procedural rules to force her to stay, that was so obvious….then the good, talented people were screwed to get Aaron…sorry move dude. What is difficult now, is watching the chefs literally “grow” in front of our eyes. Even tight head shots of Ina cannot hide her incredible size. I worry about her health and what it says when Emeril, Ina, and even Tyler have gotten so big. Poor Mario who I love so much is so big I can’t believe he can move in the kitchen. Iron chef cannot feature Bobby on every show. Is there anything that teh network can do to help these folks lose some weight ? I am not a “fat hater” but they can’t be good role models and represent the network as health centered and get so big.
At least Giada seems to be wearing more apporpriate clothing as her show is great but showing 4 inches of clevage on a cooking show is totally inapporpriate.
I love this network and the website and am so sad to see it blunder so baddly. When businesses go south, heads should roll………maybe it is time for you to consider stepping down to save the whole mess before your ratings drive you all out.
Good for you Allen!!!!
… those of us who are Food Network Addict fans were VERY pleased to see him at Ina’s Dessert Party this week. Good on ya for inviting him there.
That show was my favorite of the Dear FN series this week. Ina was at her most charming, and we all fell even more in love with Jacob.
I have an idea for a show with a viewpoint that has not been addressed since I started watching FN in the early 90's. (still love David and Michelle U.) Also could be a brand, with merchandise etc.
Who do I need to contact?
When Guy Fieri comes on, I change the channel. Who does he appeal to?
…Im a huge fan of Food Network next Star……Ive watch Melisse d'Arabion today her third week on the "air"…..had to turn it off because she is totally irritating and she talked about chicken the cost verses percentage..bla bla bla……what the heck was THAT all about….she is by far NOT an expert…..she is already getting to be "too-much"…..wont watch her again !!!! thats it !!! Im done!!!!
Me, he appeals to me. I love his shows. I am a youngish 60 something, married with children, grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
Oh my gosh. I could have written what you just wrote. I'm done too. Actually her recipes were good, but I couldn't stand watching or listening. Her voice and her eyes are irritating.
Do you like Jeffrey. FN prepared some web videos that are awesome and what we COULD be watching. Sigh . . .
Melissa's show is just painful to watch.
I just watched Melissa’s third show and enjoyed it. I think she’s getting better and more comfortable with each show. You asked about the chicken and the percentages she was talking about. What she was saying was that normally when proteins are put on sale, they are as much as 50% off so by buying a family size package on sale, you are saving a larger percentage of money than if you bought a regular size package not on sale. Made perfect sense to me.
I don’t know what you mean by the statement “she is getting to be too much.” I thought she was informative and I enjoyed watching her. If you don’t want to watch her that is your business. That’s why the network has a variety of hosts for their many different shows. Different people like different things. For example, I turn the channel when the Neelys come on. Can’t stand watching them or Aaron McCargo but I don’t come on a blog and whine. I just turn the channel or do something else while they are on.
I absolutely agree! Food Network, you chose the wrong star. It should have been Jeffrey! I'm sure he would have been great and fun to watch.
HELLO! That's what blogs are for!
Don't forget her big white teeth!
I could only watch 10 minutes…………
Blogs are for whining?! My mistake…I thought it was grown ups on here.
— On Sun, 8/23/09, IntenseDebate Notifications <notifications@intensedebatemail.com> wrote:
"normally when proteins are put on sale, they are as much as 50% off so by buying a family size package on sale, you are saving a larger percentage of money than if you bought a regular size package not on sale."
On sale is cheaper than not on sale? Saving 50% per pound is more than saving 0% (not on sale) per pound? She thought of that all by herself? And she thinks people really need to be told that? Amazing. The "too much" is that someone is arrogant enough to think they are the only one to figure out the obvious.
Are you in 7th grade? It's pretty asinine to criticize a person for something they have no control over. Melissa has the teeth God blessed her with. What should she do? Have them filed down to meet your standards? At least her hair doesn't appear greasy or multi-colored like other contestants. Criticizing her because of her teeth is the same thing as criticizing someone because they are short. Do you do that too?
I just tried to watch Melissa's show and I am sorry but had to turn it off after a few minutes. Come on FN what are you trying to do???? You have been such a professional and respectful network and it is really disappointing to see what kind of shows you are broadcasting. I have nothing against Melissa and wish her well but she is not cut to do this.
You completely missed the boat on this with Jeffrey…… Please bring him back on TV.
Maybe she felt she had to point that out since there are people on here unable to “figure out the obvious” (your words) when it comes to figuring the cost of a meal. You can’t figure in the cost of say a whole jar of mayo when you are only using a quarter cup. I have a business where I make packaged food mixes and sell in gourmet shops. One of my products is a jambalaya mix. When I figure my cost for one package of mix, I can’t use the cost of a whole bag of rice since the individual package only uses 1 cup of rice. I have to divide it out to get the actual cost of that one package and then sell accordingly.
Face it…there are people here that wouldn’t be happy with her no matter what she does.
Well, me for one-would invite him to a party in a minute!
People, Please, we are no longer in grade school… no more personal attacks, based on anyone's appearance… That being said… FN, this was an error in adjustment. She is not a good representative of the FN. Buy meat on sale…not a concept we did not grasp without her. She did not invent orange chicken, and fot the many that figured chicken breasts would be that latest category which is an already too long boring list -kudos
People, Please, we are no longer in grade school… no more personal attacks, based on anyone's appearance… That being said… FN, this was an error in adjustment. She is not a good representative of the FN. Buy meat on sale…not a concept we did not grasp without her. She did not invent orange chicken, and for the many that figured chicken breasts would be that latest category which is an already too long and boring a list -kudos
I TOTALLY agree with you about the video! It's driving me crazy (more than I am already
I LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! Brian Boitano's new show! What an asset to FN! Can hardly wait for next week's show!
CORWIN IS BRILLIANT , FUNNY AND INFORMATIVE HIS APPROACH IS FRESH BUT WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHAT IS THE RECEIPE FOR THAT WHOLE PIG ? I GOT SALT SUGER AND STAR ANNISE BUT WHAT IS THE REST ? PLEASE ADVISE