Comments on: Great Chefs, Great Cities

Great Chefs, Great Cities

vronsky — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:00:48 -0800

"Great Chefs is the oldest cooking/travel series on television and cable, and among the largest. The programs are seen around the world, and now they're available to you here." 80 videos, 3 chefs/recipes per episode. Ballottine of Sole Sauce Emeraude -- Chef Andre Soltner, Lutece l Corn Flan w/Smoked Salmon -- Chef David Burke, Park Avenue Cafe l Sweet and Sour Quail Peruvian Style -- Chef Stan Frankenthaler, East Coast Grill. (recipes from the entire series available for pdf download here)

By: Joe Beese

Joe Beese — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:14:39 -0800

It's very soothing television. Calm. Quiet. Orderly. And there's always a happy ending. This missus and I like to imitate the announcer's Southern accent: "Chef Beese begins by dicing scotch bonnet peppahs..."

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:25:20 -0800

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:32:34 -0800

The show is much better than the theme song!

By: lagreen

lagreen — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:34:05 -0800

Oh my god, thank you! I watched "Great Chefs" for years and was probably one of their younger viewers at age 15 or so when I started. I miss the quality of the food on this show and learned so much from watching it. I wish the food network would put on at least one show of this level back on. Thanks for the post!

By: vronsky

vronsky — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:37:21 -0800

Yeah Joe -- I've always loved the combination of the narrator's voice with the Charlie Byrd soundtrack :)

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:53:31 -0800

None of the PDF links for the recipes work, keep getting a 404. The videos cost 25¢ which is reasonable, but useless when I'm in the kitchen or at a store.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:26:40 -0800

Excellent that the videos are available! Bummer about the (however marginal) cost. Great Chefs has always been an enigma for me. You never know when it will pop-up on tv. It seems to never be on the same channel or at the same time. It almost seems to be treated as filler by programmers. Yet, it's easily one of the best and most enjoyable cooking programs ever. You might actually convince me to pay for a channel that shows nothing but Great Chefs and How It's Made (which seems to share a similar calm, cool demeanor.)

By: vronsky

vronsky — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:33:23 -0800

Works for me Milton, at least up to the last step of checkout. I did get this message on the final page -- Note: The website is currently accepting orders from US residents only. For instructions on placing an international order, please click here.

By: jedicus

jedicus — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:42:28 -0800

It's very soothing television. Calm. Quiet. Orderly. So true. My undergraduate roommate and I had almost nothing in common, but every day for a semester our class schedules had us arriving at the dorm room in time for Great Chefs. There we would sit, watching in silent contemplation for the entire episode. One of the things I loved about the show was that neither the narrator nor the (often unintelligible) chef provided enough information to actually recreate the recipes. I think that contributed to the calm nature of the show. You don't worry about the specifics, you just watch a master at work.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:46:05 -0800

@vronsky No when I try to click on the PDF recipe link, say for Assiette of Squab with Wild Mushrooms I get a FAIL. Video are nice for technique, but I need something I can read and get smeared bits on when I cook.

By: jbiz

jbiz — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:11:48 -0800

Watched this show so much with my mom when I was a kid. Thanks so much.

By: kurtroehl

kurtroehl — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:18:39 -0800

Used to watch this all the time - Ahh, great memories of mindless tv watching. Anyway, I still remember one of the narrators, a woman with a peculiar kind of southernish accent, and how she would pronounce some of the ingredients... PEPPuh FLOWah WAWtuh SHYOOgah PAPPerEEkah

By: ethel

ethel — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:36:05 -0800

THANK YOU! this made my day.

By: toastchee

toastchee — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:16:57 -0800

FINALLY!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Great Chefs!!!