Hail To The Chefs of Yester Year

These days there is an explosion of celebrity chefs and food wannabees. You got your Bobby Flays, your Mario Batalis, and your army of reality foodshow cooks of mediocre talent.

The televised world of food preparation and showmanship has never been more glamorous and rather pretensious to tell you the truth. I really wonder how many of the food celbrities on tv nowadays are actually talented.

Even Martha Stewart often rumoured to have been crash coursed on how to cook a recipe right before the camera started to roll on her dry, yuppie tv shows.

So this blog is dedicated to the food shows that I grew up with when I was a kid. Mom would be taking a break from her day to turn on the tube to catch a show, and I would come stumbling along, always announcing my presence with, "So what's he cookin'?"

Meet Bruno Gerussi. If any of you recognize him then you are likely young enough to remember him from "The Beachcombers". What you may not recall is that old Bruno had a crappy little show back in the 80's on the CBC called "Bruno Gerussi's Celebrity Cooks".

Aside from the shitty recipes that they would cook, I never knew any of the so called celbrities on his show. Back in the 80's there were quite a few Canadian shows that would boast Canadian celebrities that no one ever heard of. Need proof? Ok. Do you remember "Front Page Challenge"?

Jeff Smith: aka "The Frugal Gourmet". I used to love his little PBS show. Old Jeff would take you for trips around the world to see the food and culture of places like Hong Kong and Morocco, before trying to recreate those dishes in his kitchen.

Jeff's skills weren't very sophisticated and his recipes weren't always good. Onetime when I was a kid I decided to recreate his "Dried Oyster and Minced Pork"dish. Man, my stomach still feels ill just thinking about that repulsive mulch. But I loved The Frugal Gourmet because he celbrated cultures and food and tried to promote what was best in a multicultural life.

Props to Martin Yan who always promised that if "Yan can cook, so can you!" He's had quite a few shows over the years and is an old warhorse of the celebrity chef industry. From a little village in South China to his post as a TV staple, Martin made good.

I loved watching Martin bring Chinese cooking and culture to North America and my favourite part of the show was when he would take his camera and visit different Chinese communities around the world. In his later years he ran out of recipes and started going into fusion bullshit (crab cheese fondue?), but I am still on his side.

And finally, "Pasquale's Kitchen Express", starring Pasquale the opera singing chef.

The show was totally low budget out of Toronto, had garish tv effects from the 80's, and his dishes could only be described as crude. He was especially bad at making salads because he's always run out of time in show and resort to throwing the uncut vegetables onto a plate and drown it in a fast made vinagrette. The salad looked more like a fruit bowl.

But I still have a soft spot for old Pasquale even after all these years. He was everything that the current over styled and manicured chefs are not: honest, earnest, humble, sincere, and truly in love with food. Watching Pasquale may have been one of my ealiest exposures to the magic that food has in sharing and bringing families and friends together. Gracie miele Pasquale, et buono fortuna.