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Ms. Moo-Cow has her own picture gallery online now...

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Top Five Television Chefs

1. Julia Child - I watched a Tribute to her on Food Network last night, which is what inspired this list. Ms. Child is of course the trail-blazer for cooks on television, and I always enjoyed her. My favorite series are her series with Jaques Pepin and the series she did on baking. She was always funny and no-nonsense and had a certain casualness that just made her fun to watch.
2. Rick Bayless - Mr. Bayless is the first chef I ever watched that inspired me to go try something. He's American (Oklahoma) born Mexican chef, learning his trade by touring the country and cooking with everyday people for years and years. His show is among the best produced ever, too, with lots of history of the people and food interspersed with cooking instruction. His restaurants are here in Chicago and why the hell am I not eating at them more often?
3. The Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith) - For pure passion about cooking, it's hard to beat The Frug. Never trained as a chef, he still went in with guns blazing, traveling around the world for foods to share with his audience. It's a shame that he was taken off the air for allegedly molesting people at his restaurant (he was never charged and always denied the accusations) because I'd give anything to see some of his shows again. The show he did where Elmo (the Muppet) was a a guest-star is among my favorite episodes of any cooking show ever. 75% of the cooking technique and basic knowledge I have comes from Mr. Smith (I still say "hot pan, cold oil, food won't stick" to myself every time I cook).
4. Jaques Pepin - Of all the chefs who have their own show, if I were to sit down and eat a meal prepared by any of them, it's be Mr. Pepin. I started watching him with Julia Child and continued watching his series with his step-daughter Claudine. The second series was especially fun because Claudine was not a trained chef so it was really watching him teach her what to do. He's laid back, but there's an underlying passion and such an expert technique that I can't help but watch.
5. Alton Brown - This show did what needed to be done with an engineer like me... It focused less on the how and more on the why. This alone (well, Alton's wit helps, too) is what makes this show so worthwhile. And I hate to do the "I liked him first" thing, but I liked him first. Before the food network, he shopped his show to PBS and it was test marketed in Chicago and some other places. I saw the television debut of the show, and instantly liked it (it was the episode on preparing steak). Unfortunately, only two episodes ever aired on PBS, and it took forever for me to get FoodTV on my cable, so while he was becoming popular I couldn't watch him.
6. Rachael Ray - Yeah, It's because she's cute as the dickens, but she also does a great job with the "quick meals" format without relying on pre-cooked things of "this is how it looks after an hour".
7. Justin Wilson - I didn't learn a thing watching him, but man was it fun too watch. He could tell a story like no one's business. I gare-un-TEE!

Honorable Mentions:
America's Test Kitchen - There's not a specific chef, so it can't really fall into the above, but this is one of my favorite cooking shows. They take 1000 different recipes and work 'em until they com up with one "best" recipe for a dish. Julia Colin is my favorite of the personalities. They also do lots of product testing on foods and equipments that I trust.
Anthony Bourdain - I don't think I've ever seen him cook a thing, but his shows (which are essentially travel shows) are great. If a restaurant sucks, he says so. He's harsh, irreverent, and just so fun to watch.
Great Chefs Series - I don't learn much, but I'm captivated by my non-learning. I also like the way the voice-over lady says "buttah".

Least Favorites:
Emeril, whose food is delicious I'm sure, but whose catch phrases are annoying.
Giada De Laurentiis, who uses annoying Italian over-pronunciations where the Americanized version would suffice just fine. The real annoyance is the over-production on her show. She'll say "now I'll get a spoon to stir this" and they'll cut to a shot of her reaching for a spoon. MAN that annoys me. The Barefoot Contessa suffers from the same thing, as does Nigella's show, I'm told (never seen it).

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I took an old air conditioner box, cut a whole in the side, put a towel in it, and made a little fun-house for Moo. Then I teased her mercilessly with cat toys until she gave me cute pictures, some of which are shown below:


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And Ms. Moo valiantly protecting the DVDs in my "other" category from the evil feather-toy onslaught.


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