Thursday, December 15, 2005

Sara's Secrets Are Out

Sara Moulton is a fine chef. In fact, she probably has the most impressive resume of any Food Network host. Sara's Secrets is always informative and her dishes look really good. She has no obnoxious gimmicks or annoying sayings. People who have met her in person say that she's warm and friendly.

I should like Sara's Secrets. But I don't.

For one thing, Sara always seems to be screwing up her dishes. She'll omit a main ingredient or will undercook something and she always says, "Oh, don't worry, yours will turn out better." What? I understand that things don't always turn out as planned in the kitchen (believe me, I understand!) but I'm sorry, if you're the executive chef of Gourmet magazine and this is not live tv, then it should be right!

Sara bugs me when she's alone in the kitchen, but if she has a guest she is intolerable. Sara insists on being top dog in the kitchen and always seems tense and impatient with her guests, so I'm not sure why she even invites people on the show. She's always interrupting the guests and once I even saw her wrestle a whisk from her guest's hands1!

Besides, whenever she has guests on I find myself constantly wondering how tall she is2:












On December 31, Sara's Secret will be removed from the Food Network. Sara's Secrets will be moved to PBS, where all the real cooks seem to be headed these days. Although I personally don't care for her show, this may signal the wrong direction for the Food Network. As I've written before, I want diversity at the Food Network and I hope they're not ditching Sara in order to make room for yet another Rachael Ray venture or an Unwrapped spinoff.

Sara is a heck of a cook and I am going to scope out her new cookbook, Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals. Move over Sandra Lee and Rachael Ray, Sara is going to school us all in how to create fast, easy meals without resorting to cheeseburger salads and corn nut cakes.



1When it comes to being bitchy with one's guests, Giada is one of the worst. Check out this clip.

2For the record, she's "less than five feet tall".

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You're not the only one who doesn't like Sara's Secrets- to me she really doens't have a personality that entices you to want to watch- she's like cardboard to me- I'm actually glad she's not going to be on food network anymore-

MSH said...

I think her main problem is that she never seems comfortable with the fact that she's on a clock. She always seems to get sidetracked early and rush everything late, including her guests and the assembly of her dishes. Remember Natalie Dupree, an old-school PBS chef? She was the same way. So bothered by the ticking clock that she was disheveled and chippy by the end of every show.

Stephanie said...

I have trouble warming up to Sara also. I've never had the inkling to try a single one of her recipies. I think she's a little hard to follow, but I'm not sure why.

Amy Sherman said...

Yup. She grates on my nerves. I feel I should like her, but I sure don't.