Michelle answers:

It got replaced by Ten Dollar Dinners w/Melissa d’arabia.

Michelle answers:

And you mean like Rachel Ray suddenly becoming a product unto herself? Didja notice that Emeril is no longer on at 8 pm ET every night?

It’s all a sales pitch, friend. These shows are less about cooking than they are about selling: selling a lifestyle, a type of knife, a brand of wine, a line of cookware. The show “Unwrapped” is nothing but a series of 5-minute commercials for various food manufacturers. Want to know what the Food Network is about? Read the credits at the end of any show and you’ll see it: the list of corporate sponsors who “graciously permitted” the use of their products in the filming.

I don’t mind Giada’s accent, but what’s with the three shows she’s on? Why does Bobby Flay have three series? Alton Brown has three or four, tho I find him informative as well as entertaining. The best shows for actual cooking (IMHO) are Barefoot Contessa and Nigella Eats. Really, though, it is far less about cooking than it is about consuming, which is why the network continually runs those lower right screen blurbs exhorting viewers to “Buy Rachel Ray’s knife set on foodtv.com” or “For more information on booking your trip to Naples, visit foodtv.com/giada/travels” and on and on.

It’s not so much that I’m over the chefs. I’m over being treated like a chump. The same is true of HGTV and TLC, for that matter. I used to learn practical stuff – now, it’s just about the accumulation of stuff. Bag that, Gladys.

Michelle answers:

I thought u could just go online..maybe look for some number to call online..i wanna get tickets too!! It;d be cool to see emeril!

Michelle answers:

You could go on the food network website. But the white and dark silk chocolate was made form a “secret ” recipie that the cook did not give out.