You make a good point about PBS; they do have some good cooking shows. I’ll have to look into the times they are on and record them! I totally agree with you on Mario; I never even tried to make one of his meals. But he’s a hoot to watch.

I think a lot of people wonder how good the cakes taste that Ace of Cakes produces; I’m in awe of how much work it takes to make one of those cakes! I can’t imagine the cakes that Ace of Cakes staff makes taste as good as, say, a cake produced at a French bakery.

When I want a real cooking show, I usually watch PBS – Cooks Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen (love that magazine & their recipes) and Lidia Bastianitch (sp) cooking w/ her grandchildren, or reruns of Jacque Pepin; baking w/ Julia Child. We didn’t have Food Network for about 4 years and I didn’t miss is as much as I thought I did!

I do miss Mario, but only to watch, as he was so entertaining & obviously loved all regions of Italian cooking (although I didn’t like him on PBS w/ Gweneth Paltrow in Spain/Italy) – many of his recipes were too daunting to attempt. He is someone who’s restaurant I aspire to go to when in NYC.

I’m over the competition shows & ‘reality’ type shows, especially the dessert/cake ones. I hate Ace of Cakes. (I seriously wonder how good those cakes taste – they look amazing, but I’d rather make something that tastes as good as it looks – I like my dessert to look like dessert, not something else – just a purist, I guess ; )