Don't count on it Great Fixings, with the announcement of a "Rhodes Insults China" series and the contiunation of the abominable Market Kitchen it looks as though the channel continues to sink even deeper.

Appalling TV.

I agree Hobmaster,i found gary rhodes quite rude,and how he was trying to tell those fine indian chefs how to cook their own cultural dishes which they have done superbly for generations,so with gary off to China and market kitchen on,time to go back to watching ready steady cook.

UKTVFood programming is simply abysmal in the last year. In fact, I would say it is insulting. They apparently think they can shove down any garbage and we'll just watch? I don't think so.

Look how the ratings go up when they air quality shows like Rick Stein! It should be obvious to them why their ratings are in the gutter, but apparently not?

What i find silly is a couple of years ago RICK STEIN made the progarame FOOD HEROES,and alsoFOOD HEROES SECOND HELPING, which was absolutely brilliant then UKTV FOOD do a progarame called LOCAL FOOD HEROES and put gary rhodes on it,what a travisty,he has two quality chefs in ROSEMARY and OLIVER,but never takes any notice of their oppinions,until they bring back GOOD FOOD LIVE, i won,t be watching this channel,wake up producers PLEASE.

I admit I was one who complained about repeats a few months back and they still irritate at times. But recently when Rick Stein's Food Heroes was repeated I was glued to the TV. What a revelation it was, frankly, at the quality of this programme to what they are now showing. It shocked me at how much food TV has gone downhill on UKTVFood of late. Stein epitomises the best. He's humble, passionate, learned and a great ambassador for England. Now we have Tana, TPB, Tebbutt, Rhodes, et al???

What is going on at UKTVFood?

Yes I agree with the suggestion that Rick Stein combines many desirable qualities, not least by presenting himself as an ordinary human being who gains and holds people's attention and respect by sharing his extensive knowledge of food in a articulate, well mannered and intelligent way.

There is no swearing and cursing or berating of the people he works with. He doesn't waste time putting down other TV chefs. There are no gimmicks and he doesn't make any attempt to "impress", he just does what he enjoys doing, and that seems enough to provide people with an enjoyable viewing experience.

I do wonder whether he is part of an era that is rapidly slipping away in this country. There seems to be an ever-increasing pressure on people to be highly competitive in an aggressive and self-interested way.

A phrase once heard was: "self praise is no recommendation!"

That phrase now seems to have been turned completely on it's head, and blowing your own trumpet as loudly as is possible, and pushing other people aside, or putting them down, seems to be considered the norm?

TV producers defend much of the rubbish they serve up by saying: "we just give the public what they want!"

It seems that providing viewing figures reach certain levels, then it can be assumed that the programme must be well targeted and 'right for purpose'.

But is that really the case?

I know I often watch TV programmes that I don't really have much interest in, having made a choice of what to watch on the basis of: "the lesser of evils model", or perhaps more accurately, the least boring program within that particular time slot.

What I have been increasingly doing of late, is getting up and switching the TV off if there is nothing of any quality/ or of interest on. Having the TV on all day has become a habit in our house, and I keep thinking of the 140 watts ph that is just a waste of energy and money. We recently had Sky+ installed, and now I scan through the day's programs and tab for recording anything that looks particularly worth watching, then turn the haunted fish tank off, if there is nothing immediately watchable on that is.

I know my efforts won't have any effect on viewing figures, but at least I cut a little off the electricity bill and save a little energy that really was just previously being wasted. Now when I sit down to watch TV I can select a recording using Sky+ that I really want to watch. Sometimes I even watch the same recording again, if the program was particularly of interest that is.

Nowadays I rarely watch UKTV Food - I can't get into MK, no matter how hard I try, and I am fed up with watching time-worn repeats: I do think Rick Stein is great, but you can have too much of a good thing.

I have stop "banging on" about MK, because I don't think anyone takes much notice of the complaints, probably putting them down to the "disgruntled minority" (by comparison with the total viewing figures that is, rather than the balance of posts on this site). It's been suggested that the wave of strong criticism has put MK fans off posting, but from what I have seen, even though many critics of MK have stopped posting, the number of positive posts doesn't seem to have risen.

Plus, I don't generally have anything against UKTV Food, and I do think the idea of a specialised food channel is a very good idea. As with many other Sky channels, they face the ongoing problem that people get fed up with watching the same repeats - if you don't have the memory span of a goldfish, it can get monotonous watching the same old stuff, no matter how good it was the first time round.

I also suspect that the primary channels, BBC, etc, have got wise to the fact that "repeats" can be quite marketable products, and so may now be less likely to sell programs off quite so quickly as they once did, choosing rather to do more re-runs themselves. So my guess is that UKTV producers are increasingly going to be challenged over what to invest money in when it comes to making their own "new" specialised programs.

‘Should ‘ they invest heavily in big names like Gary Rhodes doing a tour of China, or would it be wiser to spread the cash over a few new programs, with perhaps with less expensive names and lower general budget costs?

Personally, I think some of the newer 'up and coming' names working on studio based shows would be a better bet - at least that would avoid putting all the eggs in one basket, and I would rather see three new programs using new talent, as opposed to one major 'epic' starring Gary Rhodes.

Whatever happens, I hope UKTV Food has a successful year - it is easy to get carried away with criticism, especially if you feel your views are not being heard - and I suspect there are quite a few members on this site that feel that way. But at the end of the day, what we all share is an interest in food and watching people who have specialised in that area showing us how they 'do their stuff' on TV, so I hope the New Year brings more harmony and satisfaction between UKTV Food and *all* of their viewers.

This is not a channel I'm watching much anymore. I think I have seen everything being shown and I find the Market Kitchen show to be horrible.

I wish they could help us by making it better

"It's been suggested that the wave of strong criticism has put MK fans off posting, but from what I have seen, even though many critics of MK have stopped posting, the number of positive posts doesn't seem to have risen."

As usual a well thought out post but ref. to above quote.
Why bother? Every positive post is met with inane outbursts of.
Bring GFL back.
Bring Jenni back.
MK's rubbish.
etc. etc. etc.
Just boring to read.
One post the other day mentioned wanting to see "Working Class Food" whatever that is but if I suspect right and it's pies, puds and stews may I suggest that most of us are above that level.
Stop knocking wierd ingredients and let's expand our knowledge. No one is going to cook every dish but at least let's see how to. It's called learning. Not too many years ago could you source the genuine ingredients for Indian/Mexican/Chinese/Thai etc. etc. No but now just everyday items in most supermarkets.
Just let it drop or at least provide articulate, considered and researched posts such as Gastrosurf.

I'm with Sylive on this one, it's just not a great channel anymore. There's so many other great food programmes to watch on other channels nowadays.

Shame, really.

I think Sylive is a francophone Barsh, so don't be too harsh on that poster as being "inarticulate"! English is not THAT easy to learn!

Ho hum.
Didn't mention anyone as being inarticulate.
More praise really of the posts from Gastrosurf and the like.
You know, worth reading instead of One Line downers.

I agree TVFoodie, UKTVFood has become just an afterthought when nothing else in on the air...

A shame as this used to be my favourite channel. I watched it every evening.

No more, sadly.

And when will they stab this Market Kitchen in the heart??? It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.

BORING!!!

I want to second the comments made by breadman and gastro about Rick Stein's shows. I think I've seen them all at least twice but still ove to watch them and how he always gets so worked up about one topic or another. He's the genuine article, isn't he!

I wish they could inject some of that passion into Market Kitchen!!

Well, I'm surprised by how little I watch UKTVFood now. They have summarily killed this channel by the incredibly poor programming decisions over the past year or more. Shame on them. They've ruined what was a wonderful channel with great viewer loyalty. Simple incompetence.

Well I think it must be just a phase as all the great food programmes seem to be on holiday down under also. Not only did Market Kitchen just come back [yawn] but they've put Marco White's Hell's Kitchen on right after [double yawn]. His show doesn't hold a candle to Gordon Ramsey's show. It's so lifeless and dull.

So, needless to say, I am watching far less of the food channel here than I used to. So it appears to be the same problem.

I used to be avid watcher of UKTVfood but since Market Kitchen came into existence and good food disappeared I don't bother as it is just so mind numbingly boring to watch, infact if you're suffering from insomnia just watch 5 minutes of it and you'll be away with the fairies. I just check to see if Ellie Kriegers on or Ina Garten and then I'll tape them and watch later, although I have enjoyed watching some of the programmes with the chef doing impossible things, like a banquet for 200 hundred and 1 oven - mission impossible or something like that its called. I'm afraid until they inject some money, interest and passion into the programme scheduling I'll be doing more interesting things or watching other channels.

Truer words were never spoken Karen, UKTVFood turned into one of the most boring channels with the cancellation of Great Food Live. I hardly ever watch it anymore. I just use this website now to search for recipes from GFL.

It's the repeats! There are SO many food programmes out there, why are they rerunning all the same shows again? They've seem to be constrained to overexposed British cooking shows and enough of this RSC and Masterchef, please. I wish Sky would just air the US Food Network here. We could see Emeril, Flay, Bourdain, Batali, Florence, etc, etc, etc. It would save them a heap of £ and we'd be rid of MK at the same time!

If Market Kitchen needs eight items per show, five days a week can you blame 'em for running a bit thin sometimes?
I'd like to scrap the compost bin and some other bits but it would be more constructive to tell THEM what you want featured instead of just bleating about what you don't like.

Good point. What I would like is a far more interesting schedule with programmes I haven't seen a thousand times before.

I don't know the shows mentioned above by Penny B but that would be a start. The US shows seem, ingeneral, to have much higher production quality and the food far more interesting than what's done here.

Let's get some programming fresh air!

We get some of those US shows here and they are actually quite good. If you guys up there are so jaded with repeats on your channel, I think you WOULD enjoy them.

I'd love to see the Emeril series broadcast here. I saw it in the states and it was great. I ate at his restaurant in Las Vegas and the meal was really fabulous. I wonder why we don't get to see all these shows? Maybe Bravo could carry them?

Well as gastrosurf so eloquently put above, it doesn't seem to matter what the UKTVFood programming gurus put on. They have clearly lost their magic touch. They haven't a CLUE as to what the viewer wants to see. This week's Amanda cringeworthy fiasco on MK is just one more example in a series of 100's of mistakes. Didn't they notice something was wrong as they were filming it??????

Has anyone seen Britain's Best Dish with Burton Race et al??? Does anyone actually even like this show? The host is dreadful IMHO.

Not a good show, Falafel. Lacks punch and these can't possibly be the best British dishes? It sounds like they have to pick from some pretty dreadful fare to start with. I haven't seen one dish I'd want to even taste. If it were a half hour show I think that would punch it up a bit.

Everything about his show seems a bit "off". From the weird music, to the stilted host to the giant TV screens the judges use even though they are right in front of the cookers. I predict a one season run!!