Posts by: ChrisMerch

As I am still puzzled by this new and drastic change of direction from what used to be my favourite digital channel, I did a bit of research and went on Google and typed Market+Kitchen+UKTVFOOD and the article from the head of commissioning of UKTVFOOD was quite interesting (third item on Google).

It transpires that in December 2006 the head of the channel decided to change production companies from Prospect Pictures (GFL, Daily Cooks) to Optomen Television (The Naked Chef, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Great British Menu).

The same person who commissioned Prospect Pictures five years ago is responsible for the switch, so we can’t be too harsh on him as he gave us GFL all these years, but in December he felt it was time “ to break away from the studio-based food shows of today to create a totally new kind of food magazine show. It is our most ambitious commission to date in terms of both budget and scale…” so all their budget has gone to Optomen and we are not going to get anything else for a year.

We are talking about a 300-hour commission so we will have to be patient. The executive producer though seemed hopeful back in December “that Market Kitchen will engage Britain’s food-lovers and galvanise them to explore even more adventurous cooking”.

It seems to me these two production companies are very different in approach and style and you tend to like one more than the other. I don’t mind studio-based format, I don’t want the illusion of a café or a kitchen, I don’t mind a quieter pace, so I am more a Prospect Pictures kind of viewer I guess (by the way, each production company seems to deal with their own chefs as well – GFL chefs appear on Daily Cooks, on ITV at 4pm).

Finally, it also says that Market Kitchen indeed replaces Great Food Live despite GFL still enjoying a loyal lunchtime audience - it’s a pity more thought was not given at the time to find a way to keep that loyal audience they indeed created.

I watched Market Kitchen yesterday at lunchtime and I have to say that I don’t mind Tom Parker Bowles and Matthew Fort as a team of presenters. Tom Parker Bowles is obviously passionate about cooking and less formal than I thought he would be, Matthew Fort is cheerful, has a relaxed manner and at least looks happy to be there. I still have a problem with the format of the series though, the recipes being indeed too basic for former GFL viewers and I agree that doing twice the same dish appears a bit of a waste of time (why don’t they compete beforehand and present us with the best way of cooking that dish?) I will watch again in a month to see if improvements have been made. If not, well, time will have passed - if I understood well this series has only been commissioned for a year…

I tried to watch Market Kitchen last night after giving it a miss for two days and again I haven’t managed to watch until the end. What are we supposed to find exciting about this “exciting new series”? The two teenagers they picked from the street, barely awake, telling us in their own monosyllabic ways they preferred different cakes? The endless chat about water (which on the plus side could put an amnesiac to sleep)? The woman in the market desperately trying to get a poor little girl interested in her broccoli?

Was I the only one to laugh when a man in his fifties asked the chef if he could substitute raisins with chocolate in the cake? I’ve never heard such a phoney question on TV before. And the camera shots, do I need to see the back of some women’s head every five minutes?

Nothing registers with me in this programme. I received the newsletter with all the recipes yesterday and I can’t believe they had done so many things. Mind you, the presentation is so dull that it kind of numbs my brain after a few minutes. There was also an “extra” in the background yesterday who felt the need to take a magazine to pass the time, doesn’t it say it all? She was there and she was bored!

To be a bit more constructive, what I think will improve this series is a TV presenter (not a cook) with a sense of humour who could glue the whole thing together. They also need to send Tana Ramsay home, I’m afraid - she did a few recipes about ice creams for GFL at home and she was perfectly all right.

I will give a chance to Tom Parker Bowles on Monday evening (to be fair), but after that, that’s it. I will watch Barefoot Contessa instead (and I’m also going to register my complaint with Waitrose).

I was a big fan of Jeni and GFL and I tried to be open-minded when I watched Market Kitchen on Monday evening. What a big disappointment that was! It seems to me that the big money Waitrose has thrown the channel has clouded the producers’ judgement and forced them to come up with a concept of a programme rather in haste.

So far as I can tell, the main idea behind the series is to pack as many people in the same place as possible and make the cooks/presenters move from one side of the “café” to the other with a mug in the hand, going past members of the public and other cooks/presenters sitting in amazement at how much walking needs to be done these days to do a cookery show.

Some scripted bits (and God we know it’s scripted) will be done by a guy sitting on a chair (Matt, I think), in such a “relaxed” manner that it could be falling off it very soon, or by Tana and her trendy boots, perched this time on a high stool.

Topics will be discussed, such as junk food (which even seems to bore the guy who came to talk about it) and there will also be men in black wandering about (waiters, are they?).

To break the pace even more, we will put a poor woman outside in the cold to see if she can cook a rabbit when it’s windy and miserable. Comments by the presenters will be allowed, so viewers will be thrilled to learn that Tana tends to hide peas in her fish pie for her son not to see them… or make a huge mess when she uses her food processor… do I need to go on? There is simply too much going on for my liking, all I want is recipes presented in a focused, fun and genuine manner.

Time to bring Jeni back, and fast.

I really don’t understand why GFL has been axed. It seems to me that it’s not an easy task to make a show about food interesting and entertaining and Jeni Barnett has delivered every time. I’ve printed so many recipes from the site, improved my cooking so much, I can’t believe it’s coming to an end. I understand from other e-mails that Jeni Barnett isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but I have watched the show for the past four years and always found her very professional, lively and genuine. I certainly won’t watch “Market whatever” which I guess will replace the show. If the producers think that Tom Parker-Bowles and Mrs Ramsay is the way forward for the channel, it’s clear they don’t know who their audience is. My in-laws’’ Christmas present was a year subscription to Sky mainly because of GFL!! I really wish I hadn’t bothered now.