The Best Feast Yet?
Monday, September 15, 2008 | posted by Mike
It just might be.We really enjoyed the first two shots of Feasting, mostly because of the fact that it really presented a program that looked and felt like nothing else that was on the Network. But, truth be told, Alton and his crew were visiting places that looked somewhat familiar to American audiences. Sure, we may not have deep fried pig brains here in New Jersey, but this wasn't exactly a different world we were talking about. All that is different this year.
I think the real, "hidden" secret to this year is the fact that there seems to be less preperation on the crew's part and that they're also beholden to the winds, so we get the occasional detour.
In past years, the squad went from location to location, visiting real, authentic places that, nonetheless, were probably aware of the Food Network, and possibly even with Alton himself. I don't think that's the case this year, and it feels like more of a discovery...similar to what we see in some of the better food/travel shows.
The real tip-off for this was the fact that, during last night's episode (number 2 on the season), there was a little back-and-forth between Alton and his host about the fact that they knew about Rachael Ray (and Alton play-acted that he'd never heard of her). The fact that they included this episode and that Alton seemed genuinely a little surprised leads me to belive that they didn't hear a lot of, "Hey, you guys are from Food Network!" while making the rounds. Their ability to travel incognito lends the show a level of authenticity we haven't seen before.
Labels: Alton Brown
