Mark Bittman Hates Cooking Shows & Shows Us How To Make a Roast On His, Well, Cooking Show

Yesterday, Mark Bittman, food reporter for the New York Times (aka "The Minimalist"), griped on his blog about what a "charade" cooking shows are.

“A charade because it’s all taped, and therefore not only doesn’t take place in real time but doesn’t even give a sense of what ‘real time’ might be. And I’m not talking about braising time or the like but the actual work involved.

A further charade because when it’s taped, all sorts of egregious mistakes can be magically made to disappear. I was at a taping of a Food Network star a couple of years ago when he put a piece of meat on a stovetop grill over obviously way-too-high a flame, and the thing immediately caught fire and was almost completely incinerated. I say ‘almost,’ because the taping stopped, the charred evidence was whisked off the set, and an assistant came on and grilled a new piece of meat properly. After which time the chef returned, took it off the grill, and said ‘There you have it,’ or something like that. Witnesses: about a hundred, many of whom might not have even noticed. Viewers: millions.

Meanwhile, in "real time" land, here we have The Minimalist showing us how to prepare a Pernil, which is a Puerto Rican pork roast -- error-free of course:

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