Cooking on Camera

From the days of Sesame Street, I remember my mom watching The Frugal Gourmet with Jeff Smith and the culinary stylings of Jaques Pepin. I remember being mesmerized by the knife skills and laughing at Smith's take on Cuban food (celery in frijoles negros, I don't think so!). TV cooking has come a long, long way, becoming much more slick and user friendly, but the fun of watching a great cook on TV is still the same. Food Network has a few new cooking shows that deserve some attention. The first is "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" with Ann Burrell. This show is by far my favorite of the new line up. Whether its her crazy blonde hair, breezy manner or contagious confidence, Burrell is fun to watch and her techniques are much more advanced than Rachel's or Paula's, but still accessible. "Ask Aida" is my second favorite. The interplay between Aida and her co-star is nice, though scripted, but most of the questions answered are elementary and geared toward beginning cooks. Third in this post and in my personal ranking is "Cooking for Real", Sunny Anderson is still fairly uncomfortable in front of the camera and I rarely want to make one of her recipes. Although I did use her recipe for poached chicken a few months ago. Sunny added coriander seeds and lemon peel to the usual suspect for a really fresh lemony flavor. I liked it. What are your Food Network faves?