The Benefits of Cooking Reality TV Shows

Although some cookbooks are helpful and the pictures make us drool, watching a real live person cooking a meal is much more exciting! Since it isn't very likely that one of the food channels will send a chef to my house, the best I can do is turn on my television. How awesome to watch these professional chefs preparing and cooking my favorite foods.

Wouldn't it be great if there were "smell-a-vision"? Every day when I am asking myself what I should prepare for a family meal, I turn on the television and look through the channels for one that is showing a chef preparing something to eat.

Very seldom do I even look in the tons of cookbooks that are getting dusty on the shelf in my kitchen. From the way the TV chefs describe the food they are fixing, I almost feel like I can smell it! When they take bites of their completed specialties, I imagine how delicious the food is!

My oldest son showed an interest in cooking as a teenager. Although he never had the opportunity to attend a culinary school, he learned a lot by watching television cooking programs. Although he wouldn't admit it, he became a more accomplished cook than I have ever been.

His knowledge of cooking methods and spices that complement the flavors of different foods improved tremendously as he watched chefs on television. While he watched a chef prepare a meal on television, he would make the meal at the same time.

Once he was an adult with his own family, I talked to him on the phone as he did this, and I would follow along and make the same meal. Occasionally, he would come over to my house, and we would both cook while following the directions of the television chef.

It didn't take long before friends and family got excited about our "cooking lessons" that we were getting from our television cooks. They loved it when he started calling them to come over to check out his latest food experiment.

Especially popular have been the summer evenings when my son was out on his deck cooking on his barbecue grill. We both learned a lot about grilling both meat and vegetables from watching television chefs. Ribs and chicken were cooked all the way through because our television teachers taught us to boil them before putting them on the grill.

Although I use a gas grill now, my son has always preferred a charcoal grill for his fancy grilling. Maybe that is why his grilled food has always tasted better than mine. Whether grilling burgers and hot dogs or steak and ribs, there really is something special about the smell and taste of food cooked on a charcoal grill.

Even grilled peppers, onions, and zucchini are more tasty when cooked on a charcoal grill. Before I began watching television chefs, I didn't know you could grill vegetables without burning them! Wouldn't it have been great if our grandparents could have watched these wonderful television cooks? Those Sunday chicken dinners would have been a lot more appealing.

What an awesome opportunity it is to learn how to cook different ethnic foods from a chef on television! One Chinese chef has taught me how to prepare many foods that I used to order from a Chinese restaurant.

Several different Italian chefs have taught me different little techniques that have improved my preparation of pasta dishes. All of these wonderful chefs have shown me that I really can make delicious meals in a short amount of time. Every day is a new adventure with the diversity of television chefs!