Sunday 22 November

BLOGS

blogCategory
Previous
Back to blog
Next

Market Kitchen

blog image
  • Posted at 1:19pm
  • 22 November 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 2 comments

Such is my love of food-related telly, it's probably not that surprising that UKTV Food is often my first port of call when I switch on the box. The box! Man, I've not called it that for a long time. Probably because my TV no longer resembles a box - I guess it's more of a tray.

But anyway, you can always rely on the channel to serve up comforting portions of shows you've seen umpteen times but fancy seeing again - you know, Keith Floyd cavorting in the Dordogne, Madhur Jaffrey being statuesque in the Punjab, Jamie Oliver sounding for all the world like a bit-part character in Only Fools and Horses.

But there's also a daily show to break up the carnival of repeats, called Market Kitchen. It's only been going for six months or so: previously the channel had a live programme - Great Food Live - which was hosted by the peerless Jeni Barnett, a broadcasting legend so effortlessly in command of her medium that watching it was like having a daily masterclass in live television.

But in a moment of madness, the bigwigs axed the programme and replaced it with this thing, which is recorded in the environs of Borough Market in south London, and is presented by a rolling rota of five presenters, who are all, without exception, utterly appalling.

It almost seems unfair to name and shame them; they count among their number a couple of well-known food writers, and the wife of one of Britain's most famous chefs - and she's probably the worst of the lot. But regardless of which of them turn up to front the programme, it's always the same. Autocues are either gabbled in panic, or read solemnly and flatly like prayers at school assembly. Interviews are led down conversational culs-de-sac, and terminated abruptly when the time runs out.

It's like a catastrophic blind date. It makes Abigail's Party look like the Notting Hill Carnival. And of course it's not broadcast live, presumably for fear that the production team would sustain massive heart attacks if it was. You can't do anything other than feel anxious while it's on. It's like watching a stand-up comedy act die, day after day after day.

The set is bizarre. While recipes are demonstrated and chefs asked about their new books, there's a smattering of audience members sitting around at tables, as if they were in a cafe. They seem unsure whether to talk amongst themselves, or pay attention.

Occasionally one of them will be given a pre-scripted question to ask the chef, the answer to which they either already know, or don't particularly care about. "Would you, er, season the dish at this point?" "Er... you could do." Cue tumbleweed...

If you're lucky, they'll have a guest who's a bit more of a TV natural. The chef Paul Merrett is on this week, and it was a relief when, on Tuesday's show, he took charge (with the words "I can handle this one on my own") and the presenters were relegated to audience status. The audience, meanwhile, were probably tempted to have a crack at presenting. It certainly couldn't get any worse. Come back, Jeni Barnett, all is forgiven.

Market Kitchen is on UKTV Food (Sky 259, Virgin 260) weekdays at 12:30pm.

Link to this post
Post a comment | 2 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 22 November 2007
  • at 2:35pm
  • by CarsmileSteve

oh man, those xmas ones were corkers, she'd do a three hour show despite being clearly plastered from about 20 minutes in!

i'm sure there will be further columns on christmas cookery programmes though ;)

  • Posted on 22 November 2007
  • at 2:14pm
  • by pennybro

Bring back Jeni. I miss her. Especially with Christmas coming up.

Post a comment

Do you have something to say about this post? Does it ring true for you or have you got different ideas? Share your thoughts…

Post a comment

(first or nickname only)

Please do not include any personal or personally identifiable information about yourself or others (including email addresses). All information you submit about yourself or others can be viewed by others.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

Post another comment

More


Advertisement