Monday, March 10
A URS Taste Test?
The GUY-FEE-EDDIE hosted commercials for the Ultimate Recipe Showdown menu at Friday's have been running nonstop.I'm curious, though... has anyone gone and tried any of these winning dishes? I don't remember the last time I ate at a Friday's.
Perhaps I should hold a little DC-area taste test. I'll even drag along some reluctant fellow-bloggers.
Because, as F'eddy says, the menu is "gonna be money."
I just hope the food is better than the show.
Labels: Guy Fieri, ultimate recipe showdown
posted by jacob @ 11:34 AM
21 Comments:
Ewwwwww...
I'd give Tyler Florence's rendition of Applebee's items a shot anytime over the Hedgehog's money menu items at Friday's.
I just love his Mr. T Starter kit jewellry ensemble. This is one "brand" I will seriously avoid.
TGI Friday's is sort of my chain restaurant guilty pleasure, although it's never been the same since the waiters got rid of their flair.
However, I've had to avoid Friday's as of late because I just can't hazard seeing Guy's ugly mug anywhere near where I might be dining.
I tried Tyler's dishes at Applebee's a few times. Some of them were just not executed well. Applewood chicken was good; Shrimp pasta was really greasy; California salad was warm when it was served. The concept of having celebrity chefs' recipes might be good, but you never know how the cooks in the kitchen are going to cook them.
I guess some restaurant chains are better at execution than others. I will say that Florence's recipes on Tyler's Ultimate ALL look great while much of what the Hedgehog makes looks mediocre at best. TGIF must be in dogfight survival mode to bring on this runt as their culinary frontman. I guess at this stage they will try anything.
Speaking of consistency, how come a chain like PF Changs can consistently turn out excellent dish after excellent dish, in differing cities, while hack chains like TGIF leave you drowning in their watered down cattlemans best BBQ sauce ?
Every airport I visit, almost nobody is eating at TGIF, only drinking Hmmm....
Tyler's bruschetta burger at Applebee's is the first Applebee's entree i've liked in a long time. i LOVE it though. i get it when i go there, i dream about it when i'm not, and i try to make it at my own home, with moderate success. That burger brings an element of class (?) to a second-class place like Applebee's. i've enver seen anything like it at those kinds of restaurants before. Guy's food, though, already seems like chain restaurant food. i appreciate his vigor, but his food is a bit unimaginative. He spent too much time in diners (mostly dives) to impress me with something different enough to excite my palate.
I tried the special recipe Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup at TGIF when it was "inspired" by a Top Chef winner...Betty I think it was. It was OK at best. BTW, Top Chef starts Wednesday!!!!! I know...it's not a Bravo Addict blog, but it's a great show!
~Angela
If you can find a Friday's, I'll go and sneer at Guy's cuisine with you. Especially if they still have those yard-long margaritas like they did when I was in college.
A friend of mine tried the Boricua Plantain Sandwich from the Comfort Foods episode and said it actually tasted very good, though the presentation was pretty piss-poor and the execution was on the greasy side.
Overall he liked it, though, and he's not normally big on chain restaurant food (was thereon a business lunch).
I'd try them if they were actually serving the winning recipe, but since they're making dumbed down versions to appeal to the average rube who eats at Friday's, I'll pass.
Yeah new season of Top Chef. Why can't Lord Tuschman devise a show like this for his little fiefdom of his ? Why does this little man keep turning out turkey after turkey thinking we might like them ?
Pretty embarrassing for Bravo to totally scoop FN . I guess they have much smarter people at Bravo and don't want to churn out crappy shows.
I think it time to send Coach Tuschman back to community access cable TV world.
I also love Tyler's Bruschetta Burger but it's now gone from my local Applebee's. I'm not a fan of Friday's but I would try something. It didn't win but the onion soup mac and cheese and the black and tan mac and cheese both looked good to me.
Guy Fieri a "hedgehog?" So his hair is vaguely reminiscient of TV's perennial 12-year-old wiseacre, Bartholomew J. Simpson...so what? I have racked up enough points for an appetizer at TGIFriday's, and I might go sometime.
I think Fieri ( I wonder who dreamed of Fee-eddie ?) most definitely deserves the handle "Hedgehog". This guy COULD turn into the biggest JACKASS on FoodNetwork, and so far he is off to a very good start. The hair just screams " hey please notice me, please".
I'm very curious as to why he is intent on acting 20 years younger than he is. I think short man syndrome might come into play here.
I feel sorry for short little fat men . I guess Tuschman thinks this is what America wants.
I've eaten at TGIF exactly twice in about three years. The first was on a business trip to Lake Havasu, which is slathered with chain stores and restaurants, and we stopped there for lunch on the way back. My co-worker and I were both mildly nauseous afterwards and it made for a loooong trip back to L.A.
Same thing happened last summer while on a layover in D.C. Stopped at a TGIF, ate, immediately became mildly nauseated, and suffered through a looong flight back home.
So, yeah, pass on Fee-eddy and this contestant menu...
Although Swingers is a great movie, doesn't Guy realize that referring to things as being "money" is sooooo 1996. Did that even ever really catch on to begin with? Unless I missed something...
I think Guy is well suited to plugging food at TGI Fridays, I watched his actual cooking show when it was still on and I think that kind of stuff (nothing I would ever eat) probably appeals to the TGI crowd.
Also very excited about Top Chef!
Hi,
I have not tried any of the dishes yet, but the mac and cheese with the bacon is the one I'm looking to make. I might even go by TGI Friday to order if for the wife and I to try.
Kevin in Virginia
For all the comments bashing Guy...seriously, if you don't like him so much why are you piddling around the internet reading blogs about his show and then wasting your time commenting on them? So you don't like him, big deal, change the channel.
Bunch of sad, lonely people.
A friend and I had the mac and cheese a week ago at Friday's. It wasn't anything close to the dish on URS. It was...in a word...dreadful. At the end of the show they showed the pasta change and chicken addition made by Friday's. Right then and there I should have taken the clue.
But, we still wanted to give it a try. What did we get? Barely enough cheese to coat the cold pasta, and dried out chicken breast. Why not just do it the same was as on the show and skip the chicken?
Let's face it, there's more to a recipe than the recipe. You have to be able to cook and you have to love what you're doing in the kitchen. The cooks in the kitchen at Friday's can do neither.
However...the Applebee's dishes are very good and a great bang for your buck. I never thought I'd say that about a chain restaurant, but for quick, cheap meal you cannot go wrong at Applebee's.
What's happened to the Food Network? Who are all these talking heads? Who ARE they? They can't cook. They have no knife skills. Without Alton Brown and Bobby Flay...what do they have?
I just love listening to Anthony Bourdain diss the Food Network...I just love it.
What is with all these grossly overweight people hosting shows on the Food Network? C'mon already, isn't America obese enough already without having a bunch of blubber butts hosting TV cooking shows? Gawd...it's disgusting...
Yes...I turn them off. But they're on so often it's hard to avoid them.
"Here, watch me while I pour some heavy cream and melted butter and 3 pounds of pasta straight onto my butt. Hee hee hee. Let's toss about a pound of sugar in there, too."
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