I love watching really good cooking shows where I can learn about technique, food science or even new foods.  I do have to say, however, I have noticed a few things that could be explored further on the current lot of shows.  And I still love em'.

First I am a devoted fan of Top Chef, the reality television show on the Bravo cable channel, where 15 relatively unknown working chefs compete in elimination rounds. I also enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain's quirky No Reservations on The Travel Channel.  Both these shows satisfy my thirst for knowledge about food and its marriage with exploration behind the line and on the road.  As a result of watching these shows I have noticed an untapped potential for which eager chefs all over the universe might like to crucify me.

This evening was the first episode of Top Chef's second season and it got me to thinking.  And let's just say right up front
Chef Bourdainthat it is all Harold Dieterle's fault....and well Anthony Bourdain's too.  For the uninitiated, Harold Dieterle is last season's Top Chef winner who was a guest judge on this evening's episode.  During an evaluation of the contestant chefs' efforts in the first round, Chef Dieterle made an offhand comment about local ingredients and acknowledged one of the contestants for including them in his dish.  I believe the Chef even said something like "...and I really dig it."  Anthony Bourdain for his part made the supreme mistake during a trip to India of filming a vegetarian feast.  He went on to compound his error by saying that he can now really appreciate vegetarian cooking.  What have these chef's done? They have opened up a door and created a spectacular opportunity.  There is no going back....

In a country with a wealth of food (good, bad and ugly), a plethora of television shows and their accompanying advertisements and unabated obesity and dis-ease, wouldn't it be phenomenal if television chefs helped lead the way? So let's just have this discussion without someone saying "but our advertisers.....but no one wants to go out and eat healthy food."  Let's have this conversation in the perfect world we all want America to be.  Why can't chefs on television pick up where local elected officials and inner city farmer's markets have left off?  Why couldn't a Top Chef episode include a competition about shopping at a local farmer's market first, talking to the farmers as they choose
Chef Dieterlelocal ingredients and then prepare their dish?  Why couldn't they include a competition where the most creatively, healthy children's meal is the winner?  How about a competition where the winner offers the most creative idea for a healthy eating campaign? What about including people like Alice Waters as a judge?  How about an entire season devoted to local foods?  For example, Top Chef: Hudson Valley or Top Chef: Oregon or better still Top Chef: Slow Food!  Any one of these ideas or similar would help reinforce the educational campaigns that some cities have already initiated.  Are you listening Sam Talbot?

Chef Bourdain isn't off the hook either.  What about including a show that demonstrates what American chefs are doing with local vegetables? What the Chef's comment about vegetarian cooking really infers is that American Chefs haven't a clue about how to prepare vegetables.  When was the last time you ate okra cooked by an American outside of the deep south?  I never eat American prepared okra.  Okra (or bhindi) prepared in an Indian kitchen....I'm all over it.  For those who have travelled to southern France, Italy, southern Germany, southern India and beyond, you know their amazing vegetable dishes and their tremendous respect for the land.

So Bravo and The Travel Channel (and dare I say Food Network) why not take a leap and enable your chefs to lead? I'm not saying abandon your current programming and convert everyone to carrot wielding robots.  Just incorporate the message of healthy eating and exciting food shopping into your shows so that Americans are receiving a consistent message.

Thank you.