Food Network -Sorry to see you go

I suppose by now, any of you that live in the NY Metro area know that Cablevision and Scripps Networks, owners of the Food Network are at an impasse about how much Cablevision should spend to air the Food Network channel. So they just took it off the air and keep playing a message saying how sorry they are that they had to stop airing the shows.

Being a personal chef and avid home cook, I entertain myself in the kitchen with music or I will have the tv on in the kitchen when I'm working on my various recipes. The channel I usually head for if there's no news to speak of is the Food Network. Although it's more entertaining than educational, I found it to be great background "noise" as I prepared my meals. Every so often I would pick up a tip or two or even laugh at the various cooking issues that come up during those ridiculously difficult cooking competitions. Although there are some show hosts voices that irritate me, I truly enjoyed seeing what was on their menu for the day. It never hurts to get more input.

Yes, Food Network might not be as educational as watching cooking shows by Lidia Bastianich or Mary Ann Esposito or my prized DVD collection of Julia Child on public television, but what I liked most is that every show, regardless of the topic related in some way to food. And, I never had to pick up the remote with my dirty hands to channel surf after a program was over. How I hate having to find something to watch. The Food Network was like the radio my grandmother always had on to WOR...always in the background, never had to turn the dial. Oh, so easy.

I'm hoping that these two media companies will work out a deal...but in the meantime I will have to satisfy my lack of food tv by listening to all those new tunes I've added to my ipod, working on some new recipes for my clients and catching up with all those cooking magazines and cookbooks that are stacked on my coffee table!