6 Flopped Food Shows You Never Knew You Missed

Bourdain & Queens Of The Stone Age Once Kicked A Rude Fan Out Of A Roadhouse

by Tina Nguyen

"You've made a huge tactical error. Now I'm not going to take a photo with you, this conversation is over and you're going to have to get the f*** out of my face."

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Chez Panisse Set To Reopen On The Summer Solstice, Mark Your Calendar?

by Tina Nguyen

Even if a devastating fire and months of repairs would incentivize an earlier opening, Alice Waters will not open her restaurant until the beginning of the Summer Solstice. Whenever that is.

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Amy Bouzgalo Served Time In Federal Prison For Social Security Fraud

by Tina Nguyen

In an Arizona Republic article, Jennifer McClellan reports that Bouzgalo formerly went by the name "Amanda Bossingham," and spent 14 months in federal prison in 2008.

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The Braiser Is Hiring Summer Interns!

by Laura Norkin

If you know your Blais from your Bourdain and are passionate about the culture surrounding food; if you can write in a compelling -- if sometimes sarcastic -- tone and wait with bated breath for the James Beards Award announcements and other foodie news, please apply.

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6 Flopped Food Shows You Never Knew You Missed

by Mariella Mosthof 10:00 am, May 21st

After our well-received throwback to the short-lived Kitchen Confidential TV series, we got to thinking about all those other food-focused TV shows we never knew we missed due to an untimely axe at the hands of network execs.

Check out these other blink-and-you-missed-’em food TV disasters!

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1.Celebrity Cooking Showdown (2006)

Celebrity Cooking Showdown actually had big names, big chefs, big producers, and a big network behind it, and, yet, still only aired a dismal four episodes before getting canned by NBC back in 2006. The show was produced by Diddy and Wolfgang Puck (a winning combo, if we've ever heard one), and involved an Iron Chef-style competition arena where celebrity chefs, help teams of celebs serve Gael Greene three courses in 50 minutes. The shitshow was hosted by Alan Thicke and teams were made up of such notable celebs as Alison Sweeney, Patti LaBelle, and, our personal favorite, O'Town's ASHLEY PARKER ANGEL. Yes, he was the hot one. The show received such poor ratings that the results didn't even air on TV — only online. Ouch. Consider the show's Liquid Dreams dashed. (We can keep making O'Town references all night. No? Okay then.)

2.The Chopping Block (2009)

Fairing even worse than the four-episode flop was NBC's The Chopping Block, which only lasted three episodes! The Chopping Block was based on an Australian series of the same name and was hosted by everybody's favorite OG kitchen bad ass, Marco Pierre White. It featured teams of chefs/their front-of-house partners who would compete in Restaurant Wars-style challenges in Manhattan. The network released the whole season (which had already taped) on Hulu and, several weeks after pulling it, decided to air the finale anyway. Awkward.

3.Chef Academy (2009)

Fabio Viviani, who managed to charm his way into our frigid hearts on Top Chef, almost got his own Bravo docu-series after winning Top Chef fan favorite of his season. But, after seeing what a disaster having a European chef at the helm of a show was for the ill-fated one-season flop Chef Academy, Bravo got cold feet and pulled the plug on poor Fabio. Chef Academy starred Jean Christophe Novelli as he attempted to open a cooking school stateside, following his successful London-based training center. He picked nine cooks to enroll in his chef academy in Venice, California and embarked upon the task of whipping them into world-renowned chefs. If they failed three "lessons" in recreating dishes of his, they were expelled. Apparently, though, no one cared about the French chef stateside, at least not enough to watch him star in his own Bravo show. Not that Bravo has particularly discerning tastes when it comes to reality cooking shows. Exhibit B...

4.Chef Roble & Co. (2011)

Chef Ro-bah & Co. was a painfully boring docu-series about a chef named Roble Ali, who, with some hesitation, takes on the world of NYC high-end catering by starting his own company with his sister Jasmine. He's very young and rides a skateboard and cooks for celebrities and wacky My Super Sweet 16-type events, so it's supposed to be interesting. But really, it has all the appeal of Rocco's Dinner Party, minus the charming and lovable DiSpirito. So, basically, none. But he rides a skateboard?

5.2 Dudes Catering (2007)

Food Network tried to tap into hipsterdom by throwing a docuseries to Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, a couple of hippy dippy trippy stoner types trying to break into the high-profile Hollywood catering scene on 2 Dudes Catering. The pair ran the successful Caramelized Productions, but, unfortunately, the series was a flop. No biggie for these guys, though. They now co-own Animal in Los Angeles (where Ludo Lefebvre and Michael Voltaggio staged a little foie-off earlier this week), and recently opened their second restaurant, Son of a Gun.

6.Party Down (2009-2010) Okay, perhaps this isn't explicitly a cooking show, but we've dropped enough caterers into the mix at this point that we feel Party Down deserved a nod. From Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas comes this series following a staff of wackadoo struggling Hollywood actors and writers as they work for a catering company to pay the bills. The series aired on Starz for two seasons and was met with critical acclaim. But when two of the series regulars left for other shows (Jane Lynch for Glee and Adam Scott for Parks and Recreation), the network decided to pull the plug. However, we think this cult darling deserves a watch — the series is available for streaming on Netflix. Hmm, maybe we've found our next Kitchen Confidential?

3 thoughts on “6 Flopped Food Shows You Never Knew You Missed”

icequeen09 on May 21, 2012 at 12:08 pm said:

I have to disagree Chef Roble was a hell of a lot better than Rocco, who only cares about being a celebrity and not his restaurants. Rocco is self centered where Roble is very personable. An why do you have to always be so condescending in your reviews.

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KWDragon on May 21, 2012 at 3:13 pm said:

Party Down does not appear to be on Netflix, fyi.

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icequeen09 on July 11, 2012 at 12:33 pm said:

Update Chef Roble & Co IS coming back – so much for your expertise.

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