Sandra Lee and Ann the Salt Queen (who I swear is a transvestite!) as well as Giada and Rachel Ray - plus a few others - have turned me off to the food network. As far as I'm concerned they are all in the same sinking boat as Martha Stewart - and I don't know who I hate more - Martha or Ann the Salt Queen.

PBS has much better cook shows - real cooks, real chefs, real recipes and no game playing.

of his Frugal Gourmet duties? Anyone other than myself? And he claimed to be a pastor at that. Oh, my. Those poor young men that he mentored.

I grew up in the poor South also. Thank God my Mama taught me to put a meal together with few ingredients. A good meal at that. Let's hope that Sandra will offer some budget meal planning in her new show (AKA EDUCATE) to benefit the poor who have not yet worked as hard as have to make it out of poverty. I think she will, afterall I heard her comment that as a child many times she never knew where the next meal would come from. God blessed her real good!

"I think she will, afterall I heard her comment that as a child many times she never knew where the next meal would come from."

Yeah, she does say that a lot, when it suits her purposes. But in the next breath she tells us how she's entertained ever since she was a little girl.

Uh, huh. As I've said before, I grew up dirt poor. And we didn't do any entertaining cuz we were too busy scrambling to survive.

And, I've often wondered, where does somebody that poor come up with 30 grand in tuition money (let alone international travel, rent, etc.)---only to throw it all away.

A lot of us remember Jeff. Putting aside his proclivities, as a cooking personality and instructor you couldn't fault him.

The Frugal Gourmet was an enjoyable show - unfortunately messing with young boys cost him his TV slot.

As far as POOR Sandra goes - there is no way she was brought up dirt poor - ditto with Paula Deen who claims that they were so poor - but yet they entered her in all kings of beauty pagents - and that is not cheap.

And there is no way Rachel Ray noshed on all she claims to have had in her life.

One thing about FN cooks - if you listen close enough - they lie quite a bit. I love when the older ones always enjoyed, where brought up on, and there great-great grams made recipes that never came out till 1970!

I attended college on scholarships as many others have. You don't have to be rich to make it in life although it does help. Believe me, I know what poor feels like. Today, many would never believe that I was once poor as we were. I am not rich, but I am making it in life.

OEO Affirmative Action in Education educated many; however, not to include Sandra, Paula, myself and many others.

I agree that the big dogs at FN really put a lot into promoting their cooking stars that we all know is much exagerated. As many of the folks here, there are some that I do not care for but so many that I adore. I hope they are around for a long time to come.