7387 replies to this topic

[kpr916]

I just had to sy that this:

At first I suspected the camera angle but I can't imagine a cooking show director saying "Yes, just like that, make her head seem HUGE! That's how we'll make this show different from the others!"

made me spit water all over my monitor.

I think what annoys me most about her show is the completely false pre-cooking segment describing what she is about to make - just fire up the stove, bobblehead, and get to work!

[chibibunny]

I just love watching the Food Network, but I cannot watch LBH. I cannot help but yell at the TV everytime she's on "your head is gynormous! You are too skinny to actually be eating your food." Give me the Barefoot Contessa or Southern belle Paula.

[Sori]

I think what annoys me most about her show is the completely false pre-cooking segment describing what she is about to make - just fire up the stove, bobblehead, and get to work!

Hee!

I think she sounds just like Cindy Crawford on House of Style when she does the couch segment at the beginning. It's exactly the same delivery.

[TheRealJanBrady]

And that whole Matt Lauer thing was because he tried some of this sauce stuff with some semiprepared chicken. Not really Giada's fault[.]

Yeah--she even cried out, "It's not my fault! I didn't prepare that!"--and I know it wasn't her fault, and if I were her I would be totally mortified. But it was still freakin' funny!

[KateQD]

Ok, so today's gripe is as follows, but is not only restricted to LBH, I really hate when people talk in a normal american accent and then when the come to a word like parmesan they change to an italian accent and use the italian pronunciation(I should say I guess its how they pronounce it in Italy, since I know nothing of the language, but they could be making it up). It bugs the crap out of me.

The only person I can stand doing this is Mary-Anne Esposito on PBS and its only because she says the word the american way then tells you how the word is pronounced the italian way, like a teaching lesson.

Also, I know I harp on this alot, but I just cant get over LBH's fascination with her hands, she must be in love with them because they film them so damn much. She should marry them.

Lastly, how old do you think she is because during her shopping segment I thought she looked really, really old. No porn lighting in the grocery store to soften up the bags under eyes and wrinkles, those florescent bulbs just wreaked havock with her appearance.

[greybear]

... I really hate when people talk in a normal american accent and then when the come to a word like parmesan they change to an italian accent and use the italian pronunciation ...

I hear you. Mandalit del Barco does her stories on NPR sounding like where she grew up—Kansas!—but when she says her name at the end, it's like she just got off the boat from Perú.

There used to be a newscaster in Houston [might still be] who made SURE you knew that she knew Español by loudly stressing the pronunciation of Spanish street names, foods, festivals, and anything else that came up during the news.

Maybe it's pride in their heritage. Maybe they're just assholes.

[TheRealJanBrady]

It annoys me too, but then again, if you were in France and wanted to say Velveeta, what would you do, say, "Je voudrais le Vel-vee-TA?" Because otherwise, they'd think we were being pretentious by saying, "Je voudrais le Velveeta [spoken in normal American accent]?" Then again, most Americans in France just speak English, don't they?

Again, it does annoy me--I have a friend whose pronounciation of ricotta particularly grates--but I can understand it more from people who are actually from that country and wouldn't think to "Americanize" a word that they know they're pronouncing correctly.

[xii]

I would never, under any circumstances, say "Velveeta" in France. That shit ain't right.

[InnerCanuck]

Fair warning - three straight hours of LBH this coming Sunday morning - 7-10 am.

"Je voudrais le fromage plastique" might work instead... ;)

[kimmako]

oooooh great. Now we can compare the tooth count, because I swear that you can see every single one in her head when she samples the food.

[lotusbear]

Yesterday afternoon while watching food network, I realized that our LBH has a bit of competition in the big-headedness dept. Sandra Pinkney from Food Finds has herself one small body and one big head. She was wearing this belted outfit yesterday and it really emphasized how small she was, as well as emphasizing the size of her melon. The two ladies should have a "head-off" to see how many little children they can scare from the sheer sizes of their heads.

I really hate when people talk in a normal american accent and then when the come to a word like parmesan they change to an italian accent and use the italian pronunciation

Yeah, this bugs me too. I had an experience once at an Italian-Am supermarket, and I was standing on line for the mozzarella that they were making fresh in front of the customers. So there are all these Italian-Am ladies standing in front of me and all of them are asking for mootzarell, which later I was told is an Italian-Am pronunciation, and not how Italians in Italy pronounce it. So while I'm standing there on line, I was panicking, trying to figure out how I was going to pronounce it, mootzarell or mozarella. So I caved - not wanting to sound like the biggest dork, when it came to be my turn I ended up asking for mooztarell but I still felt like a giant tool.

Edited by lotusbear, Jan 15, 2004 @ 7:15 AM.

[VaVaVoom]

Amen to the mootzarell thing. I don't know why I find this so aggravating.

[TheRealJanBrady]

What is the proper pronounciation of "mozzarella"? (So I can shoot all those mootzrell idjits down?)

[lyz2814]

Do keep in mind the million dialects in Italy. My grandparents (from Apulio and Sicily), when they speak Italian, sound like all the words are mushed together. Arugula becomes 'rooga,' w/ the last syllable barely pronounced. . .

[DeepRed]

Another example is capicolla pronounced as gabbagool. By Irish-Americans where I live too, not just folks with Italian ancestry.

[Elphaba]

I'm half Sicilian. My grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles and cousins were born in Sicily. A few of the oldest never really learned English. My father was the first child born in America. I read that their pronunciation made them "idjits" and I just smile. Though, to be fair, there are variations even in how one would pronounce the phonetic spellings here. Maybe they were more "mootadell" idjits. And sometimes they talked so fast and with such thick accents (or in Italian) that words were hard to make out.

But don't even try to tell me braciole isn't pronounced "brih-ZHOLE." Eh, I suck at phonetic spelling.

[CydW]

When I was growing up, we pronounced Italian foods "Chef Boy-ar-dee."

[KateQD]

Heh, CydW!

Just to clarify, because I think I started this discussion, I dont know the language at all, nor do I know the proper pronunciation of any of the words and I wasnt commenting on that bugging me. What irks me is when people speak american and then all of a sudden switch to the ethnic pronunciation for one word. As in, parmishanno(phonetically) instead of just using the american way of saying parmesan. Thats all. I just feel like, I get that they are italian, I dont need them to prove it to me by using an italian accent and pronunciation for one word.

[Elphaba]

Not saying it shouldn't bug you, but sometimes it isn't done for effect. I sometimes still use Italian pronunciations because those are what I first learned. I don't put it on, but I never made a conscious effort (which it take) to say "ricotta" instead of "rigot." And even though I don't do it intentionally, I am glad I retain a little of my Nana. Her kitchen was one of my favorite places and when she said, "mangia," it was as loving as a hug from her.

[KateQD]

I could buy that explination for LBH, but others like Ray Ray not so much, since LBH seems to have been raised in an italian home and RR grew up in a melting pot, I'm more prone to think its just for effect.

[Elphaba]

Possibly, but it sounds natural to me. Of course, I like Rachael Ray. It also sounds (dogpaddling madly toward topic) natural from LBH.

[CydW]

That's probably the explanation in a nutshell. If you grew up with those pronunciations, they sound perfectly normal. They sound affected to me because I was a teenager before it dawned on me that not all spaghetti comes from a can (Elphaba's Nana rolls over).

I've enjoyed this discussion, though, 'cause it's briefly taken my mind off LBH's noggin. Do you suppose her parents ever dressed her up as a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween?

Edited by CydW, Jan 16, 2004 @ 3:30 PM.

[Elphaba]

Hee! She's rolling and cursing. I could never figure out why sometimes my parents would cover my ears. After all, she was only saying, "suminabeechinabastida."

(RR mentions often that her Sicilian grandfather lived with them....running out of thread now)

[KateQD]

One other thing, before keckler comes in with the smackdown, I catch RR slipping alot in her pronunciations. She'll start off strong, but she'll then start into a story and really get going and she'll use the american pronunciation, dead give away of not using the term in daily language. Its not just RR, even though I like to poick on her alot, I catch Martha messing up and not pronouncing the h in herbs all the time and I love it when her Jersey accent slips out

Topic: Man this woman's head is huge.

[keckler]

Don't worry, I think discussion how LBH pronounces things vs other TV chefs is a valid topical discussion.