35 replies to this topic

[PonzuSauce]

I want to talk about that trainwreck known as The Jazzy Vegetarian. Laura, the host of the show, seems like a lovely woman without one clue about cooking. She makes Christina Pirello look like Lidia Bastianich. She has no concept of technique and actually suggests things like using dried cilantro. Seriously. Anyone else feel like eating a bacon cheeseburger while watching this?

[Leshyn63]

Interestingly, it seems to be solely shown on Create - we have access to three PBS stations in Chicago, but none have been silly enough to pick this one up. I concur that the host means well, but seems a rudimentary cook at best.

Also, the theme song (!) makes one seriously wish for sudden-onset deafness. Watch at your peril!

[chessiegal]

I get 3 PBS stations in the DC area. WETA dropped Create last year (much to my disappointment), but the Maryland Public Television cable station has this show on. I caught part of it once - left me kind of wondering how it got picked up.

[Haveahabit]

I have 3 public television stations (Direct TV-NYC area) and 2 of them carry this show. For some reason, I'm drawn to it much like watching a train wreck. However, I draw the line at listening to her singing. Dear lord, she's awful. In general, the food sounds awful and when it's not awful, it sounds just blah.
Oh, and it's mislabeled. All the recipes are vegan not vegetarian.

[PonzuSauce]

There's nothing wrong with being vegetarian but PBS needs to find a host that can cook without being preachy. The 'recipes' are vegan and her lack of culinary skill is painful to watch. I think if I hear her say "mmm mmm good" one more time I may go nuts right in the middle of Whole Foods. Just because an ingredient is organic and vegan does not make it good quality or tasty.

[alexasnows]

Sometimes she uses "all purpose seasoning" really? As a vegetarian (oh sorry she is a vegan) and having a cooking show perhaps she should learn about fresh herbs and spices? And what is with the tamari in everything, including Italian dishes. I think I can make better vegan food then her.
And I think there is a gas leak in her studio or something because she behaves rather strangely. And her "jazzy tips" are not really tips just common sense.
The music at the beginning is really difficult to stomach.

[PonzuSauce]

Exactly. I've never seen her use any fresh herbs and she is guilty of using dried BASIL for chrissakes. And every recipe does not need to have the phrase 'jazzy jazzy' before it. I agree with the gas leak theory, although she could just need to stop eating her own food. She's also like Christina because she should be emaciated from that diet, yet she looks borderline pudgy.

[buttered toast]

Well, she has the appearance of being slightly more competent than Sandra Lee, due to the fact that she's fluent in English. But I totally agree with all of the previous comments. I'm not vegan, but I began watching the show because I am always looking for ways to incorporate more meatless meals into my diet. Rachael Ray has given me plenty of good ideas for vegetarian dishes -- I think I'll just stick with those since the taste combinations appeal to my family. Adding tamari to everything is just plain wrong. Using ingredients like citrus and fresh herbs would make more sense in most of Laura Theodore's jazzy recipes.

chessie, so sorry that you can't watch Create where you live. It is my go-to tv channel now, since HGTV and FN are dead to me.

[PonzuSauce]

buttered toast you made me laugh with that Aunt Sandy comment! I personally love Ellie Krieger. She has recipes that are both healthy and tasty. FN is dead to me as well. I think instead of 'Jazzy', Laura should be the Dizzy Vegetarian. I watch her when I'm getting ready for work and the other morning she was extolling the virtues of GREEN bananas. The only properties I can think of are a stomach ache and tasting like glue. Which, BTW, I suspect she may sniff from time to time.

Edited by PonzuSauce, Mar 17, 2013 @ 9:15 PM.

[sumimasen]

Most idiotic name for a program ever. Our PBS station carried it for a few episodes.

[alexasnows]

I found out she is actually a jazz singer. But her singing leaves me as cold as her recipes.
Her jazzy tip today was to find an all purpose seasoning that your family will like. Wow.
She made a soup where she threw a bunch of vegetables into a pot, including onions. She did not brown the onions, yuck so basically just vegetables and of course tamari, all boiled in vegetable stock. Boiled onions anyone? Would it have killed her to use a tablespoon of olive oil to brown the onions? And she barely uses black pepper.

[PonzuSauce]

She made an 'apple tart' the other day that used a whole wheat tortilla instead of pastry. She then brushed it with vegan...MARGARINE and a bit of brown sugar. Seriously, margarine??? Then she topped that with partially peeled Granny Smiths-way too tart-and a ton of cinnamon and a tiny bit of sugar. After overbaking this mess she glazed it with a mixture of jarred blueberry jam and water. Period. It was so hard to cut she had to do it on a cutting board and it took some effort. How hard is it to simmer some berries, water, lemon juice and sugar while your horrible dessert almost burns??? She has got to be high.

[Haveahabit]

The term "vegan margarine" always makes me queasy.. It would seem to be the opposite of fresh, natural and healthy.

[alexasnows]

PonzuSauce, I agree this lady must be high! It almost seems like she goes out of her way to make things taste like crap. I cannot believe she really eats this kind of food. I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, but I do enjoy vegetarian and vegan foods when done well. I make a vegan tofu dish that some meat eaters have really enjoyed.

[PonzuSauce]

Ok, this morning she made something she called 'Rocky Mountain Toast' which is really known as Toad-In-A-Hole. She pronounced it 'jazzalicious'. I assure you that it sucked. She spread bread that had a hole cut in the middle with her stupid vegan margarine. Then she mixed up tofu, tumeric, and TAMARI (the three T's of terrible) to resemble eggs. Then, with more of the vegan margarine crap, she fried the bread in a pan, put more (shudder) margarine in the hole and loaded it with fake eggs. It looked atrocious. Everything she makes is apparently 'mmmm mmmm good' but I think she just has burned off her palate with tamari. Vegan/vegetarian food is delicious but I prefer food that isn't a substitute for anything. The song she sang about the toast made me need ear bleach.

[alexasnows]

I watched an episode today where she was making a sweet potato casserole and she was singing about yummy sweet potatoes. OMG. This is just getting better and better, she made cookies and said to use vegan sugar. What is she smoking? is there sugar made of meat or dairy? And she tends to steam all her food and says she is sauteing it. The food looked really awful. Bunch of steamed stuff, no thanks Laura.

[Haveahabit]

Most sugar is decolored using bone char which is made of cow bones. That's enough for some to feel it's not vegan or even vegetarian.
That being said, her holiday meal today was enough to make me a Scrooge.

[BDArizona]

She made a soup where she threw a bunch of vegetables into a pot, including onions. She did not brown the onions, yuck so basically just vegetables and of course tamari, all boiled in vegetable stock. Boiled onions anyone? Would it have killed her to use a tablespoon of olive oil to brown the onions?

There's not one thing wrong with that. I've made and eaten lots of soups with onions prepared in exactly that way. Tastes delicious. You don't need to add fat to everything.

[Milz]

I'm not sure why everyone thinks vegetarians or vegans are skinny. Most of the ones I've known have been on the plump side.

[ChelseaPlace]

This woman seems as high as a kite. She twirls around in her 50's get-up and hairdo, saying things like jazzalicious and such, and making an enormous fuss about simple things like freaking brownies.

[CrumbyButtons]

I'm not sure why everyone thinks vegetarians or vegans are skinny. Most of the ones I've known have been on the plump side.

Like me! Oreos are vegan, after all!

I'll continue to figure out my own recipes or use the internet, rather than watch her.

[Anna Baptist]

This sounded so bad that I had to watch it. :) Thanks, guys, I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time. The music, the singing, the deplorable knife skills - it was almost like a parody of itself. Does someone really need to watch this show in order to learn how to make chickpea salad? All she does is throw things in a bowl and mix them up.

[PonzuSauce]

She was making a salad today and suggested *gasp* that we use FRESH celery in it rather than dried. Is there such a thing as dried celery?? She also suggested that quinoa was like couscous even though quinoa is a seed (her words). When did seeds begin to resemble pasta? There was no salt added to anything but she did get crazy with a lemon and I noticed she used cayenne in every dish instead of tamari. She made leek soup by putting leeks in a dry hot pan, THEN she put oil on top of the leeks. What a dumbass. The other two ingredients were salted broth and all purpose seasoning. I was speechless. It must be a fluffy happy delusional world where she and her palate live.

[Milz]

I have to agree with her. Quinoa is similar to couscous in appearance, texture and uber-bland flavor. It's good if you're gluten sensitive and want a pasta-like dish.

Putting veg into dry hot pan then adding oil is something I saw in a Japanese cooking show. The idea behind it is to use less oil and caramelize the vegetable faster.

[PonzuSauce]

I don't think that was her theory behind it. I disagree about the couscous-the texture of quinoa is very different. Have you seen this show?? She either has a gas leak or drinks kombucha by the gallon.

[Ringo84]

Hi there! I'm new to the TwoP forums.

I've enjoyed reading this thread. One thing that really put me off to the "Jazzy Vegetarian" was the fact that she put tofu in her brownie mix on one show.

As crazy as Christina (Pirello) is, even she never made tofu brownies.

[alexasnows]

About the celery, I have seen two shows where she said the same thing about celery. She said that her grandmother and mother always used celery when making soup, so she always does too. Really? With a lot of soups, of course not all, celery is a very common ingredient. Then she said the same exact thing about making stuffing. One time when she tried to explain quinoa she just talked about how to pronounce it, and left out the interesting part about it how it is an ancient grain dating back to the Inca civilization and only recently has been reintroduced. I'm not sure if quinoa is a seed or a grain, the box I have says it is a grain.
As much as this lady annoys me with her cooking techniques I cannot stop watching her, I have even found myself yelling at the TV...

[Milz]

@PonzuSauce, yes, I've watched the show. She's as annoying as Joanne Weir, imo. It's shown on Sunday afternoons in my area on one of the PBS channels (22.2 to be exact.)

Every time I've had quinoa it's been prepared like couscous or bulgur wheat, like in a pilaf or tabbouleh. So to me, it's no different than couscous or bulgur: chewy, round, and gets all its flavor from whatever else is with it in the dish.

Jazzy's or Christina's food is no different than Kathy Hoshijo's (PBS cooking show in the mid 80s. I used to come home after a hard day in junior high, watch Santa Barbara on NBC and then cooking shows on PBS.) Kathy used to do the tofu scrambled eggs and other stuff like fried "chicken" (tofu flavored with nutritional yeast, soy sauce and wrapped in bean curd skins and fried), BLT sandwiches using bean curd skin flavored to taste like bacon, etc. Almost every savory dish she made had nutritional yeast and all of her 'chocolate' desserts were made with carob. She even made a bechamel sauce with mashed potatoes. And her show was the first time I ever saw "microgreens". She showed how to grow,harvest, and use them. 15 years later, my husband and I were at pretentious restaurant that boasted "microgreens" as a garnish for a dish. I asked the waiter to explain what a "microgreen" was and I had a flashback to that episode of Kathy's Kitchen.

[PonzuSauce]

I'm so glad I missed Kathy's Kitchen! I love vegetarian and vegan food done right and just for what it is, not pretending to be meats or eggs or cheese. I think if you're trying to reproduce those flavors then maybe your body is trying to tell you something. Laura Theodore is just a total goofball. I like Ellie Krieger myself.

[Milz]

I think if you are transitioning to or from vegetarianism, those substitution foods are useful.

but honestly, I think cooking shows have gone downhill since I began watching them in the 80s as a pre-teen and teenager. they aren't as cutting edge in terms of introducing new foods or new cooking techniques. Like I wrote, Kathy was cooking with microgreens, almond butter, tempeh, miso, etc. Ditto for Julia Child's programs, the Great Chefs of Lousiana/the West series, Frugal Gourmet.

Cooking magazines like Gourmet (prior to its cancellation) and The Lucky Peach are better than the cooking shows.