Review: "Inedible to Incredible" tonight on TLC

In Scott Collins' excellent Sunday Calendar story on TLC, he was apparently too distracted by the network's more sensational series (big families, little people, cake, Sarah Palin's upcoming thingumabob) to mention "What Not to Wear," not only the best show on TLC, but the best of all makeover shows, and possibly the best reality series going. (It's the one I sit down to watch for pleasure, in any case.) It is formulaic to a fare-thee-well, but it's a formula that leads to changed lives, not just new looks, and it works time after time. Hosts Stacey London and Clinton Kelly have a simple message: You are already good, you could just dress better -- to flatter your figure (they don't care if you're fat, or short, or your legs go up to your armpits), to embody your spirit, to reflect your age. They want to get you out of your old dry rut and into the river of life.

The "WTNW" template has been applied to a new TLC show "Inedible to Incredible," which debuts tonight at 10. In this case, a challenged person -- cooking, not clothing, is the problem here -- -- is nominated by her friends and/or family as a fit subject for re-education. John Besh, owner of six New Orleans restaurants and author of the cookbook "My New Orleans," is the makeoverer. The idea is that he will come to your house and teach you first that you don't know how to cook, and second, how to cook.

As is almost always the case with "WNTW," the subjects are (so far) women, and while that works for the former show, which is all about self-knowledge and self-empowerment, it makes "Inedible to Edible" seem strangely retro. The show is all about serving, literally -- not the thing you do for yourself, but a thing you do for others. As a woman. Not that preparing a good meal isn't fulfilling, O Protesting Cooks of the World, but the show does play as a kind of elaboration on the old joke about the new bride happily serving her husband rock-hard steaks and spoonfuls of unrecognizable mush, which he chokes down with a smile.

"Inedible" is nowhere as profound as its predecessor, which is about bringing substance and surface into alignment, to the benefit of each, where this is just a kind of how-to show with a twist. There is no signficant inner transformation, apart from perhaps a new appreciation for food, and a resolution not to do horrible things with or to it in the future. (The most interesting challenge is Besh's -- he comes up with good recipes based on the subjects' bad ones; the women just do what he tells them to.)

But it is sort of incredible, and highly entertaining in a Believe-It-Or-Not sort of way. The producers have found housewives the oddness of whose cooking -- horribly overcooked meat, garnished with Fig Newtons to resemble I can't remember what animal, hamburger studded with flakes of strawberry-flavored cereal, combinations that recall the sartorial mismatches of "WNTW"  -- is equaled only by the pride they take in it. But like a Zen master giving a novice a quick kick in the pants, Besh awakens his surprised disciples to the damage they've done, and points them toward culinary enlightenment.

--Robert Lloyd (twitter.com/LATimesTVLloyd)

Related:

TLC's hook on the heartland

 

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Comments

[Lori Pasqualino]

Where were you 20 years ago when I needed you!!! I have vastly improved since then but I do have the odd blunder every now and then. So Hey, if you can just automatically e-mail your recipes my way that would be sooo, cool. I have a bit more trouble than you know, A. My husband has high blood presure and P.K.D. He can't have salt. B. He hates onions, C. I have to be a Vegitarian because Of Fibroids in my womb. It is very tricky to try and cook. I have an added problem too. My husband is Italian as well all of his family are like gormay chiefs. I could use those recipes. Thank you and come again. P.S. we don't eat Pork,Or fish(we especially hate fish , YUCK!!! so don't bother sending those our way. that is all, Thank you again!!

[Stuart Reb Donald]

The worst stereotype of all is the "journalist" who insists they see stereotypes in everything. Your assumption that the guests on Besh's show are all women because they want to perpetuate the stereotype of the wife serving her man is nothing short of bigotry. The bigotry you display in this manifesto shows that you do not understand the industry you are charged with reviewing. The guests are females because their target audience is females. It is simply good business - stereotypes surely play no part. If you are going to critique the entertainment industry it would do you well to learn this. There are no conspiracies to subjugate women in the entertainment industry.

Or perhaps you do understand the industry therefore you simply made up a story to get attention? If you have written this inflammatory and wholly fictional piece simply to get attention then how is that any different than what you accuse the producers of "Inedible to Incredible" of doing? I'll tell you how it is different; it makes you a hypocrite which is far worse than a chauvinist.

So which are you, Mr. Lloyd, unqualified or hypocritical?

Bigots are not not subversive; they are easy to spot. Bigots are the people always crying racism, chauvinism or discrimination.

[Deb Ruddock]

I just watched "Inedible to Incredible", and I am not convinced. I felt like I was watching one of those badly acted info commercials, where the host is shown the simple way to do something and the audience oohs and ahhs.

I don't really believe that an intelligent woman, as the woman seemed who supposedly served hamburgers containing strawberry cornflakes, would not realize how disgusting those two flavors mixed together would taste. Nor do I believe the woman who made the gross pasta with the huge chunk of butter and cream would not know how incredibly fattening and artery clogging that dish would be.

Is it not possible that to encourage interest and future participation, actors (not great actors, but actors) were used in these first episodes?

I hope it gets better. The recipes Besh comes up with sound good!

[SJW]

From Inedible to Incredible :

The show has an interesting concept, and would have proved interesting, if it weren't for the fact that the wifes are such incredible self centered, anorxic,
witches, who apparently been subjecting their families and friends with such vile food that they themselves won't even eat it. There was seemingly no attempt over the years to even attempt to learn, or to please their immediate circle. When you find individuals, who have at least made some attempt, and yet still have failed, I will be eager to watch. But based on the ones that were on the first 2 shows
their meaniness and self centerdness does not convey entertainment to me.