An idea for Food Network

I don't have time for much TV anymore, but I do try to watch Food TV a couple times per week. I like to cook, and some of the shows are either educational (like Good Eats), or at least entertaining (like Iron Chef).

I do have mixed emotions on almost every program, however. It's not that they make things seem easy - I am aware that there is a substantial support staff, chopping, slicing and dicing away to make these shows work. No, it's the ingredients that give me pause. I don't mind that, on Iron Chef, they ise esoteric ingredients. No problem. It's a competition, and a showcase, so cook pull out the lark's tongues, and sea gull testicles, and mushrooms grown only at a certain altitude and picked on Wednesdays.

But what bugs me is the shows for the "average" cook do it too, though not to the same extent. I suppose you could argue that every well-stocked kitchen should have these things, but, less face it - Americans eat too many meals out of a wrapper or box for the average kitchen to be "well-stocked".

What they need is a show for a more average kitchen. One where the chef opens up the cupboard and the fridge, ponders for a minute, and then proceeds to use those ingredients to make somethign edible. Sure, some things will be a little more specialized, but won ton wrappers would be a lot easier to get ahold of than lark's tongue.