Re: [CH] "Eat the Heat" on FoodTV

mstevens@exit109.com
Tue, 27 Mar 2001 21:20:53 GMT 

At 02:56 PM 3/27/01 -0500, Cameron Begg wrote:
>Hi C-H's,
>1 Too much Tyler. Would have liked to see less video of him and more of C-H's.

Like you say there are marketing considerations.  Having a "Celebrity" host to 
tie up the various segments is a standard hook used to retain continuity.

>2 Scoville units are a misleading and inaccurate way of indicating 
>hotness. So is HPGLC because there are no standardized testing 
>methods.

But what else have we got other than the "Damn that's hot!" scale?  And it 
lends a bit of hyperbole to the tastings "Remember, that's half a gajillion 
scovilles!"

>3 Too much of an advertisement for McIlhenny's "Tabasco" sauce. C-H's 
>use it as a last resort if at all. (BTW - the stuff they do make 
>would probably be OK if they did not cut it with so much vinegar.)

The show's intended audience was not the CH list.  Many of the target audience 
probably don't know anything else but Tabasco.  Being as it was the birth of 
modern commercial hot sauce I theink the segment was appropriate, though I 
agree it could have been shorter.  The whole scene with the McIlhenny matron 
preparing a whole meal could have been cut.  By the way, I think the Tabasco 
Hab sauce is quite good, but you can't get it up here.

>4 All the C-H's I've met are too laid back to get into hot food eating duels.

But you'll notice that in actual Chilehead type activity, what we hear in the 
east refer to as a "Tasting,"  The so called duel became less of a contest and 
more of a "Lets see how hot THIS sauce is..." type of thing.  Any concept of 
who won or lost seemed to become irrelevant.  We do tastings all the time, and 
even had a hotsauce bar at the Mid Atlantic Hotluck in Md. a couple years ago 
at Anne Lafonds dads place (Where did she go?)

To give them credit, they did mention in a couple scenes that the experience 
was not just to get more heat into a dish, but to balance the flavors.  I also 
thought the transition graphics were of good quality, and have been pondering 
asking Stuart or one of the other producers about how they went about scoring 
the final cut.  I thought the music was quite good.

As a Chilehead subscriber I would have liked more emphasis oun our interests 
but have to realize that most folks know or care little about what we as a 
tribe know or think  (How many times has your sanity been questioned regarding 
your penchant for the hot stuff?).  I really would have liked it if they had 
made a more specific mention of the CH List as opposed to vague references like 
"they met on the internet."  That said I still think they did a commendible job 
of portraying a balanced view of the varying world of fiery food.


                    =Mark "Runs With Scissors" Stevens

                @ http://www.exit109.com/~mstevens @
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                                  Life is a Cabernet!