It's a tad after 1 PM on Sunday afternoon, and I just finished watching Ten Dollar Dinners with Food Network Star winner Melissa d'Arabian. Dinners, or was it lunch? She ended the show by calling her meal a delicious lunch, so that kinda threw me off. But that was the least of my worries with the show. However, also not on my list of 'show worries' was Melissa herself. Melissa as a Food network host was lovely. A breath of fresh air. Her been-there, done-that wisdom was apparent, but the youthful sparkle in her eyes never faded. I loved her stories about her days in Paris and her Mother-in-Law's secret pie dough recipe sharing. But back to my cringe-worthy moments...
Melissa's First Menu: Perfectly-Priced Parisian. Her $10 menu included an Applesauce Granita with a yogurt-maple sauce. Her entree was a Bacon-Potato Torte with a Parisian Salad on the side. A few big 'health-factor' problems with this menu. In the first three minutes of the show Melissa had already used plentiful amounts of bacon, butter and heavy cream. Super high in saturated fat-containing animal products. And she wasn't done yet.
Click ahead for more of my review, including why (in the end) the Food Network execs will be pleased. And see just how many grams of saturated fat are in Melissa's torte. You will be shocked!....
Butter, Bacon, Heavy Cream, Egg Yolk, White Flour, White Potatoes, Salt and Cheese. These were the nutrition-defiant ingredients in Melissa's entree recipe. Sigh, at least she's making my review write-itself easy!
Melissa: My Review. Before I bash her torte, I want to make it clear that I loved Melissa as a host. I also loved the show format. Smooth as butter. (Pun intended). The kitchen, the colors (lots of deep blues), the art (floral and modern blue accents) the friendliness and the speed. All great. And when you can achieve show format success , you can easily make the food a bit healthier, as you gather viewer comments like mine.
Why I am Harsh on Melissa's Health-Appeal. If this were Paula Deen's show or Guy Fieri's 'Triple D' show I wouldn't be as critical because those shows base themselves on indulgent cooking. But since Melissa's audience is aimed at families and moms, the food has got to be kid-friendly and HEALTHY! Please Melissa, more fruits, veggies, antioxidants, fresh foods and healthy stuff. Now onto my food review...
The Potato Bacon Torte. Within the first three minutes Melissa had already added two sticks of butter for her white flour pie crust, a nice helping of full-fat bacon (4 strips), and a generous drizzle of simmering heavy cream (⅔ cup). All these ingredients were part of her torte. And later she added in white potatoes, Gruyere cheese and that was it. Not exactly a healthy main course. In fact every ingredient was white in color (no antioxidants), with the exception of the glistening brown crispy bacon bits. Not white, but equally nutrition-defiant by being high in saturated fat. Oh and she brushed her torte with an egg yolk wash-more cholesterol. So, thumbs down on the torte. The torte looked beautiful but I have a few easy healthier substitutions Melissa could've used:
*use sweet potatoes instead of white. Much healthier-rich in fiber, Vitamin A, potassium and other nutrients.
*Remove the bacon and add in more herbs and spices for flavor. Or even saute some smoky seitan bits-lots of flavor!
*Forget the butter crust and do a simple olive oil based pastry crust. Yes it will be less flaky and pastry-like, but MUCH healthier.
*Use whole wheat, spelt or even half and half whole wheat crust instead of 100% white flour. Check out my healthier crusts in my Tofu Pot Pie or Breakfast Brunch Quiche recipes.
*Instead of traditional cheese use vegan cheese. Yes, it tastes good!
*Instead of heavy cream use full fat plain soy milk. or heck, even vegan soy creamer, which has less saturated fat.
Makeover that Torte! I just may try a healthy-makeover version or Melissa's torte recipe, and post later this week....so look out for that.
Salad Review. Nice. I liked the simple mixed greens with the house made Parisian Dijon dressing. I liked her secret of adding a tinge of soy sauce to the dressing. Soy sauce is not just for Asian meals. The mixed baby greens were healthy, but why not add in a few other fruit and veggie ingredients to brighten things up. Tomatoes, radishes (which the French love, if you want to keep to the French theme), sliced pears, carrots, green apples, peppers..you know I could go on and on. More fruits and veggies for the salad. But overall it still gets a thumbs up for being vegan and high in leafy greens nutrients.
Applesauce Granita. Interesting. I don't think this really sounded that yummy. But then again, I've certainly posted a few delicious recipes that sounded a bit odd. So I'll trust her on the taste-factor. It also threw me off when her entree had more fat and calories in it than the dessert, but that's just me. And I'm not a huge fan of applesauce as a main ingredient, not much there but mushed up, preserved apple shreds. The yogurt-maple-cinnamon sauce sounded great. You could easily use soy yogurt and make this vegan. I just may try this dessert in a recipe makeover post-using vegan ingredients. Keep a heads-up for that one, and that torte makeover I mentioned above. I'll still give this recipe a thumbs up for the healthiness factor. I loved the use of real maple syrup. Even though it is very expensive-which doesn't mesh well with her wallet-friendly show design.
Last Word: The Food Network Execs will be Pleased to Know... The Food Network will be happy to know that I will watch again. And again. I liked the show. Melissa has so much knowledge to share and her stories are genuine. However, if she continues with the high saturated fat containing meals I will be very disappointed and it may turn me off as a long term viewer.
Oh, and that torte...
Nutrition Facts Shocker-welcome back to reality. I calculated the total fat and calories in the entire torte dish and here are the results:
Melissa's Potato-Bacon Torte
Ingredients:
* 4 strips bacon
* 3 sprigs fresh thyme
* ⅔ cup heavy cream
* 2 Pie Crusts, recipe follows
* 3 medium baking potatoes, peeled
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* ¼ cup grated Gruyere cheese
* 1 egg yolk, whisked with a splash of water
Pie Crust:
* 1 cup butter (2 sticks), cubed and chilled
* 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 8 to 10 tablespoons ice water
*Note, since Melissa didn't use all her pie crust dough, I even minuses about ⅛ of her crust recipe from the nutritional facts below.
Per Torte:
Total Calories: 4101
Total Fat: 277 g
saturated fat: 162 g
Per Slice (8 slices in torte):
calories: 512
fat: 35g
saturated fat: 20g
That's 20 grams of saturated fat per slice. Not something I'd like to feed my family.
Note: Melissa's recipe says it makes 4 servings plus leftovers. I gave Melissa the benefit of the doubt by saying there were 8 servings in the torte.
*I calculated these values by using Melissa's online recipe and inputting the ingredients into my FitDay.com nutrition facts program.
So overall, Melissa I adore you, but your recipes could use some skimming of unnecessary saturated fat and excess high fat animal products.
Sherie says
Lemon pasta is everywhere, there are tons of recipes all over the place, I can't imagine anyone would claim it was plagiarized, its hardly a novel idea.
You're right, the potato torte is an incredibly fattening dish in and of itself, probably on par with chicken pot pie. But she did serve it with mixed greens and an applesauce granita, and no meat (other than the bacon) so it wasn't as bad as a whole as it could have been. Not something you'd want to feed your family every day, but delicious.
I'm definitely interested in trying an olive oil crust instead of a butter crust (I've been experimenting with making olive oil gravy for Thanksgiving) and would be willing to leave out the cheese, or perhaps considering vegan cheese instead.
As a non vegetarian however, I've actually tried using a soy milk product I have drunk routinely instead of regular milk to make mashed potatoes, and it was TERRIBLE. AWFUL. Never to be repeated. I might try yogurt in the future (though not for a cooking application, because of coagulation, although now that I think about it, Alton Brown was talking about that on a Good Eats show that aired this week, I'll have to look at that again).
But soy milk plus potatoes were just awful. Threw the whole batch in the trash. If you're going to try it, mix just a small amount and taste them together before making the full batch. I wish I did.
tiff says
I like Melissa, but her show could never air in Canada, our food prices are two and three times of that in the states. That makes in a pretty small minded business plan.
Kris says
I'd like to know how she made a 10 dollar meal with gruyere cheese! I'm a bit (I mean COMPLETELY) skeptical. And I especially enjoyed the crappy set of "set" stairs that were built in the background. I agree, she knows how to host but the show itself is severely flawed. I really want to know how that whole meal cost 10 dollars. Not in NYC!
JaneGS says
We recorded Melissa's first show and watched it last night. I was pretty disappointed overall. I didn't really learn anything, and since it's aimed at working mom's with families, I thought the homemade piecrust was ridiculous. I was initially intrigued by the potato/gruyere torte as I am a quiche lorraine lover, but when she served up a slice, it looked runny and sloppy. More like ham and potato casserole encrusted. I also didn't catch that she told us how long to cook it for.
In addition, to me this is a brunch or light dinner or potluck contribution, not lunch. Working moms eat leftovers, and after shopping I eat out.
I also had a problem with her cleanliness--she reused the board she cut the bacon on without doing more than wiping it with a dishtowel.
Personally, I didn't think she seemed all that comfortable and used the word "yummy" about four times too many.
Hyper-critical I know, but I don't see her in the same league as Guy, Rachel, Alton, Giada, or Ina.
Fashion Court says
me too! overall i liked the show, i'm pretty excited for the episodes and i think i will definitely be trying that lemon pasta :p
Kathy says
FC,
Yes I browsed them quickly. That's silly that ppl are saying she stole a lemon pasta recipe...lemon pasta is a classic recipe that has been made a million ways.
..I can't wait to check in to see what Melissa makes next..and if she adds any healthy commentary. She did say that you don't need to use 'all the cream' in her torte recipe...but then she finished up with "but I always do...". 🙂
Kathy
Fashion Court says
i'm not sure if you know or not, but some of the recipes from her upcoming shows are actually UP on food network. the lemon pasta one looks good, but people are already griping that she copied it from somewhere. check it out :o)
Kathy says
BookishPenguin ,
(adorable name btw)
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed my review and agreed with my comments. I certainly don't want to bash Melissa's show, but really give some good feedback. You are right, a few simple swaps of ingredients and I think she has a winner.
The FN already has the "indulgent food" market cornered (Paula Deen, Triple D, The Neely's, BBQ Competition Shows, Ace of Cakes) ...so I think a healthier spin with M's show would be a breath of fresh, clean healthy air.
Thanks for the comment,
Kathy
Anonymous says
Brilliant review. I felt exactly the same way. It does feel quite irresponsible to bill this as family cooking and then make it so fatty when, as you show, just a few easy swaps can make it healthier.
I agree that Melissa was a wonderful host and I will definitely continue to tune in. However, I hope they begin to make healthier choices very quickly.