As if she didn’t have enough things going for her, Gwyneth Paltrow is co-hosting a PBS food-aholic’s dream show that goes around Spain with two food world celebrities in their own rite, Mark BIttman of the NY times and the ‘How to Cook Everything‘ book series and the famous ‘Molto’ Mario Batali. It makes me sad that the channel to have such food legacies under their belt, like America’s Test KItchen, and Julia Child, would succumb to the fanfare of the uber Hollywood endorsement.  I always thought PBS was for the less mainstream more refined, not the typical Hollywood rigamarole.  It’s called “Spain…on the Road” and I already want to gag. 

So how is it that the celebrities always screw things up for me? First, it was ruining Ebay for me and their personal stylists buying up all my coveted fashion items and collectibles for 10x the should-be value. Now they have decided to eat more than just a leaf of lettuce, they also have to host TV shows about food adventures in Europe?

Before there were celebrity chefs and celebrity food writers, there were just plain old celebrities. There were celebrities that starred in films and tv shows and had concerts. Well now those celebrities are making huge cross overs into the food world. Do I like it?  Umm-not really. Can I do anything about it? No. So I guess I will watch these already overly fortunate souls slowly take over the food world as I watched them slowly take over the fashion world and have their faces adorning every issue of American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, pushing the supermodel off to the side. Bottom line, Hollywood A list celebs sell. 

Who’s next? I think Katie Lee Joel or whatever her name is is a bad enough breed of a certain kind of celebrity foodie. You know what kind I am referring to. But taking a Hollywood celebrity and showing her with the two ultimate breed of food-aholics, writer and chef, seems, well, a bit of a reach.  

Who’s next? Maybe Jennifer Aniston will host a show about break up foods- “How to find Ultimate Comfort in Food”. Now that would make much more sense to me than seeing Gwyneth Paltrow traipsing across Spain. She better eat heartily. It would be such a shame to see her nibble on a tiny slice of chorizo and a grain of paella.

To her credit, at least she’s easy on the eyes and I don’t hate her as much as it might sound like. I guess my evil rant is due in large to Hollywood’s recent fawning of attention on the food world. Another example would be Meryl Streep starring as Julia Child for the blog turned book turned film,  Julie/ Julia. 

On the flip side of the coin, Food Network has been gearing all their shows lately towards the home chef and “real” people that the slew of new hosts and shows have not been captivating my interest in the slightest. Talk about least common denominator. I prefer to watch Bourdain on the Travel Channel than the weirdos they have all over their network these days. The dude that endorses TGI Fridays is the absolute worst.  Bleach blond bro’ed out hair and really bad sunglasses on the back of his head.  Ugh. I don’t even know his name, and don’t care to, but what a travesty. They should rename the network the DOOF Network.

So I guess, it’s the classic case of the lesser of two evils. Watch the new show for the interesting places they go to in Spain and for the other credible hosts and ignore the Academy Award winning actress that happened to tag along because being a mom and foodie is so of-the-moment these days, oh and she was a a high school exchange student to Spain (yawn), or watch some slob on Food Network talk about Southern deep fried wonders and the best greasy burger West of the Mississippi, 

I’ll give the show a try…it is PBS. It premieres in October, but if Coldplay does any of the music, I will have to draw the line.