Yes..PW....Pioneer Woman...aka Ree Drummond.
I read it, and me being me followed some of the links to other sites....and am still LMAO .
Full Disclosure Dept:
I am a member of PW's Tasty Kitchen site. I have both of her cookbooks, plus the autobiography such as it is and have watched her show on the Food Network.
That being said, the woman can still ignite a firestorm without lifting her pinkie.
I originally liked her premise on the PW blog. The format was bright and colorful with easy to follow recipes that seemed to fit that niche between Bon Appetit and Spam. It was cute..it was fun...and none of it made me feel bad because I didn't have a room dedicated to crafting or cookery like Martha Stewart. It was and still is relate able to many people .I took it for what it is, not what it is presented to be. NO ONE in their right mind after viewing her kitchen in the Lodge will be beguiled into thinking that she is a simple accidental country girl if they look closely at the now remodeled Lodge kitchen . I also have a Bosch dishwasher thank you very much , and bought it on sale....Ree's got 2 , plus a range and double ovens to die for.
And this is where the backlash that I have seen/read begins.
1. She's changed...she's more interested in the TV shows production values.
MAYBE..but she never started out positioning herself as Granny Clampett . She married a CATTLE
RANCHER and ask anyone who was or is in any agricultural format ( Shout Out To Sistah Here ) ...if
you want to stay in business, you have to be able to make a buck or 3 and be smart enough to know how
to keep some it to maintain the business.
2. She has help...faker..
OKAY..now I can kind of get behind this . She has 4 kids that she home schools and the ranch has help.
Were we supposed to assume that she did it all ? Why because she over uses the phrase " Just Keeping
It Real " every 30 seconds or so. If she has help or assistants, then she should say so . There is no shame
having /using outside help if you can afford to .
3. She plagiarizes recipes.
I can't address this because I am not personally aware of any instance of this that I have read on her blog
linked sites.
4. Her cooking skills are average at best.
Um....who is to say who is average and who is elite ? Yes , there are a couple of glaring mistakes that
are real potential health hazards like reusing madinade that rraw meat/chicken/pork has been in...
WTF >>>OMG..if you are driven to do that , BOIL the marinade for at least 20 minutes and be sure
to throw any left over out.......OR MAKE ENOUGH MARINADE IN THE FIRST PLACE SO YOU
CAN HAVE SOME IN RESERVE. Some of us are still a bit skitty kitty about certain recipes and need
all the help and or photos we can get our hands on. THAT'S HOW WE LEARN !!!
Yes, her show is a bit more polished and therefore less genuine than it was before..she's in a business where she is the product whether she wants to recognize that or not . She must draw and sustain a viewership in order to stay on the air and in print.
She's A Business Woman Y'all.
She never really tried to hide this .
Some of the naysayers were twitterpated because as one person put it, " I was invited out to the ranch and it seemed as if she had never read my blog and had no idea who I was . " ...Okay..not knowing much about a guest..? Rees bad on that one. It is common courtesy to have some idea of what your new guests back round is , and by that I mean children or not..not a criminal check . You know..good manners and all.
At the same time, the miffed guest to the ranch clearly came across as if she expected to become Ree and Ladd's BFF for life which is creepier still. So all in all , the would be stalker doesn't have much of a leg to sand on here other than a hosts inability to make them as a guest feel more comfortable.
Ree Drummond's blog and related sites are business tools. Her success does not require her to justify it much less defend it. Yes, it is slick and has gotten a bit shallow, but it has never positioned itself realistically to be more than what it is...a product .
Don't be disappointed if something you took at face value turns out to be less than you assumed it to be . You have the right to be disappointed if this is the case, but you do not have the right to be ugly about it. NO ONE MADE you drink the Koolaide, did they ?
And for the record ...I still watch her program , if there is a featured recipe that is not in one of her cookbooks that I own and regularly use. I just don't deify her .
Ciao,
Aunty Pol
No comments:
Post a Comment