Chef Robert Irvine Fired from Food Network's Dinner: Impossible

Recently, Chef Robert Irvine was fired from his Food Network show Dinner: Impossible for inflating his resume. I find it very unfortunate that he was so taken with status and the trappings of success that he felt he'd have to lie to impress people. It's very obvious just from watching the show that he's an impressive chef. On the show, he was challenged each week by a different culinary situation, but invariably, they involved serving very large numbers of guests with uncommon supplies and unusual cooking situations. He always comes across as well organized, but also sometimes appears to fall short when dealing with volunteers and holding his temper. Because his show scenario is so different from most of the cooks and chefs on Food Network it can be hard to compare him to others, but in the end his show is about the food and about his own personality, just like any show on the Food Network.

One of the most popular Food Network personalities, Rachael Ray, once was on Iron Chef. On that episode, she seemed tense and overwhelmed, and she's said herself in interviews and on her talk show that she hated it and she'd never do it again. Obviously, she'd never want to host a show in the style of Dinner Impossible either, but in her own format, Rachael Ray is plainly a star and has millions of fans. She's not only got a number of series on the Food Network, including Thirty Minute Meals, Tasty Travels, and Forty Dollars a Day, but she also has a syndicated talk show on network television called Rachael Ray. She is actually not a chef and has never tried to say she is. She's proud of her upbringing working in restaurants and attributes a lot of her success in food to her mother's teaching.

Her success is well deserved, as she's enthusiastic and bright, always entertaining, informative and very attractive. Her food is generally real-life food, made quickly and easily, modified at times for health, but always simple and yummy looking. She appeals to many regular cooks because she provides recipes that can be made at home and are successful with families. Chef Robert, on the other hand, does not seem nearly as approachable and makes recipes that few home cooks would want to try, huge quantities not withstanding.

Paula Deen is also a very successful cook on the Food Network. She has not had any formal training either, but learned to cook from her family, and put her skills to use at a time when she needed to make money to support her two sons. She started a lunch catering service called The Bag Lady and built her success from that. She also has a couple of different series on the Food Network, including Paula's Home Cooking and Paula's Party.

I feel that Paula Deen's popularity is, in large part, due to her personality. She is a joy to watch as she cooks, and tastes, her simple southern style recipes. Paula loves to laugh and chatter at the camera, and many times she tells touching and funny personal anecdotes about her growing up years, her sons, and her husband. Of course, any cooking show has to offer good food to be popular as well. Paula Deen also uses simple ingredients, even including canned soups and veggies, to make food that viewers would like to cook themselves in real life. She also bakes quite often, which can be uncommon on the Food Network shows, and I find this a very enjoyable aspect of Paula's shows.

Alton Brown is another of the Food Network's prominent stars. His show Good Eats is one of the only cooking shows that often includes a plot. He also provides lots of culinary science and history to augment the cooking and baking portions of his show. He seems likable and the series shows a pretty off the wall sense of humor, but watching it is like taking a course in cooking, and he teaches home chefs to handle all sorts of dishes with great results.

Chef Robert Irvine, on the other hand, rarely makes dishes that could be called simple, and does not seem to be the type to be able to teach the complicated dishes, like Alton Brown can. But though he can come across as stern and stuffy, Chef Robert also very often shows a sense of humor and fun. And though I rarely thought to myself, "I'd like to make that huge vat of complicated soup" while watching his show, Chef Robert's skill at menu planning and heading up a kitchen staff are obvious in each episode of Dinner: Impossible. His food does look delicious and the diners always seem much more than satisfied by the show's end. I'll miss him hosting Dinner: Impossible and I feel it's very sad that he lied about his credentials. It's also very sad that Food Network fired him instead of simply accepting an apology and correcting his bio.