July 4th: Food Network Gifts

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Let's say you are invited to weekend festivities in the country – July 4th perhaps – and you find out your host and hostess are big fans of the Food Network. What do you do? You could order up one of Bobby Flay's or Mario Batali's cookbooks, but chances are they already own a bookshelf full. The other option is a picnic basket full of celebrity chef branded products to make your host and hostess life easier. The suped up Food Network Website, with a back office from Cooking.com, recently sent Super Chef food products from four of FN chefs: - Rachael Ray Balsamic Drizzle, a balsamic reduction sauce that is basically Balsamic Vinegar from Modena and some sweetner and stabilizer. It comes with a photo of Rachael Ray in her kitchen with her hand around a salad. - Bobby Flay Steak Sauce, a mustardy, spicy steak sauce in a handsome bottle sheathed in a black label. No picture of Bobby Flay. - House Seasoning from the Paula Deen Collection with a picture of Paula smiling on the label. Super Chef is not depicting Paula Deen in the image (above), focusing instead on the heights to which Ms. Deen elevates the food world with her special "Butt Massage" mix. It is your basic garlic, onion, salt and pepper mixture that Paula uses often to season meat, poultry and anything savory she cooks on TV. - Barefoot Contessa Chocolate Cupcake & Chocolate Frosting Mix, which has only a small photo of Ina Garten on the back with a quote from her: "Who can resist a chocolate cupcake? And my rich buttercream frosting takes it over the top." The frosting includes two sticks of butter, an egg yolk, chocolate and sugar and it does make the retro-cupcake taste better than a box of Duncan Hines, and no harder to prepare. The cupcakes have a hint of coffee flavor, something to keep in mind if your host and hostess have kids. But they are fun to prepare with kids, since there are more steps involved then with most other mixes. So, Before the fireworks explode, out come the steaks and the Bobby Flay Sauce, the vegetables in Balsamic Drizzle, the potatoes tossed in House Seasoning, and finally the cup cakes, chilled so they don't melt in the July heat. You can toast the Food Network that got all this to your hosts in time. Are these products really tasty? You could buy a bottle of aged balsamic vinegar, some HP or countless other sauces, some fresh garlic, fresh onion and sea salt and mixed pepper corns, and bakery cupcakes and probably eat better. But would your host and hostess be impressed? You decide. Previous articles: Cooking.com Beefs Up Food Network Store Bobby Flay Joins Food Network at Kohl's [Chefs & Branding - complete] [Products & Endorsements - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef