Sandra Lee's Indochine Brunch on Food Network

The Food Network is many things to many people. I grew up on Saturday morning PBS cooking shows by Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan, the Frugal Gourmet and sometimes even the Galloping Gourmet. Those were educational programs that got me reading, chopping, and cooking.

Today's Food Network programs are more entertainment focused, and less educational. We want things faster nowadays, don't we? Learning is boring. That's why Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade cooking show appeals such a wide audience. It's easy, and there's usually a cocktail involved -- so it's even more fun.

Earlier this month, Sandra Lee featured a show called "Indochine Brunch". Simon Bao (see his hilarious comments) pointed me to it and you should check out the show (when it re-airs) and the recipes themselves:

Semi-Homemade Indochine Brunch

What is Indochine?

Well, that's the issue that Sandra Lee's show brings up. (If you're not familiar with Lee, she's neither Chinese nor Korean.) Typically, Indochine refers to the French colonial experience in Southeast Asia, which used to be called French Indochina. Remember the 1992 film Indochine starring Catherine Deneuve? Everything seems rosy when a certain French tone is applied, no?

But Lee's menu of  dumpling with special sauce, broccoli rabe with black bean sauce, Szechwan crispy beef, mango chile sorbet, and an Indochine cocktail has little to do with French Indochina. Where's the France and Southeast Asia? Without going into more detail, let's just note that broccoli rabe is an Italian green vegetable that most likely was substituted for gailan (Chinese broccoli). Regular broccoli would have been just fine.

"Indochine Brunch" mixes up history, culture, and cuisines. Many people mistakenly think that Vietnamese cooking is heavily influenced by French culinary concepts and I work hard to dispel that notion. Yes, a little French, but also a little Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian (Khmer, Cham, Thai, etc.).

But Lee's "Indochine Brunch" has nothing specifically to do with Southeast Asian or Vietnamese food or cooking -- unless you count the use of Vietnamese chile garlic sauce in the Szechuan beef stir-fry -- but rather is a mishmash representation of Asian food and cooking. As the episode description points out, this is an 'Asian-inspired' brunch.

I can only fathom that the 'Indochine Brunch' title was selected because it sounds sexy. The Food Network has used 'Indochine' to describe a banh mi like-sandwich made with a ground pork patty. Grilled pork burgers Indochine actually uses fish sauce and other seasonings to give it some Vietnamese and Southeast Asian flair. Why not call it a Vietnamese grilled pork burger or grilled pork banh mi?

Asia is huge and the cuisines are varied. We don't all look and cook the same. To lump Asian cuisines together is bad enough. In fact, I thought we'd gone beyond that a few years ago. But to supplant Asian food under a European umbrella sets us back a good 50 years.

Comments

[Simon Bao]

Andrea is quite gentle and generous in her response to Sandra Lee. My own response to seeing that episode involved me, a heavy cleaver, and a northbound train headed to FoodNetwork headquarters in Manhattan.

The episode was as misguided and ill-begotten as Andrea describes, but I encourage anyone reading this to look for a rebroadcast of that episode. Because in addition to the wrong foods, they are all prepared the wrong way. Shockingly bad cooking technique, wrong on even the basics of a stir-fry. Viewers will pass out as they watch the sticky, black gummy hydrocarbons accumulate on her wok as it sits on the fire, empty and untended for long periods. Only to be "deglazed" at the end. (Simon faints, hits the floor.)

Then too there is the fact that Sandra Lee was wearing a fake pink kimono while cooking what she believed to be Indochinese food. Yo FoodNetwork, issue your stars some globes or atlases. She had decorated her kitchen with pink colored cheap souvenirs from a Chinatown shop. Over her tablescape were hanging some pink Chinese lanterns one would typically only see at the China Dolls brothel in Reno. They may sell the lanterns in the gift shop there, I don't know.

Until I saw that episode, I hadn't realized that this kind of Culturally Clueless Hackery & Bad Cooking is the norm for Sandra Lee, or that there are communities devoted to documenting it, mourning it. She's described as the United Nations of Food Atrocities: http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showforum=743

I can only hope Sandra Lee never attempts a Soul Food Brunch. The cities will burn.

[Simon Bao]

To illustrate just how bad and offensive the "Indochine Brunch" was, I'll ask readers to imagine that I am doing a cooking program for Vietnamese viewers, and devote a half-hour program to a "Yankee Brunch."

For the program, I am inexplicably dressed up like that stereotypical Mexican bandit from "Treasure of Sierra Madre." For my "Yankee Brunch," I'm wearing a giant sombrero, a colorful poncho, ammunition belts crossed over my chest, a droopy false mustache, a fake gold tooth...

For my "Yankee Brunch," my kitchen is decorated wall-to-wall with cheap, kitschy souvenirs only appropriate for celebrating the Mexican "Day of the Dead." And only if you are drunk in Tijuana.

For my "Yankee Brunch," I start out showing viewers how to make Cuban croquetas. Instead of the familiar chicken, I tell viewers to use Peruvian llama. Then I mistakenly tell viewers to gently poach the croquetas instead of frying them. Then I proceed to boil them. Vigorously. In fact, all the water boils out of the pot and the croquetas burn.

I tell viewers to pair their Yankee croquetas with Chilean sopapilla. But instead of making the sopapilla with flour and then frying them, I make them from instant mashed potatoes and try to toast them in a toaster. The toaster bursts into flames and the lights go out for 5 minutes.

Next I remind viewers we're doing a Yankee brunch, and I'll show them how to make a traditional Yankee side stew out of manioc and malabar spinach. For an authentic Yankee beverage, I pour beer over ice and serve it on the rocks.

I show off my authentic Yankee tablescape, which is decorated with Disney character bobble-heads and the kind of coasters one might find in a "gentlemen's club." Instead of dinner forks, place settings feature small garden forks.

Vietnamese viewers rush out to buy my book for further familiarize themselves with Yankee cuisine and tablescapes.

Yeah... it was *that* bad.....

[Andrea Nguyen]

I imagine that if you were to tally up how many times "X-inspired" is used in the food world, that "Asian-inspired" would have the highest frequency of occurrence.

Simon's Yankee-inspired menu may be quite a hit with a certain set . . .

[Steamy Kitchen]

Simon- you are my hero. I love your Yankee inspired brunch. But I think we need some fuzzy dice that hang from the windowsill!

Will you let me know when the next time this episode airs? I'd like to watch and get a good laugh.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Simon, get that video recorder out! I'm not kidding. I like kitsch and btw, just spent a couple of days at Disneyland.

[anh]

lol, Simon! Your description and subsequent parody of Sara Lee's show are hilarious...thanks for the laughs.

[j.fisher]

Wow - how could I have not discovered this place sooner? A friend and I were having this discussion while eating at the very horrible Tu Lan restaurant in San Francisco, where so many people were raving about the food. (The pho was dark and the thit kho was stir fried topped with gravy.) Is it worse when an establishment has foreign cooks getting Vietnamese food wrong or when Vietnamese cooks neglect authenticity? I"m not sure. Kudos to your efforts to provide some transparency to Vietnamese cuisine.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Sorry to hear about the Tu Lan experience. I've not been there.

Bad food is just bad. There's a lot of it and unfortunately, is often a reflection of cooks and restaurant managers with poor taste and judgment about what sells. To borrow a term from our dear President Bush, restaurateurs 'misunderestimate' their diners. They should showcase what they like to eat, not what they think diners want to eat. The sad thing is that over time, bad Vietnamese food may define Vietnamese food in America just like how Chinese food for decades was known as egg foo yung and chop suey. As long as people want it, they'll get it!

As I tell Viet-Americans who complain about the restaurant food, "Just make it yourself at home. You know the quality of your ingredients and your palate. If something goes wrong, you've only got yourself to blame."

[Lili]

I think most people watch Sandra Lee just for comic relief. I liken it to slowing down on the highway to look at a car crash. Bizarrely fascinating to get an up close look at the bad things that happen to perfectly good food. I can hardly wait for her take on Soul Food!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Very good, Lili. Car crash, road kill. I like that. Looks like Simon may have to do a Soul-inspired lunch, in addition to the Yankee brunch.

[Binh]

Hah, Bourdain ripped into her on his rant at Ruhlman's blog:

"SANDRA LEE: Pure evil. This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time. She Must Be Stopped. Her death-dealing can-opening ways will cut a swath of destruction through the world if not contained. I would likely be arrested if I suggested on television that any children watching should promptly go to a wooded area with a gun and harm themselves. What’s the difference between that and Sandra suggesting we fill our mouths with Ritz Crackers, jam a can of Cheez Wiz in after and press hard? None that I can see. This is simply irresponsible programming. Its only possible use might be as a psychological warfare strategy against the resurgent Taliban--or dangerous insurgent groups. A large-racked blonde repeatedly urging Afghans and angry Iraqis to stuff themseles with fatty, processed American foods might be just the weapon we need to win the war on terror."

Link is here: http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2007/02/guest_blogging_.html

[Andrea Nguyen]

Well yeah, plenty of Americans indulge in Ritz Crackers and Cheez Wiz -- which explains why Sandra Lee is like Barbie crossed with Paris Hilton. She's rather useless and is famous for being famous. We revile but are interested in her antics. We wonder if is she out to lunch or in fact, strategically clever?

Bourdain's suggestion of using Sandra Lee to fight terrorism is brilliant. Let's drop her into the mountains of Afghanistan and in no time, she'll have those cloaked men drinking the Cool Aid that so many Americans have had a hard time saying "no" to too.

Someone call Dick Cheney. Our weapon for spreading democracy in the Middle East was under our nose in a bowl of sour cream and onion dip all this time.

[bach]

Not to nit-pick, but if we are going to uphold a mantle of cultural authenticity and respect, we must make no exception: it's Kool Aid.

[Andrea Nguyen]

It's been so long since I've had Kool Aid, I misspelled it. Thanks, Bach!

[Jorgebob]

In the vein of Sandra Lee go to this page:

http://blog.kimvallee.com/archive/2007/08/24/Upcoming-cookbook-titled-Dish-Entertains-by-Trish-Magwood.aspx

I apparently ruffled the feathers of the author of the blog when I pointed out the lame image of the Caucasian woman holding the chopsticks on the cover of the book. I certainly wasn't trying to nitpick, just giving a helpful hint, perhaps a bit too directly. Notice that she attacks my intelligence instead of getting a clue. No respect for another person's culture. This kind of stuff is all over the place in cookbooks, food photos and as mentioned above, on the Food Network. So clueless...

[Andrea Nguyen]

Yowza, Jorgebob -- that is bad styling on the cover of the book. All the stylist and editor needed to do was look at the instructions printed on the paper sleeves of disposable chopsticks. But getting that little cultural tidbit right wasn't a priority. Maybe they thought no one would care, notice, or complain. Asian people are suppose to be quiet, no?

Trish Magwood, the book's author, looks as if she's stabbing at the over-filled take-out box of Chinese food. Granted, "Dish Entertains" is not an Asian cookbook but if the author and her editor expect to be taken seriously, they ought to take care of the details. Instead, they come off as careless.

Asia is on the rise. We're finally hip/in/popular. But are we really?

[k. pham]

I have to confess, i watch the food network which airs cooking shows from Sandra Lee, Giada, Rachel Ray and the likes NOT really for their educatonal nor for their entertainment values but just to contemplate the sexy body with the big boobs of these women. Lol, i am and i sound so bad...female viewers please don't mind me, and male viewers i bet you on all my life savings that you do the same like me, heh?

In my view, these women are very far from being "Chef". They just have a little training in cooking and they are hired by the tv firm to do these cooking shows, at the same time "bày hàng" (vietnamese slang) to lure viewers (like me, for example...)

That is why i think, of all the cooking shows on tv, the ones really worth watching are the ones conducted by truly trained professional chefs such as Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, Martin Yan, Ken Hom, Batali, Nick Stellino, Torres (the famous french pastry chef from New York whom i forgot his first name) who have had many years of apprentice and have worked in renowned establishments or owned their own famed restaurants. Also, I have to mention the incredible super series during the 80s' such as "Great chefs of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans", "Cooking in France", not to forget the past show "Iron Chef" (the original Japanese version and the new one), etc...

The way i see it, cooking Phở using linguini, Mì xào (chinese fried noodles) using spaghetti, Bouillabaisse using cod and tilapia, Osso Bucco using pork hocks, or even hamburgers using ground chicken, will be outright an insult to the cuisine of those countries

[Way Too Bitter]

I'm sorry for what she did on that show; I saw Anthony Bourdain's special on Vietnam and its cuisine, and then I saw Sandra's ABORTION. Bourdain showed so much respect for the food/culture, like he does on all his shows. Miss Lee must have people from the John Birch Society doing her research.

[Chelley]

Dear Simon.
Sandra Lee did, infact, go there. She has a soul food show. You'll enjoy it.

[JJ]

The thing with Sandra Lee is that she just doesn't care. She doesn't care that what she's peddling is crap. Because she gets paid. She's not a chef and she can't cook. She and other hacks at the FN get their recipes written by others. They get their food "styled" by others.

The only thing "Sandra" about her horrible show is the decoration, which ranges from overdone to seizure-inducing eye-sores. But there's more:

Pretty much half of what she says is actually complete lies. When she tells you that her grandma made this or that, it never happened. When she shows you that super-cute little recipe book that her grandma used, it never existed. It's all fabricated.

Crap food and lies. Period. Trust me, I know.

Unfortunately this culture thrives on instant gratification and can't care less about quality.

[Way Too Bitter]

@JJ; I've heard that there are some inconsistencies in her autobio - the book seems to clash with some of her newspaper interviews. Can you tell us what you know about her lies? I'm dying to hear.

[nicerman]

Organic dry cleaning , wedding alteration
save on dry clining alterations
5500 madison ave , sacramento ca 95841
the best !

[Kathy]

I can find the prayer I want. I thank God for this website.ÿ

[joseph]

tO0eec http://djg8Dnw3NxU82k0Skg.com

[car accident lawyer west palm beach]

All I can say is, I wanna eat! thanks for this, maybe i should try some exotic foods. eeww!

-craig