{{{misanthropy central}}}: Feud Wars!!!

When the Travel Channel's "Food Wars" debuted earlier this year, it appeared to be a way to re-profile regional foodie feuds that the Travel Channel's own "Man vs. Food" had already covered. Albeit with a hottie host in the form of tomboy push-up-champ hardbody Camille Ford. A new hit was born.

Last week, I stumbled upon a new pilot on The Food Network called "Food Feuds", with chef Michael Symon as a host.

"Food Feuds" with Michael Symon
has the EXACT SAME PREMISE as
"Food Wars" with Camille Ford.
What's worse, Symon's Feuds pilot features one rivalry that Wars has already covered (the Chicago Italian-beef sandwich war between Al's #1 Italian Beef and Mr. Beef) and another rivalry that Wars is scheduled to cover (the Detroit hot dog war between American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island). [It should also be noted that "Man vs. Food" has already covered both rivalries—exactly how much food pornography do we really need???]

A quick search online yielded very few articles on this peculiar blunder.

Stuart from WannabeTVchef.com wrote about it HERE.

Greg Morabito from Eater.com wrote about it HERE.

The dearth of online coverage and the fact that the Food Network hasn't created a page for the show on their website indicates that Chef Symon's "Food Feuds" may just be a stand-alone pilot that will not progress into a series. (I'm hoping it won't.)

The appeal of the shows, theoretically, is seeing these long-time food rivalries settled "once and for all" by some definitive contest.

In Camille Ford's Wars, it's settled by a blindfolded taste test with a panel of judges representing both sides

In Michael Symon's Feuds, it's settled by Chef Symon himself. He hits TWO rivalries in the pilot:

For the Italian-beef sammich war, he passed his judgment without a blindfold, offering unique praise to each sammich before arbitrarily granting the win to Al's Beef just because it was around longer. (In Ford's Wars, Mr. Beef won. So much for settling things once and for all!) For the hot dog war, Symon passed his judgment based on a blindfolded taste test. (He chose American as the winner.)

MY VERDICT:
Feuds offers the same premise as Wars with a far more dubious judging method and far less eye candy in its host.

I mainly watch these kinds of shows to watch people stuffing their fool faces with food I may never get to try. (The secondary appeal is watching TV crushes eat food.)

That said, "FOOD WARS" with Camille Ford wins.

Camille—sweet, sweet girlfriendable Camille—is like the way hotter younger cousin of Rachael Ray. Her just-one-of-the-guys routine fits well with the sport-rivalry premise of the show. The show's ultimately just another way to re- profile food spots that a growing number of other shows have already thoroughly profiled... but whaddaya gonna do? It's food television. And Chef Symon's not bringing any advantages to the formula here. (Now get back inna kitchen and fry me some brussell sprouts, Symon!!!)

Here are some more pictures of Camille Ford because it's my blog and I do whatever I want with it: