MEALS ON DVD: SHOP, WATCH, COOK! - DVD review

This holiday season Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a Food Network series that's designed to make cooking as easy as three simple steps: shop, watch, cook.

With themes and titles never seen before on DVD and recipes from the Food Network stars, the series features specialties from Alton Brown's "Good Eats," Giada De Laurentiis' "Everyday Italian," Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa," Michael Chiarello's "Easy Entertaining," Paula Deen's "Paula's Home Cooking," Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals," and Tyler Florence's "Tyler's Ultimate."

The first round of DVDs offers Food Network fans the "Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner," "Holiday Dinner Party," "Holiday Cookies," "Cozy Comfort Foods," "The Great Bakeoff: Great Dessert Recipes from Paula Deen," "Slow Cookin': Great Slow Cooker Recipes from Paula Deen," "Simple Side Dishes," "Quick Meatloaf Recipes," "Easy Chicken Dinners," "Soul Soothing Soups," "Mac and Cheese Feasts," and "Pastas from Giada."

I received several screeners from the series, and what they all have in common is that they're shot with the same set, style, and production values as the TV show. The only difference is that there are lingering "recipe cards" that pop up on the screen from time-to-time, and each disc has printable versions. So people with kitchen-area computers or laptops will have the advantage here, because you can just pop the disc in and watch it play on your counter while you cook along, pausing when you need to in order to catch up with Food Network host Giada de Laurentiis, whose show "Everyday Italian" airs on Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Tuesday through Friday at 4:30pm Eastern time. If the name sounds familiar, the Foot Network host is the granddaughter of Academy Award-winning movie producer Dino de Laurentiis. But Giada is a star too, earning an Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Host and becoming one of Food Network's most popular celebrity chefs. Giada was trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and subsequently worked at the Ritz Carlton Fine Dining Room and at Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Beverly Hills.

The first thing you notice about the DVDs in this series is the packaging, which reflects the throwaway pricing ($7.99). It's a single cardboard sleeve with a slotted hole near the top so that it can be hung on displays near cash registers at retail stores, including, presumably, grocery stores. To open, you actually tear off the top (in this case, blue) portion, which leaves you with a square package and a faux recipe tab on the right side. You'd think they'd have printed "Pastas from Giada" on this tab and varied the placement so they could be sorted through as in recipe files, but that's not the case.

Open the package and it's a no-frills disc that lists the recipes on the label, as well as the running time (37 minutes).

My first thought was to get on the FoodNetwork.com site and see if there was any overlapping, but if you get to Giada's show and click on the 100 recipes you can download, none of these appear.

You can press "play all" or select a specific recipe. In all cases you get Giada in her kitchen talking every step of the way while she shows you how to make the recipe.

One complete meal is included: Lasagna rolls and Arugula Endive Salad with White Wine Vinaigrette as a side dish and Italian Doughnuts for dessert. Additional dishes are Fried Zucchini, Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables, and Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil. For people who prefer cookbooks with pictures, it's even better seeing how Giada slices her zucchini and hearing her say what will happen if the pieces aren't sliced correctly. And it certainly is helpful to see what a dish like Lasagna Rolls looks like at every step of the way, so you can tell instantly if you're veering off-(main)course. The recipes themselves are delicious and relatively easy to make, so this disc will be a great resource for a low-confidence cook who wants to make something special for a night of entertaining and still stay within their budget and level of kitchen expertise. After watching Giada fry the doughnuts right there in a bowl atop her stove, it removes any doubt as to how you might deep-oil fry your doughnuts.

I'm not the FDA, but I'd have to say that this food-related set passes inspection. And the price is right.

Here are some of the recipes included on other discs:

Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner
Good Eats Roast Turkey
Tart Cranberry Dipping
Southern Cornbread Stuffing
Cornbread
Garlic String Beans
Homemade Apple Sauce
Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes

Elegant Entertaining
Loin of Pork with Fennel
Frisee Salad w/Blue Cheese and Port Wine Vinaigrette
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars w/Streusel Topping
Pea Whipped Potatoes
Ina's Chive Biscuits
Spiked Cider Cocktail

Holiday Cookies
Gingerbread Girls and Boys
Chocolate Filled Hazelnut Cookies
Florentines
Hidden Mint Cookies
Pastura
Fig and Walnut Cookies

Mac and Cheese Feasts
Creamy Macaroni and Cheese
Mac and Cheese with Bacon and Cheese
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Next Day Mac 'n' Cheese Toast
Roasted Tomato Soup
Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

Simple Side Dishes
The Baked Potato
Crunchy Noodle Salad
Cheesy Broccoli Bake
Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Easy Chicken Dinners
Oven-Fried Chicken
Chicken Divan
Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts w/Tomato and Basil
Potatoes w/Peppers and Onions
Green Salad w/Blue Cheese Dressing

Cozy Comfort Foods
Minute Shepherd's Pie
Potato Casserole
Betty's Chocolate Cake

Soul Soothing Soups
Lentil Sausage Soup
Italian Vegetable Soup
Clam Chowder

Quick Meatloaf Recipes
Rachel's Meatloaf
Italian Style Meatloaf
Paula's Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Bacon Green Beans
Pesto Crushed Potatoes
Chocolate Sybil Cake

The Great Bakeoff: Great Dessert Recipes from Paula Deen
The Best Bread Pudding
Orange Brownies
White Chocolate-Coconut Cookies

Slow Cookin': Great Slow Cooker Recipes from Paula Deen
Swiss Steak
Creamy Macaroni and Cheese
Dutch-Oven Peach Cobbler

Food Network is distributed to more than 96 million U.S. households and averages more than seven million Web site users monthly. My guess is that these low-priced samplers will serve as audience-building teasers. If people buy one of these impulsively, they might start watching the show or look for cookbooks the celebrity chef has written. From a public relations and marketing perspective, this line of quick-fix DVDs looks like a stroke of genius. The only problem is that the Brain who dreamed these up didn't think the packaging through. The "tabs" should have been a little larger, the title should have been printed on the tab, and the tabs should have been staggered from title to title so that they can be housed in a box and "read" like recipe cards in an index file. Right now, what do you do with these cardboard sleeves? They'd get lost on the shelves with the rest of your DVDs.

Video:
The picture quality isn't throwaway. Though I can't say it's better quality than the TV broadcasts, it's at least as good. There's just a little grain and fuzziness to contend with, but nothing all that noticeable. But the colors seem true, and for cooking that's the main thing. The mini-shows are presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
No audio is specified, but it appears to be either a Mono that's split or a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Either way, it's mostly dialogue narration, with just a little porno-style music in the case of Giada's disc, as she works on her dishes.

Extras:
There are no bonus features.

Bottom Line:
These Food Network offerings are bargain-priced samplers that give start-to-finish directions on how to prepare dishes that will impress the people your entertaining without putting too much of a dent in your budget or asking you to do things in the kitchen that seem beyond your capabilities. It's not exactly "Cooking for Dummies," but these are hand-holding lessons that give you printable recipes and plenty of visuals, so it's pretty impossible to get it wrong. These are meals in minutes, and the half-hour discs are priced to either throw away after the meal is done, or save it for "left-overs" (and repeat cooking).