Please Come Back, Louis!

The cooking world has blown up.  Food blogs are some of the most profitable blogs out there.  Everybody has gone amateur gourmet.  It’s all about the pretty pictures and the rare ingredients.  It’s very pretty out there in the food world.

‘Twas not always so, amigos.  In the past, when you ate a salad, it was an iceberg salad with bottled dressing.  Hamburger was the most used meat in most houses.  If you mentioned the word “organic” to the average person, they would ask what the hell you were talking about.  And taking pretty pictures of the food you just prepared?  Never done.  Then, the food revolution started in the late 90s and early millennium and people started taking a bit more notice of the beautiful subtleties of food and the way it can be prepared and served.  Now when you eat salad, it could mean any sort of mixture of leafy greens with any number of homemade dressings and vinaigrettes  and chicken breasts have replaced hamburger in meal-wide prominence.

Yet, for many of us, back when this revolution started, we were only able to watch from the sidelines.  While people were going on and on about homemade gourmet, there were those of us whose budgets prevented us from even dreaming of having steak more than once a year.  We watched Food Network on our televisions, drooling over the food being prepared all the while glaring at our warmed up bowl of canned soup.  It was the best of times, but for some of us, it plain sucked.

Then Starvin’ With Louis came along.  In about 2005, a web show featuring an average guy making interesting meals out of cheap ingredients (RAMEN NOODLES, PEOPLE) blew up on the internet.  I was there from the beginning.  I watched every episode.  It was funny.  It was gritty.  It was some big dude making food and feeding it to his roommates who acted like they’d lost a dare by having to eat the food.  In the end, though, the food was enjoyed by the guinea pigs and Louis, the cook, was hailed as a culinary genius to the budget-strapped masses.

I loved it.  Loved every single episode.  I still do.  Every few months I dig up some of the episodes and watch them and get a good giggle.  Yes, I still watch.  Do you know what sucks about that?  Nobody else seems to be shooting any love at this gang of Boston film makers.  No sponsors.  No fans (I’m one of only 18 followers on their Twitter page, which never tweets).  Their videos are all up on YouTube, but are hard to find in any sort of organized way and the loading of each video can be sketchy.  They have a now defunct blog, and sometimes one of the crew members has a webpage with all of the videos and more information…but those get shut down all the freaking time.  There’s never a reliable and constant source anymore…and I can’t understand that.  This show was featured as one of the 10 Best Podcasts in 2005 by Wired Magazine.  How is this allowed to happen?  Do you have any idea how big it is to be recognized by Wired Magazine??

It is my understanding that things just sort of lost steam with the show.  Ideas were running thin, data was lost, sponsorship was not consistent, and these guys had to pay the bills.  I understand.  But why the lack of archives?  Why the lack of fans?  Why not make one episode a year just to make sure people remember?  We need someone like Louis again!  We need someone to remind us that these terrible ingredients can be used in more imaginative ways and that drinking beer while cooking is a good thing!

This post is sort of my half-assed attempt to plead with Louis Scheele and Mike Pecci to please show that little web show a little bit of love.  If hosting is a problem, CONTACT ME and maybe I can help you (seriously, my husband works in this field and he knows his stuff!).  Time and money can’t be so constraining that you can’t at least throw up the old videos in a place better than effing YouTube.  Ramen and hotdogs are still cheap!  Generic SPAM is still cheap!  Asian chili sauce will still make your roommates twist in agony!

Here is the very first episode of the show.  It’s a classic.

Part 1

Part 2

Since I am putting this post on the internet, I thought it appropriate to really show my fandom but actually MAKING a Lou dish.  Up until this weekend, I’ve only watched the shows and had never made a recipe.

I made Ramen Hotdog Chop Suey.  My husband and I stared into the wok while I was making it, always keeping in mind that we could always have PB&J if this didn’t work out.  But as the dish came to a finish (it didn’t take long at all to make) it started smelling really good.  I served it up and took my first bite.

“Holy crap,” I said.  “It’s kinda good!”

And it was.  It’s not gourmet and I don’t think I’d pay to eat it in a restaurant, but it was still pretty good!  Of course I didn’t use Pabst Blue Ribbon beer (see previous post about crappy beer.  I used Yuengling), and I used a better quality hotdog simply because those are what I always have in the house, but it was a very neat and tasty dish.

I strongly urge you to check these episodes out for yourself.  I might do a few more posts to show that I am a Starvin’ With Louis fangirl.  And to keep your attention on the subject.

Enjoy!

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