Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Food Network's Top 100? Nah, The Top Ten Will Have To Do.

I was so excited to get my emailed Food Network Newsletter at the end of December. It promised “the full list of 2008’s top 100 recipes”. I wrote about this last year, but unfortunately that actual 2007 list has disappeared from the Food Network’s new brilliant (NOT!) website. This year, that list appears not to exist.

This is what I found:
1.Baked Macaroni and Cheese
2.Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup
3.Lasagna Rolls
4.Who Loves Ya Baby-Back?
5.Old-fashioned meat Loaf-A.K.A "Basic" Meatloaf
6.Red Velvet Cupcakes
7.Chicken Parmesan
8.Sweet and Spicy Coleslaw
9.Crab Cakes
10.Traditional Southern Deviled Eggs

I would have loved to have brought you the entire top 100 recipes of 2008, but YOU try finding it on the Food Network website!!! Where are the other 90 recipes?

I found the top 100 page, which had the top TEN recipes of the year. They separately listed the top TEN chicken recipes, the top TEN desserts, pasta, appetizers, pork and, goodness knows what else, but I could find no general top 100 recipes list. And even on their truncated list, the link doesn’t take you directly to the recipe, it takes TWO clicks to get there. ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve made it easier for you, by linking each one to the recipe page itself.

The top ten are worth noting, but it’s too small a list to look at the larger trends of what folks are searching for. For example, saying that 2 out of ten of the recipes are sweet, 5 are animal protein, 2 are pasta, about 5 could be said to be of Southern origin is interesting but, hardly, definitive given the small sample.

Last year’s top recipe WAS and this year’s IS Macaroni and Cheese. In the 2008 top ten, we have Paula represented 5 times, Alton twice and Giada, Tyler and the Neelys with one recipe each. I would have liked to have known if those numbers continued down the entire top 100 list. But I guess the list is secret. If you can crack the code, please let me know.

Note: Anonymous directed me to this page, which include the top ten recipes in each of ten categories. That's a little better, but it still doesn't show us the overall top 100 recipes, which, undoubtedly, do NOT include an even 10 recipes from each category. It's just not good enough.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Under the Top 100 banner click the Recipes tab and it list 10 recipes each in 10 categories.

Unknown said...

I was going to make the same comment as anonymous, it seems they organized the top 10 of ten categories.

Seriously. The person who designs Food Network's website should seek opportunities elsewhere.

Sue said...

Thanks Anon,
Duly noted and mentioned above.

Anonymous said...

How you even waded that far onto that site is beyond me! I can't stand the new site setup...drives me bonkers.

On a side note, Paula's Red Velvet Cupcakes are awesome!! It's the only recipe I use!

DebCarol said...

Are you saying that none of Ina's recipes made the top ten???????? If so the list isn't worth the internet space its written on.

I'd check it out myself but I've long ago given up on the site (but not on you Sue! as usual great post)

Sue said...

Kristen,
Yes! You're so right.

Hi CITK,
Please tell me if they really ARE that good? Everytime I start to make Red Velvet Cupcakes, I decide to go for fudgy chocolate ones instead. What IS the point of only a teaspoon of cocoa powder? Plus the 200 plus reviews have TONS of issues with that recipe.

DC,
How could I not have noted that??! You're a genius. Leaving Ina out is just one more indication that this list is worthless. Maybe recipes 11 to 100 were mostly hers.

Michelle Rittler said...

The "reorganization" of the Top 100 list doesn't surprise me at all.