TV: Dinner: Impossible

I have a new (somewhat) guilty pleasure on the Food Network, DINNER: IMPOSSIBLE.

Chef Robert Irvine and his two sous chefs, amusingly named George and George, have a new challenge in each episode. In one show, for example, they were given $300 to buy food and barbecues from tailgating football fans, after which they had to cook up a feast for the stadium's luxury suite, including finding a way to transport it all from the parking lot.

In this week's episode, which airs again Sunday, May 6th, they visit Colonial Williamsburg, where they have to prepare a multi-course meal in a matter of hours, with only rudimentary training in cooking techniques and tools of the 1700s. We visited Williamsburg in 2003, so my children really enjoyed this episode.

You may not learn any new cooking techniques, but you do get some good insight into the art of cooking improvisation, and it's a fun way to pass half an hour.