In preparation for the show,the grocery list for "Cook Along" appears on the Food Network Web site and is promoted on the "Cooking Live" shows that run during the rest of the week. This week's "Cook Along" menu was simple, pasta paella and fried green tomatoes. Sara chatted amiably about the pros and cons of ingredients (hot sausage vs. chorizo) and technique (wet-hand vs. dry-hand method of coating food for frying) while fielding questions on how to preserve garlic for long periods of time. The interactive aspect didn't really get going until a phone-in viewer inquired about vegetarian paella. No fish! Sara rose to the challenge and threw out the idea of portabello mushrooms, and with the help of another phone-in viewer who had lived in Spain, later added broad beans, cardoon (a relative of the artichoke) and peas to the list of acceptable meat substitutes.

Phone-in was by far the preferred method of interacting with Sara. I was one of only two nerds who had an e-mail answered. Jim, a self-proclaimed "Future Cooking Guru," sent in the first e-mail and gave me the courage to e-mail Sara at 7:30 PM. I was pleasantly surprised when she picked up her e-mail message about 15 minutes later, live on the air, and reassured me that yes, you could bake fried green tomatoes for lower fat content.

After the show, I checked out the Web site and drilled down through the links on recipes, shows, and finally "Cooking Live" to locate tonight's recipes. They were easily accessible and faithful to the TV show. As a veteran watcher of the PBS cooking shows and an accomplished food site browser on the Web, I found the Food Network and its companion Web site to be an easy, convenient and inexpensive way of expanding my cooking repertoire without investing in the expensive cook books that are offered as companions to the PBS cooking shows. "Cook Along," with its interactive dimension, is especially good for less experienced cooks, and I found myself recommending it to several friends during the week. I can report that the "Cook Along" concept worked really well for me. I had fun watching Sara cook, logging onto the site and sending her e-mail. Only problem is, I didn't have time to cook anything—I had take-out pizza for dinner.

—Barbara Mattson

(Reviewed October 6, 1997)