Door Knock Dinners

Door Knock Dinners is a program that aired on Food Network in the late 1990s.^{[clarification needed]} The program featured Gordon Elliott taking a guest chef (or himself) into the home of a busy person/household and cooking the family a dinner using only the items they had in their home.

The Door Knock Dinners guest chef list includes the following:

• Paula Deen – her appearance on the show led to her debuting her own show, Paula's Home Cooking, in November 2002.
• Tyler Florence
• Rokusaburo Michiba and Masaharu Morimoto – appeared on the show and prepared dinner for a family in Rye, New York ahead of Morimoto's first Iron Chef battle against Bobby Flay in New York City, which Elliott was the English-speaking MC for. The show adapted many Iron Chef mechanics in honor of them, including graphics and announcers as if the challenge were a Kitchen Stadium battle, and footage from the show was used in the Iron Chef New York Special, including the original Japanese version that aired on Fuji TV.^[1]

Reception

In a negative review, Michael Farkash of The Hollywood Reporter called the show "a disappointing, disjointed presentation", writing, "Better jokes or even more sarcastic gibes are needed to spice up the show."^[2] Rolling Stone reviewer Chris Napolitano thought the show was "the best dinner theater on the tube".^[3] The Associated Press's Lynn Elber found Elliott's performance to be "refreshingly quirky" and praised the program's "homespun sweetness".^[4]