The Reason People Are Criticizing Joanna Gaines' New Cooking Show

Joanna Gaines may seem like a woman on top of the world. She and her hubby parlayed a house-flipping gig into reality TV stardom, with subsequent fame and fortune culminating in their own Magnolia empire of restaurants, boutiques, a hotel, magazine, and even a TV network. Is there anything this lifestyle guru can't do?

Well, yes. Unlike Martha Stewart and The Pioneer Woman, fellow domestic divas-slash-household names, Gaines evidently isn't much of a cook. She can run restaurants, yes (though we suspect she has people to take care of the day-to-day drudgery), but actually prepare food herself? Well, according to her new TV show, which goes by the not entirely unpredictable name of Magnolia Table, her culinary skills aren't exactly ready for prime time. Even Gaines herself admits in the trailer she posted on Instagram, "If you're looking to learn how to cut things, this is not the show for you." The Wrap also notes Gaines' decidedly subpar lemon-zesting technique, although they thought her bumbling was "adorable." Over on Reddit, however, those who watched the same thing didn't seem to find it nearly as charming.

The Food Network subreddit had a lively discussion of Magnolia Table. Although the show's airing on Discovery+ (The Wrap explains that the Magnolia Network's streaming service has yet to launch), FN did air a preview. According to the OP, an admitted fan of Gaines as designer, the show just "sucks," and all but a handful of the 46 comments agreed.

One commenter, obviously fed up with Food Network recipes calling for long lists of exotic ingredients, admitted to being pleased that Gaines kept it simple, saying "First time I actually had everything or nearly everything to make a dish on hand." Others, however, decried the show as a "vanity project," and a "money grab" meant to promote Gaines' Hearth & Hand line at Target. For the most part, few found Gaines' incompetence to be as cute as she may have intended. It seems most commenters want to watch people who've actually got kitchen skills, go figure. One Redditor summed up Gaines' amateurish attempts as "like watching my funny, quirky rich aunt cook. Might be fun a few times for laughs, but I'm not gonna learn how to cook."

Are you planning on watching the show? It may be entertaining and it may be reassuring to see the all-knowing Gaines making mistakes, but the one thing it apparently won't be is educational — unless, of course, you're looking for a tutorial on how NOT to cook