So I thought today I’d talk to you about something I don’t really talk about a lot here, because it isn’t exactly on topic: cooking competition shows.
Sometimes it’s hard for our family to decide what we want to watch – personally I am very into classic movies, but that’s something my son doesn’t enjoy… likewise, I love true crime television… but my son doesn’t like that either. My husband doesn’t like comedies, and I’m not really interested in “action” type television or movies. My daughter is easy to please – she will watch lots of different types of shows. When we all get together, there is one thing we all tend to agree with: cooking competitions.
The show we probably watch the most (and enjoy the most) is Chopped. In Chopped, the theme is that contestants have to cook a dish using 4 secret ingredients – usually strange ingredients that generally wouldn’t be used together. The biggest draw here is the host and judges – they’ve been working together long enough now that they have an effortless interaction that makes watching the show very enjoyable. A lot of the time it seems like they are actually friends off-camera, in real life. However, even if they aren’t friends, they at least seem like very good “work friends”. I suppose it isn’t a surprise that we’ve come to know the hosts pretty well – according to Wikipedia, there have been over 300 episodes of Chopped released since its debut in 2009! Yikes, that’s a lot – and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that my family has seen all of them except a few of the more recent still on our recording device!
We also like Food Network Star (formerly The Next Food Network Star) for almost entirely opposite reasons… this is a show where promising hopefuls audition to get a show on the Food Network. Here you get to know and learn about the people who might be the next up-and-coming “star” on the Food Network. While many of the careers of these “stars” haven’t really taken off, it serves as a really interesting launching off point for the winners.
Finally, while we’ve watched our share of MasterChef, I personally have a particular soft spot for MasterChef Junior… as you might guess from the name, a cooking competition for children between the ages of 8 and 13. I’m not a great cook, so it’s absolutely amazing to see the sort of complicated and demanding dishes that these children are able to put together, and the obvious delight that even hardened Gordon Ramsey has when interacting with them is fun to see.
So, does anyone else share my enjoyment of cooking shows? If so, which do you particularly enjoy?
Mary Grace says
I enjoy watching the ones you mentioned, but my favorite is Top Chef on Bravo. Most of the chefs already have their own restaurant, so a lot of talent is displayed. Each year there is a different host city. This year it’s Seattle. Most of the challenges have something to do with the city. It’s fun to watch.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Mary Grace, we used to watch Top Chef, too – until we felt like Tom disregarded the votes of the other judges, and started choosing the winners on his own. The year he totally ignored Emeril Lagasse’s opinion about one of the semi-finalists was the final straw for us…
Ingrid says
I love watching cooking/baking shows because I’ve been a “foodie” since childhood when my parents introduced me to a lot of international dishes. I really enjoy shows involving children because they are not only extremely savvy and competitive, but also very supportive of one another. I favor shows where I learn about foods, cuisines and techniques. Top Chef and Chopped are two I like. I still watch Food Network Star but enjoy it less since it’s become more about personalities and visiting restaurants than actual cooking.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Ingrid, I’m with you. I especially enjoy the shows with children. They leave me in awe about their abilities. But, I especially like the way they tend to help each other. I wish I could see more of that happening in the shows that feature adult chefs!
Kevin says
My favorite cooking competition is the second one I watched, The Great British Bake Off, I found it on the internet after watching with interest The Great American Bake Off which was an unsuccessful spin off on the popular British show. Since dipping my foot in cooking competitions the next best thing to GBBO are the Irish and Australian versions of the show I’ve been lucky enough to find online. The hosts of the show are gracious as well as critical. The contestants actually help each other out and never never trash talk their competition.
My next favorite is the Junior Masterchef for most of the same reasons.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Kevin, the British, Irish and Australian shows sound like ones I should check out.
Mary H says
I also like all those cooking competitions plus the Great American Cookoff Shows and the British show too.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Mary H, it sounds like you are not alone in enjoying those two shows!
Debra says
I totally agree with you. When there is nothing else to watch, Food Network, Cooking Channel, PBS and HGTV are the channels I go to.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Debra, I’d hate to count up all the hours I have spent watching those channels.
joQ says
Ah, cooking shows. I was obsessed with the original Iron Chef, in the mists of television antiquity. I don’t mean the American iterations, but the ORIGINAL.
I used to assist a university club with subtitling various materials in exchange for proxy university library access (I was well under uni age), and Japanese is one of my colloquial languages. I had never seen anything like it! It may have been the show that started the whole genre, as far as I know. It was so much fun to watch! The announcer severely tested my linguistic skills, though. So rapid-fire, and so much specialist terminology! Most of the things I translated didn’t require the use of a dictionary very often, but that program sure did!
I’ve tried other cooking competition shows, but none I’ve seen could really compare to that one for me. I’ll have to try this Chopped you mentioned, though. It sounds promising!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
joQ, you must have pretty impressive Japanese language skills if you could translate such a specialized show. I know that when Alton Brown announced the American version, he talked pretty fast and seemed so knowledgeable about all the ingredients and techniques.
Bess says
Best ever is The Great British Bakeoff. I LOVE that show and especially Mary Berry!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Bess, it looks like there are a lot of fans of that show who have commented on this blog!
Joppy says
Here in the UK we have a great selection of cookery programmes. The most popular is The Great British Bake-off, on BBC. A knockout competition over about ten weeks. I believe it tried out in the US but wasn’t too successful.
Currently we have a pottery programme, The Great British Throwdown, which is interesting, as the competitors never know if their work is successful until it comes out of the kiln; and Portrait Artist of the Year, where artists produce portraits of various celebrities using their own individual styles and mediums (one, this week, used parcel tape cut in minute pieces).
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Joppy, both the pottery and the portrait competitions sound good! I will try finding them.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Also, we have a show that sounds like it’s sort of like your pottery show. (“Ellen’s Design Challenge”) We watch that one when it’s on, but unfortunately the seasons are pretty short.
Lisa Sipe says
Joppy, the US is trying again with The Great American Baking Show. Of course I watched the entire season but it just doesn’t have the same charm as the UK version – even with Mary Berry! Plus, get this, we have to wait until June to see series 7. I don’t want to wait!
Thanks for mentioning the Great British Throwdown, I’ll be binge watching this weekend if I can find it!
Melissa says
I like the cooking shows too! =)
There was a “Bake-Off” show on ABC recently…that I really enjoyed!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Melissa, I’d have to say that the holiday bake-offs and the kid’s bake-offs are among my favorites >> for some reason my husband doesn’t enjoy them as much as me so I watch them alone.
Lori says
Hi Danna,
My husband seems to enjoy many of the cooking shows, I don’t know if he even has a favorite one. I really used to like 2 but haven’t really been able to follow them from the beginning, and then try, but would miss too many. And those 2 are 1) The worst cooks in America, and 2) like you, I like The formally Next Food Network Star. Or something like that. My memory is bad. One of the reasons I have trouble following shows.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Lori, I’m glad you enjoy them.
Sheridan says
My husband and I always agree on watching Master Chief Jr. The kids are so talented and the chefs are so kind. Have you watched Project Runway Junior? The contestants are teens. Their creativity and creations are imaginative and beautiful. I do not like shows where judges are not nice to the contestants. I do not even try watching comedies any more because so many have not represented caring respectful behavior towards others and I end up feeling sad.
Usually I like dramas like Genius, mysteries and crime shows.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Sheridan, I really like the Kids Baking Championship with Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli as judges. They are so good with the kids!
Meggie says
Hello,
I like the same shows but I also like the
Chopped Junior and the Kids Baking contests.
These children are, to me, amazing in their skills.
Meggie
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Meggie, I find myself watching Chopped Junior a lot recently too. And, I love the Kids Baking shows with Duff and Valerie as judges.
Cindy says
I like Chopped also. I’m also keeping up with Worst Cooks, Kids Baking Championship. Don’t watch real regularly but enjoy Cake Wars. The things they do with cakes is amazing.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Cindy, I make sure to watch the Halloween and Christmas Cake Wars shows. It is simply amazing what the cake artists can do, and besides getting a real kick out of the host, I like the two permanent judges a lot.
Alison says
My favorite cooking show is The Great British Bake Off.
Love the respect and affection the contestants have for one another, as well as the judges and, of course, their creations. Not quite the same when they tried to do it in America.
Also mostly like Master Chef Junior though some of those kids can be too cocky, but judges very kind to them, unusual for Ramsey.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Alison, I agree about some of the smart aleck children. I’m guessing their parents have coached them to “stand out” and be “cute”. Big mistake!
Petie says
My favorite is Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives with Guy Fieri. Watched him for years. And Katie has me hooked on Carnival Eats (I believe that’s the name). Totally different and pretty cute. Also Pioneer Woman & Trisha Yearwood’s cooking programs. That about covers it for me!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Petie, I have never heard of Carnival Eats. While I don’t watch Trisha Yearwood’s cooking show, I made sure to tape (and watch) the one with Garth Brooks…
Petie says
If you watched The Good Witch series on Hallmark Channel the guy that was the deputy goes to various fairs and carnivals and samples all sorts of ‘fat food’. It’s fun if for nothing else but to see him !!!
Susan* says
I’ve never really been a fan, but I have a friend who’s addicted! We don’t have Chopped, but we do have an Aussie version of Masterchef, as well as others. The top-ranking one over here is called My Kitchen Rules (MKR) and from the sound of it, it’s similar to your ‘Food Network Star’. The winners get their own restaurant, rather than their own show, though. (Like yours, a lot of them go nowhere, once the show is done.)
MKR pits teams of two against each other. The teams are from different states and they play up the state rivalries.
Personally, I blame the proliferation of these things on the Japanese, and their ‘Iron Chef’. 🙂 If you haven’t seen that one, Danna, I recommend at least taking a look. It’s quite a show!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Susan*, my son’s college roommate watched the Japanese version of Iron Chef, which is how we first got introduced to these “foodie” shows…
KG says
I have been watching Cooks vs. Cons on the Food Network and enjoy trying to guess who are the real chefs. I secretly cheer on the cons.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
KG, I enjoy the show, too. (I secretly cheer for the person who seems to need the money the most. I am always a little disappointed when, say, a doctor or lawyer wins $15,000 rather than a person who talks about how they need the money.)
Mary says
We watch them all. Also like Top Chef.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Mary, it looks like lots of us are enjoying these shows!
Patti says
Oh, Danna, it’s so nice to know that my husband and I aren’t the only ones addicted to cooking competition shows. We started when my mom lived with us for the last 9 years of her life. Bob and I gave up watching our favorite “scripted” TV shows because my mom couldn’t keep up with what was going on–and let’s face it, her 90-year-old sensibilities didn’t quite mesh with 21st century TV-gone-wild. She’s been gone for almost 4 years now, but Bob and I continue to watch Food Network more than anything else.
Tonight, a friend told me about Master Chef Junior so Bob and I watched the first episode of the new season. Those kids are incredible! I’d heard so much talk about Gordon Ramsey being mean, but he was a doll with those children. We’re also HUGE fans of Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli’s kids baking shows. Give us the kids any day! We watch Cake Wars religiously–although I much preferred the original version “Cake Championship” where the contestants had 8 hours instead of 4 to create magnificent cakes. We also enjoy Next Food Network Star, although Guy Fierri is the only winner to ever really become a STAR. Like you, Danna, I think I’ve seen most every episode of Chopped. Then there’s Worst Cooks, all the celebrity competitions, and, well, too many to mention.
I never saw the Japanese version of Iron Chef, but miss the American version. Oh, we also watch Beat Bobby Flay!
Hope I can find the British baking show everyone’s been talking about. Sounds great!
Patti
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Patti, I agree with you about how amazing it is that children can manage so much – and I sure wish I could get my family to agree, as these are unfortunately the only type of cooking show I really regularly need to watch alone. That said, it is good to have a series or two to watch when no one else is around and I need a quick entertainment break.
I’ve seen Gordon Ramsey on a lot of different shows, and he’s MUCH different around children. So much nicer! I have to admit, it does make shows more pleasant when he isn’t always yelling at people.
Lori says
Well, Danna, and everyone (other than me) that commented, thank you all! You given me some interesting shows to try! Thank you so very much. Especially since I can’t do much, I’m recovering from a broken ankle (surgery on it) and then a sprain recently. Yep, same ankle. I think maybe I’ll try the kids cooking show- the one with Duff Goldman, he used to have a show of his own, right? A cake show maybe? And I’ve always liked Valerie Sheesh can’t spell her last name.. and MKR sounds good. If I can get my hubby, or I can try to find it. Wow very cool people, thank you.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Lori, sorry to hear about your ankle! I know recovering from that sort of thing can be very tedious as you look for things you can do stationary.
Suzanne says
I enjoy the ones you mentioned but my favorites are the Great British Baking Show and The Great American Baking Show. I know it is all baking by amateurs and that is the fun of it. Seeing what home bakers can do. Also since the shows are only on once or twice a year it seems to make them extra special. I just wish I could find ovens in the states like they have in Brittan where the door slides into the bottom of the oven. Such a good idea.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Suzanne, I know what you mean about watching amateurs. I’m always amazed by how much normal people can get done in a tight time crunch – I know I’d never be able to accomplish half as much!
Mary Grace says
Yesterday I mentioned Top Chef is based in Seattle this season. Another episode was on last night and it’s in Charleston. I don’t know where my mind was. The Great British Baking Show is a favorite, too.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Mary Grace, well, sometimes I do the same thing! Seattle has all of the letters (minus one “t”) that Charleston has. (That’s how my mind works sometimes…)
Mary Grace says
Thanks, Danna. I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Lisa Sipe says
I think Top Chef and the Great British Baking Show are my favorites but I’ll watch Chopped, MasterChef and Food Network Star any day! My family had our own Chopped competition one Christmas and we had so much fun it inspired my husband and I to build a cooking competition app. We named it FoodFu (like Kung Fu but with food). We hope it brings friends and families together to create yummy food and great memories (it’s free in the app store).
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Lisa, that certainly does sound interesting – unfortunately I don’t do enough cooking these days to really appreciate that sort of thing, but I might still take a look!
Patsy says
I love the cooking competition shows and watch just about all of them that are available in my area, except Top Chef and Hells Kitchen. Right now I am watching the one with the kids and Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli. Worst Cooks in America with Anne Burelll and Rachel Raye is another favorite (they are so good together.. like Rachel better than any of the previous co-hosts of this show). Found one the other day that I hadn’t seen before with Allison Sweeny… Kids Sweet something-or-other. Apparently it was not a series, but just a one episode special. The winning child got $10,000. Chopped, Cutthroat, and Triple G are all shows I watch, but only when they are doing a tournament of some sort.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Patsy, I think I missed the one episode special with Allison Sweeny you mentioned – I must have missed it in advertising. Thanks for pointing it out, maybe I can hit it on a rerun at some point.
Linda Cooper says
Danna, I like the cooking shows contest ,too. But I just don’t think the contestants in the shows are allowed enough time to produce a good product. I watched quite a lot of the Christmas shows and the people just didn’t get enough time to allow for mistakes. Any good cook knows mistakes WILL happen. That is just Murphy’s law. That’s reality. In a Reality show time for those mistakes should be allowed. I would hate to go into an eatery and have to eat some of the stuff these people had to hurry up and cook without having time to correct their mistakes.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Linda, that’s a good point – especially on some shows like Chopped, our family agrees that 20 minutes just isn’t enough time more often than not. I know that a big part of the show is working quickly under pressure, but some tasks are just unreasonable.
Petie says
You know, I don’t know where my head was but I didn’t realize until this morning that this was about competitive cooking shows …. had a blonde moment I guess !!! Got to running my head about my favorite food programs and never gave it a second thought. Sorry about that …..
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Petie, not a blonde moment! (I still haven’t checked out Carnival Eats, though.)
Angela says
Cooking shows are the number one go to for my daughter and I when we can’t find anything good on TV. My daughter is 8 and she loves the cooking shows! We especially like the dessert ones like the “showdown” shows (doughnuts, sugar, cupcakes etc.) Cupcake Wars and the Baking Championship Shows. She especially loves the junior versions. Sometimes we can even get my 13 year old son to watch with us! It’s so funny that TV cooking shows would be something that we all enjoy and can bond over but they provide a nice break from non-kid friendly prime time and Disney channel shows!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Angela, where did the days go that we could watch a show at 8:00 PM with our young children and not have to worry about it? (à la Andy Griffith, Bewitched, Green Acres…)