I'm gonna come right out and say it: I don't cook well. I have trouble following directions even on a box of rice, I’m impatient, and I’m messy. It’s like putting a kindergartener in the kitchen. Pretty much the only things I can make that don’t include directions are spaghetti, grilled cheese, or scrambled eggs. But I like food. I like eating it, I like smelling my mom cooking it in the kitchen. I wish I could become a better chef but I have shelved that hope (at least until I’m all grown up and mom isn’t making my meals anymore). This is why I watch cooking shows. I am cooking vicariously through them!
Over the past several years reality shows have gained tremendous popularity. It started with shows like The Real World, Road Rules, Big Brother, and Survivor; shows that throw a group of strangers together, give them challenges, and then broadcast the results for our entertainment. But now we have every kind of reality show from cake baking challenges on Ace of Cakes on The Food Network to The Deadliest Catch on Discovery. We are able to view the lives of groups of people that we will never be, never want to be, or only wish to become.
Two major cooking reality shows are Hell’s Kitchen on Fox and Top Chef on Bravo. Hell’s Kitchen stars Gordon Ramsay, an award winning Scottish chef. The premise is simple: while the group of contestants is small they compete in two teams: red and blue. When the group is small enough they compete individually but while on the same team. When it is down to the last two, each person is given their own restaurant. Then the winner is chosen. The winner is awarded the title of top chef of a restaurant. I have only seen this show a couple times but let me say that Gordon Ramsay is a very intense man. He has no qualms about cussing out the contestants even using the phrase “fuck off” when he eliminated one. He takes his craft very seriously and flips out when things are not done to his standards. It makes for pretty entertaining television:
Hell is the right word for it.
I find this one hard to follow simply because it is usually the same every week: the contestants suck, Ramsay yells, then he reluctantly chooses a winner.
Top Chef stars Padma Lakshmi (cookbook writer, actress, model), Gail Simmons (food critic, Food & Wine magazine), Tom Collicchio (chef), and Ted Allen (wine connoisseur, was on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) as judges. The premise is equally simple: there is a “quickfire” challenge in which a person is chosen to be “immune” from elimination. Then there is an elimination challenge in which there is a winner and (shock!) a loser who is eliminated. When three contestants are remaining the show has a final challenge, usually taking place in at a big event in a special location. This show is one of my favorites because of the elaborate, artistic ways in which the food is prepared and served. They prove that cooking can be a real art form and it just makes me want to go raid a whole foods and go to town in the kitchen!
This clip has no cooking in it but it’s still entertaining.
To me, shows like this have real value because our world today is run by McDonald’s and frozen dinners. That is not real food. I like seeing everything freshly prepared by people who love preparing it :)
Go check them out:
http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/4/index.php
http://fox.com/hellskitchen/
Over the past several years reality shows have gained tremendous popularity. It started with shows like The Real World, Road Rules, Big Brother, and Survivor; shows that throw a group of strangers together, give them challenges, and then broadcast the results for our entertainment. But now we have every kind of reality show from cake baking challenges on Ace of Cakes on The Food Network to The Deadliest Catch on Discovery. We are able to view the lives of groups of people that we will never be, never want to be, or only wish to become.
Two major cooking reality shows are Hell’s Kitchen on Fox and Top Chef on Bravo. Hell’s Kitchen stars Gordon Ramsay, an award winning Scottish chef. The premise is simple: while the group of contestants is small they compete in two teams: red and blue. When the group is small enough they compete individually but while on the same team. When it is down to the last two, each person is given their own restaurant. Then the winner is chosen. The winner is awarded the title of top chef of a restaurant. I have only seen this show a couple times but let me say that Gordon Ramsay is a very intense man. He has no qualms about cussing out the contestants even using the phrase “fuck off” when he eliminated one. He takes his craft very seriously and flips out when things are not done to his standards. It makes for pretty entertaining television:
Hell is the right word for it.
I find this one hard to follow simply because it is usually the same every week: the contestants suck, Ramsay yells, then he reluctantly chooses a winner.
Top Chef stars Padma Lakshmi (cookbook writer, actress, model), Gail Simmons (food critic, Food & Wine magazine), Tom Collicchio (chef), and Ted Allen (wine connoisseur, was on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) as judges. The premise is equally simple: there is a “quickfire” challenge in which a person is chosen to be “immune” from elimination. Then there is an elimination challenge in which there is a winner and (shock!) a loser who is eliminated. When three contestants are remaining the show has a final challenge, usually taking place in at a big event in a special location. This show is one of my favorites because of the elaborate, artistic ways in which the food is prepared and served. They prove that cooking can be a real art form and it just makes me want to go raid a whole foods and go to town in the kitchen!
This clip has no cooking in it but it’s still entertaining.
To me, shows like this have real value because our world today is run by McDonald’s and frozen dinners. That is not real food. I like seeing everything freshly prepared by people who love preparing it :)
Go check them out:
http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/4/index.php
http://fox.com/hellskitchen/
2 comments:
I have to admit I am a fanatic of Reality TV shows!! I especially love Hells Kitchen because not only is it entertaining, but also it is some what of what a new chef goes through when begining in the field. Chef Ramsay yells a great deal but really he only wants the best for these new commers; tough love! If these indiviuals overcome this "torture" then they are ready to be leaders and not always followers. Then entertainment world has opened its doors to the food world and I hope some can appriciate what all the dishwashers, preps, cooks and chefs in this world do for us diners.
These shows are really entertaining, but they really focus on the drama between the contestants and not the cooking, right? If you want to learn how to cook, maybe you should check out more instructional shows! - Albert
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