The Cooking Competitions - Do You Watch?

[Foxfyre]

Some of us enjoy the cooking competitions that have exploded on television in recent years because they do attract a certain audience.

The flag ship of course is the infamous "Hell's Kitchen" with Gordon Ramsay who also helps host "Master Chef". And "The Taste" has attracted a pretty substantial following in its first two seasons. On the Food Network Channel there is a plethora of offerings from "Chopped" to "The Next Iron Chef" to "The Great Food Truck Race" to "Guy and Rachel's Celebrity Cookoff' and, one of my personal favorites, "Worst Cooks in America" that will be premiering this season within the week. And there are others I have left out but should not be excluded from this discussion.

So are you a cooking competition fan?

 

[Foxfyre]

I notice the next season of Hell's Kitchen is being advertised. Will look up the date it starts up again.

 

[tinydancer]

One of the few things I have missed about living without television has been cooking shows.

My favorite competition show was the one and the only original Iron Chef. It was awesome. I could never handle the "live ingredient" battles but heck those ones even had my husband and son screaming things like "OMG the eels are getting out of the pot".

 

[Foxfyre]

Well I commend you for living without television TD, assuming that it is voluntary. There was a time I could easily have done that, but in my senior years when so many other activities are no longer a good option for me, I do enjoy my TV.

 

[Sherry]

Ok, this is one area that I'm not monogamous.

Hell's Kitchen
Master Chef
The Next Food Network Star
The Worst Cooks in America
Celebrity Cook-Off
The Next Iron Chef

There are others that I watch occasionally like Throwdown, Iron Chef and Chopped...I miss Dinner Impossible with Robert Irvine.

 

[The Professor]

Ok, this is one area that I'm not monogamous.

Hell's Kitchen
Master Chef
The Next Food Network Star
The Worst Cooks in America
Celebrity Cook-Off
The Next Iron Chef

There are others that I watch occasionally like Throwdown, Iron Chef and Chopped...I miss Dinner Impossible with Robert Irvine.

Great list. I would add: Sweet Genius, Chopped and Cupcake Wars

 

[Jughead]

I do enjoy watching cooking shows. My all time favorite show was Emeril Live. I really miss that show. He was an outstanding cook, and a great kidder. I'll never forget his trademark phrases, "pork fat rules" or "I can't wait till we get Smell-o-Vision so you can smell this at home!"

I also enjoy The Iron Chef, Giada at Home, and Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. Not much a fan of Gordon Ramsey (Hell's Kitchen) as he has a habit of using foul language.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, another show that I liked that's also off the air now is Molto Mario.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

The wife love Dinners Drive Ins and Dives.
I'll watch with her on occasion but it drives me nuts.
I'll be just fine until she turns it on .....five minutes into it i'm freaking starving.
It does make me want to travel the US in a motor home and hit all the restaurants he features.

 

[RoadVirus]

Iron Chef America
Food Network's "Challenge" (i prefer cake and sugar sculptures ones...the designers are artists)

 

[Foxfyre]

I had forgotten about The Next Food Network Star. That is an intriguing program. And Sweet Genius. And I watch Cupcake Wars every once in awhile. Really enjoy the Halloween Wars when they teams have to use cake, candy, and pumpkins to create an amazing Halloween display.

Some of the others mentioned, like Diners. . . .aren't competition shows, but they are popular and I have no problem with them being discussed here.

 

[Sherry]

I had forgotten about The Next Food Network Star. That is an intriguing program. And Sweet Genius. And I watch Cupcake Wars every once in awhile. Really enjoy the Halloween Wars when they teams have to use cake, candy, and pumpkins to create an amazing Halloween display.

Some of the others mentioned, like Diners. . . .aren't competition shows, but they are popular and I have no problem with them being discussed here.

As a native Chicagoan, I'm a fan of Sandwich King. I still like Guy, but that dude has really become oversaturated in my opinion.

 

[Lumpy 1]

I'm a recovering "Cook Competition" oholic...

I slip one in every so often but now "Storage Wars", "Pawn Shop" and "Duck Dynasty" are rotting my brain..

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I saw one weird show with Alton Brown where they have to use ingredients like: Candy corn, water chestnuts, beef jerky and tobacco leaves

 

[Harry Dresden]

my wife watches "Americas test Kitchen"and "Pioneer Woman" whenever they come on.....i like the one where Dracula shows you some of his favorite Slurpee's...

 

[Harry Dresden]

I saw one weird show with Alton Brown where they have to use ingredients like: Candy corn, water chestnuts, beef jerky and tobacco leaves

i think he was showing you how to clean the oven Frank....and he was chewing Jerky while he did it....

 

[Foxfyre]

I'm a recovering "Cook Competition" oholic...

I slip one in every so often but now "Storage Wars", "Pawn Shop" and "Duck Dynasty" are rotting my brain..

LOL, I was thinking about starting a thread for the social competition shows--Bachelor/Bachelorette, Big Brother, Bachelor Pad etc.

I guess we need one for the non-competition reality shows--Duck Dynasty, Wicked Tuna, Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch, Storage Wars, Pawn Shop etc.

 

[Shaitra]

I love to watch cooking competition shows. It amazes me how they can come up with dishes in such a short amount of time. My favorites include:
Hell's Kitchen
Top Chef
Master Chef
The Next Iron Chef
The Next Food Network Star

Does anyone watch Cutthroat Kitchen? The commercials/previews always make the show seem like something I would enjoy, but when I watch the actual show, I find it a bit boring.

 

[Foxfyre]

I love to watch cooking competition shows. It amazes me how they can come up with dishes in such a short amount of time. My favorites include:
Hell's Kitchen
Top Chef
Master Chef
The Next Iron Chef
The Next Food Network Star

Does anyone watch Cutthroat Kitchen? The commercials/previews always make the show seem like something I would enjoy, but when I watch the actual show, I find it a bit boring.

I usually record Cutthroat Kitchen and watch it to fill the time while something else I'm recording gets ahead a bit so I can zap the commercials. I'm usually mutli-tasking at such times, mostly doing other stuff on the computer. It certainly isn't my favorite, but can be fun. I like to see how they handle some really difficult challenges thrown at them. I was amazed at the person who was able to create a passing dish with no other heat source other than a drip coffee maker.

 

[Foxfyre]

I saw one weird show with Alton Brown where they have to use ingredients like: Candy corn, water chestnuts, beef jerky and tobacco leaves

That was probably "Chopped", which I do watch now and then. I am always impressed that the chefs usually do know what to do with the assigned ingredients, some of which I've never tasted or seen used, and some that I've never even heard of.

I have even sort of pipe dreamed about applying to go on the show when they allow amateur home cooks instead of professional chefs, but I would probably get a basket wanting me to make an appetizer out of a giant emu egg, petai (stink bean), lime gelatin, and a camel liver.

 

[Foxfyre]

Hell's Kitchen, season 12, premiered this past Thursday, and is off to a great start.

If you missed the opening show you can see it on line here:
Hell's Kitchen on FOX - Watch the "Winner Chosen" Episode

This looks like it will be a good one.