Cooking Competition Shows

[A Meat]

Let's talk about shows where people compete to make really good food under crazy pressure. This kind of shit is my guilty pleasure, I can't cook very well, but I could watch shows where people pit their cooking skills against each other forever. This is a place where living with my parents has benefits, because watching these shows with other people who get involved is the best TV watching experience after watching major sporting events with passionate people.

I've started watching The Great British Bake Off and I've been loving the 4 episodes I've watched of it so far, it's so much calmer and pleasant than American cooking shows, not to mention legitimately informative, which is quite refreshing. Another show I really like is the Australian show My Kitchen Rules, which is a much of standard cooking show, but at the same time enjoyable. I sometimes enjoy watching my local variant of Masterchef as well, but I'm not the biggest fan of personal drama fueled reality shows. The Taste is also not bad.

Not to mention stuff like Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen or even less popular stuff like Sweet Genius which are always great for a quick pick-me-up.

Why are these shows so compelling? I don't get it myself but I love watching almost all of them, I might have a problem but I'm not sure I want a cure.

[chai tea latte]

The first season of PBS' Mind Of A Chef is really good! It follows NYC chef David Chang (and his friends) and has the best-integrated culture/human interest segments I've seen in any food show. The second season shifts to a new guy I didn't like as much but the quality of the show was definitely still there.

ilu pbs

[montrith]

Me and my roomie used to watch the Australian version of Masterchef, which is much less about the drama and much more about the cooking. Tried to watch the American version but we just couldn't take all the bitching and whining and soap opera.

[positive stress]

I could watch Food Network competition shows for hours, it's my favorite kind of junky TV. Sweet Genius was my favorite, the first season was so absurd when all the ingredients and inspirations were read by that computerized voice, it felt like the whole show was all entertainment for an insane billionaire chef. RIP Sweet Genius

[Tiny Prancer]

I used to be a lot more into cooking competition shows and cooking shows in general, but being in college has kind of dampened that interest since in general the food they make is a LOT better than the food I eat in college.