Food TV Recommendations

[WillTravelForFood]

Coming up on march 3: TOP CHEF HOUSTON begins on Bravo. It’s TOP CHEF, what’s not to love?

Coming up on 2/27: season three of Guy Fieri’s TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS on Food Network. If you haven’t seen it, Guy invites 16 big name chefs to compete in a bracketed elimination tournament against each other one-on-one, with the judging being done blind - the contestants don’t know who the judges are, the judges don’t know who the chefs are. Think of this like Iron Chef, but the secret ingredient is chosen from a slot machine … there’s relatively little advance prep the chefs could do when the Randomizer gives them five selections (protein, side, style of dish, unique cooking style or tool, and a time limit) out of dozens of available options

if you only know Guy from his other shows, we find his hosting duties here to be super low key as he lets the food and the chefs take the starring role to show off what they can do. It’s typically great fun to watch.

[Troutman]

Houston is becoming a food Mecca, tons of cultural and culinary diversity. The TC series may well be worth watching.

[WillTravelForFood]

Definitely, really looking forward to this season. Ate at Nancys Hustle recently - it was FANTASTIC

[Panhead John]

Yep, I juuust missed making the top 16.

[tbob4]

Panhead John - I would have made it but they instituted a charisma score this year. It completely eliminated me. Since the news, I’ve been adding cat nip to recipes to demonstrate that I have some type of natural attraction.

[WillTravelForFood]

Gotta say, the chef lineup on this seasons TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS is insane.

really looking forward to what’s going to happen

[rickgregory]

Yeah. 32 chefs. I hate the first round as it's always brutal to see a really talented chef lose right off. But I like it better than the "Surprise, we brought back..." mechanisms.

[WillTravelForFood]

rickgregory somebody has to leave each round, sure. But it is great to see some chefs who don’t get as much TV exposure as some others.

Plus, we always learn some new techniques to try in the future. LOVE THIS SHOW SO FAR

[WillTravelForFood]

Plus, we learn about restaurants we will want to travel to!!!!!!

[WillTravelForFood]

Between the first episode of Top Chef Houston and the 2nd episode if Tournament of Champions... we've seen things on these high level cooking competition shows that have never (or very very very rarely) happened before.

More interesting to us as we watched both episodes back-to-back, adding to the amaze/shock factor.

That said? The dishes/ ideas presented on TOC seem more approachable for a home cook to borrow ideas from. Maybe its the camera shots and side commentary during the cook vs how Top Chef is filmed and edited

[WillTravelForFood]

Another difference? On TOC, the chefs may be in a stressy competition, but they seem to be having fun with the game and with each other.

Top Chef is seriously more competitive. Its nice to see the Top Chef alum after their season ends when they can relax and enjoy what they've accomplished by doing other activities.... like cooking for fun and bragging rights

As for the judging on TOC, we like the openness of the point system, but would like to hear how each judge justified a lower score on a dish they said was fantastic. The judges table on TC does a good job of focusing/explaining what made each dish successful or not, which is helpful for the viewer to understand the criteria they use for each elimination

[rickgregory]

I'd agree on the scoring explanation but to me that's a minor nit. The absolute best move ToC made was to do truly blind judging where the judges don't know who cooked which dish AND don't even know the two competitors. Knowing that has to color judgements and is one of the several reasons I've never liked other cooking competitions.

[WillTravelForFood]

The absolute best move ToC made was to do truly blind judging where the judges don't know who cooked which dish AND don't even know the two competitors.

We'll counter with the TOC contestants shouldn't get to see who the judges are either. It might make them adjust their dishes slightly in favor of who they believe could be a judge.

That said, read something recently (maybe it was on the ALEX VS show on Food Network, with the Chef Commentary episodes?) where a judge can make a fairly educated guess about who made a specific dish, even during a blind tasting, just based on their knowledge of certain chef's cooking styles.

Granted the pool of available TOC judges is pretty limited to the usual group of regulars --- would be nice to see some curveballs in the mix (Ludo is *always* fantastic), but we could see where there might be a conflict of interest/contractual issues with some not being available (ie Padma, Tom due to Bravo. Gordon or Aaron due to Masterchef, etc)

While it's nice to see Nancy, Marcus, Alex, Waxman, Giada and the usual CHOPPED crowd as TOC judges, why not throw in...

• Alton (while not a chef, he's certainly opinionated on food and would be entertaining)
• Kwame
• Ayesha Curry
• Richard Blais (although we recall maybe he showed up on previous seasons?)
• Graham Elliot
• Jose Andres
• Nyesha Arrington (might be a FOX conflict)
• Roy Choi
• David Chang
• Meathead
• Kenji

One thing that's nice is that for Top Chef's advisors to Padma/Tom/Gail and for the TOC judges -- they're all chefs who have been at the top of their game at some point in their careers and know full well what the contestants are going through/trying to accomplish in a limited amount of time. Plus - we do love Kristen Kish every time she shows up (and enjoy her shenanigans on Fast Foodies)

[rickgregory]

I don't think they DO know who the judges are until after the first cook (and they vary the judges by round a bit... Crenn wasn't in this round for example).

TC has never appealed to me. Too often the judges say what they would have done vs judging what that chef did and the basket are often silly.

[WillTravelForFood]

Top Chef doesn't often have baskets, as they tend to give the chefs fairly free reign at Whole Foods or the TC pantry to enhance the main ingredient they're given.

Were you thinking Chopped? (We don't watch Chopped often -- but the Alton Brown devious basket shows were amusing)

[WillTravelForFood]

Speaking of ALEX VS -- they do a good job of bringing in experts in the given culinary style/ingredient as judges in each episode. There's no way a contestant (or Alex) would be able to prepare for one of these specialists vs one of their TV chef friends that they see regularly.

We think Alex's thought process in deciding what choices to go with for a particular dish is interesting: she's okay with oddball items, as long as she has the ability to choose time. She will always choose for more time over anything else that's presented to her.

Which is likely the downfall of the challengers not realizing that giving Alex more time is a detriment to their own chances of winning. Season two contestants should learn from that oversight.

[WillTravelForFood]

Tournament of Champions line of the week?

”Thats why you’re commentating and not cooking, Justin!”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHHA

[WillTravelForFood]

Sneak peak airing this evening on TBS, with the full season beginning later this week:

RAT IN THE KITCHEN, featuring Ludo (who is terrific TV all by himself, as the fantastic THE TASTE and some other shows he's done has proven)

In this show, a group of contestants have to make [something] but one of the people on the team is purposefully trying to sabotage the final product. Could be entertainingly interesting

[WillTravelForFood]

We really enjoyed FOX's CRIME SCENE KITCHEN, where professional bakers had three minutes to study a kitchen after "something" was made, and then decipher the clues/observations to determine what they need to bake next. Whoever gets it closest, wins.

We liked this show as the audience really could play along with the clues that were provided and come up with our own conclusions. Sometimes we were right, sometimes we were just as wrong as the contestants were.

Handy tip: if the cocoa tin hasn't been opened, chances are it wasn't used in the making of the dish.

[WillTravelForFood]

If you have the opportunity to see this week's episode of Top Chef Houston, its highly recommended

Its the BBQ episode. All brisket, all the time.

[WillTravelForFood]

Food Network BBQ Showdown started this week. Bobby Flay (meh) vs Anne Burrell (yay) and Jet Tila (yay) . Epi 1 was mildly entertaining, but some of the previews look interesting.

it's not so much BBQ as it is "let's cook stuff on a fire in a time crunch". No long/slow cooks yet. All the competitors have some reasonable BBQ pedigree, many seem to tend towards some sort of asian BBQ fusion. Hadn't heard togarashi and fish sauce be mentioned on a BBQ show more often

Still, we do enjoy watching Jet and Anne cook and lead their teams, so we expect some entertainment out of this season.

Rodney Scott is one of the judges. (We imagine that Meathead wasn't invited to participate because his schedule is just Too Darn Full)

[WillTravelForFood]

Coming soon on Food Network:

BBQ USA
Premieres on Food Network and launches on discovery+ Monday, July 11, at 9 p.m. ET/PT

It’s the most competitive game in food – BBQ! And in this new series, chef and restaurateur Michael Symon is headed to the biggest BBQ competitions across the country to bring viewers right into the action as he showcases the most elite competitors and top-notch BBQ talent as they battle for the ultimate barbecue bragging rights and prizes. From Georgia to Kansas to Texas, and points in between, Michael takes viewers behind the scenes to join in all the cooking action including a look at the most diehard devotees of this culinary spectacle, and of course, the most drool-worthy, mouthwatering ‘que that you’ve ever seen.

[WillTravelForFood]

Coming soon on Food Network

It’s CompliPlated
Premieres on Food Network and launches on discovery+ Thursday, August 11, at 10 p.m. ET/PT

It’s CompliPlated is a hilarious new cooking show that has determined chefs attempting to please the most particular panel of eaters with the same plate of food. Hosted by New York Times bestselling-author, actress, vegan foodie and inaugural Food Network Hot List designee, Tabitha Brown, this series is for all the home cooks out there who are looking for ways to make the delicious dishes we all love, while accommodating all the different diets, food allergies and tastes in their household. Chopped judge and Tournament of Champions II winner, Maneet Chauhan, joins the action each week as the competing chefs pull out all the stops to see who can make the best, universal meal for their complicated, picky preferences and walk away with $10,000!