Bravo
Readers of this space know that two of my great loves are TV and food. I’m sure the expectation is that I would love a show like Top Chef, Bravo’s reality cooking competition. The truth, however, is that I’ve never been able to get into the show. For me, Top Chef is much more a reality show than it is a cooking show, and I guess that’s the point. The challenges seemingly aren’t about cooking as much as they are about creating drama.
Now, I understand that TV shows need to create drama or they’re boring. However, I would point to the Food Network’s Iron Chef America and Next Food Network Star as two food competition shows that remain entertaining without creating faux drama.
On Top Chef, the producers always seem intent on creating a “villain” for the show. This individual tends to be the classic reality program jerk who is just out for him/herself and is intent on driving away the other contestants. I can’t stand this type of person. Why do we, as a society, laud these self serving, arrogant jerks by putting them on television? I don’t understand it, and I certainly don’t understand why people want to watch them, but I also understand not everything on TV is programmed for me.
For me, Iron Chef America features the pure drama of competition. Nothing is manufactured or manipulated to get people yelling at each other and throwing each other under the bus during judging. Iron Chef America is about cooking, pure and simple. It’s about pitting the best chefs in the world against each other and seeing who’s best. Isn’t this what Top Chef should be about? For me, the show never seems to achieve this.
Well, you say, Iron Chef America is just about professional, well established chefs. This is true, and there is a certain draw to shows that allow anyone to apply. To this argument, I counter with Next Food Network Star. Now, I may not be it’s biggest fan, but the show creates drama through the high stakes and challenge of the weekly tasks, not inter-personal bitching. When I’ve watched it, there is very little bickering between contestants. Also, the challenges are all usually right on point. They can always be directly applied back to the goal of the show: finding someone who would be great on television, is knowledgeable about food, and can cook. I recall one episode of Top Chef where the contestants had to create a microwave dinner. Really? This is a good measure of cooking talent? No thanks, Bravo, sorry.
Have I given Top Chef a fair chance? Let me know. Is there one season that was particularly good that I should try to go back and review?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Nov 15, 2008 @ 16:00 EST5EDT
Thanks but no thanks. I’ll watch the Great Chefs
series on YouTube.com/greatchefs
Technically, I would put the cooking done on Top Chef to be leaps and bounds above what is done on NFNS. That show is grooming personalities for a tv show, not chefs.
As for TCA…that show has fallen so far. Sure they get some good talent on there, but the production value has gone straight to the cheese and not even the mighty Alton is safe from the crap that show produces.
Top Chef works for me. Sure, it does have some of that faux-drama you speak of, but it is not as bad as you are making it out to be. In fact, from your statement it sounds like you actually haven’t watched all that much of it to really be able to form this opinion. Is some of the drama heightened for TV? Sure, but have you actually ever known professional chefs? Many of them have this kind of attitude about them and when you put so many of them together butting heads for a single goal, tension is going to happen.
When Tom Colicchio says that the challenges are consistent with situations that real-world chefs will encounter, I tend to believe him. Do chefs like using microwaves? no. Do they find themselves in situations where they have to use them, especially in catering situations? sure. I’ve been in a lot of kitchens over the years, and they all have microwaves. The better kitchens don’t use them that often, but they’re there.
as was stated above, NFNS is about finding a new host for a TV show. TC is about finding someone who can win out over his or her competitors in a series of 15 or so challenges.
yes, the editing creates villains (and heroes), but it doesn’t create them out of whole cloth. The reunion shows that TC has done do show the contestants to be very similar to how they are portrayed in the episodes. Yes, people seem to get along a bit better, but they are no longer in the pressure cooker of an intense contest, either.