I remember a few years ago when the cooking show format seemed to explode and there were so many of them. I really didn't get the appeal of watching someone prepare food. I mean, it's not like you could taste or smell it. But then I started watching shows like Food Network "Challenge" where they made these wonderful cakes, and "Cupcake Wars". I really enjoyed watching the creativity. Then I started watching "Chopped" and "Cutthroat Kitchen", and got into the competitive nature of cooking with unusual ingredients or with sabotages. I also watch "The Taste" and enjoy the back and forth with the judges. I'm really surprised that I'm finding them so entertaining. I guess there really is something for everyone on TV nowadays.
For someone with very limited cooking skills, it sounds counter-intuitive that I'd enjoy cooking shows and yet I've become hooked on "Masterchef". I've never heard of the shows you mention and there's a good chance that they're not even available here. I'll have to check the schedule though as they sound like fun.
Cooking shows are so popular now! I was a chef for most of my working life, cooking was not as glamourous then as it is now. Now all I see on TV is reality chef this and cooking with so and so. I guess it's a good thing that cooking has gotten a bit more mainstream, I can relate to these shows because I know what they're talking about. I can also relate to the pressure they feel when the big scary Chef in the spotless white jacket is breathing down ther necks to get out that last entree!!
I too, can't cook worth a darn. And I've been diagnosed and have to be gluten free, lactose free. Well, to watch others cook, then actually eat those marvelous concoctions is sooooo yummy. If I can't eat that stuff, at least someone else can. And I get to watch Guy Fiero bite into a HUGE juicy sandwich with dribbles down his chin....OOOH the juice, ooooh the breads......
Simply put, I am a Chef. Retired as I might be, there is still some inkling of a commercial kitchen sitting in the back of my brain ever taunting me and ever begging my return to that coven of wonderful idiousy. Nay, I say to the wench! She has tempted me for the last time! Oh thou foul and evil seductress! Away, away from me, and leave me to cover my hotdog with ketchup and consume Stouffers with gluttonous joy! uh.......sorry. Yes, there is one show that I do appreciate. "Chopped" has got to be the most on target show I have seen. The pressure upon each individual cook or Chef has to be absolutely tremendous as the 4 dwindle down to the last two over the dessert presentation. Just one person, against 3 others and all with equal opportunity to be cut (or chopped) from the line-up or go home with 10K. I cannot stand Iron Chef for it glorifies the chef and does little for the people who got him the name and the award. I have been in several culinary competitions and it is virtually the same. No matter how large and proficient the crew is, the Chef is the man who will have his name in the lime light while his crew is barely mentioned. Since I have been on both sides of that coin, the Iron Chef is just not for me. As a past Chef and restaurant owner, I like to give huge cudos when they are due to my cooks and hold nothing back when it comes to making sure everyone who helped insure my success is equally marked in history as their success also.
Maybe enjoying such programs is a big word, but I generally like learning and trying to do new food, so I like watching cooking shows.
I enjoy watching them, but my only issue with them is that they are only broadcasted late at night (at least where I live). Being the weak man that I am, I find myself hungry after watching even one minute of a cooking show, so I find myself going for a nighttime fridge raid, which I hate doing because I get fat.
I love cooking shows and I'm not much of a cook, either. I can follow a recipe and even make a few tweaks, but I'm not a very creative cook overall. I really like 'Chopped' because they think of things to make with the weirdest ingredients. I'd have a big mess on my hands!
I watch cooking shows to learn and get some ideas or recipes. I get fascinated watching a chef turn a simple recipe turn into a colorful and yummy dish. One of my hobbies is collecting recipes be it from books, magazines or cooking shows.
I am not a fan of any particular show but I do enjoy them as they provide a lot of ideas for me! As far as being the #1 chef, I really don't care. To me the person who is a chef, whether in a 5 star establishment or a hole in the wall Mom & Pop place, is the one whose food makes me drool!
I love to watch cooking shows. And yes, the competition ones are great. But I also enjoy the shows where they show you how to make a new dish. I find the chefs that are on the shows to be very personable, and I wonder if they are actually like that in real life. I watch shows on The Food Network and on Create, which is part of PBS> On Create there is a cooking show called America's Test Kitchen that I find particularly entertaining. They usually do two recipes and then they talk and show different cooking utinsels and other gadgets. They also do taste tests comparying several of the same product. Create also has a number of cooking shows with chefs from different countries. Make dishes from their native country and I find that very educational.
My wife is a good cook and still does most of the cooking but I've been doing more and more of it in recent years. I like to watch Martha Stewarts cooking school when I can find it. She shows how to make simple, everyday foods. Some of the other shows I've seen seem to get too fancy or use ingredients I've never heard of.
I have already replied to this thread but after watching one more cooking show last night, I felt that I had to come back! What really displeases me is not the participants in a competition but the a few of the sanctimonious judges. If you don't like a dish that was prepared from someones heart just say it, "well, I did not enjoy the mashed potatoes because they seemed a bit too lumpy." That is fine and dandy, but to act like you are God's gift to the culinary world is a bit too much for me.
Aside from our own local MasterChef, most of the cooking shows I see were made in other countries, so I can identify well with your comment about ingredients you've never heard of. Even when the ingredients are everyday items, the names aren't always the same. That can complicate matters somewhat if one wants to try preparing the recipes that look interesting.
I don't watch the current cooking shows, just haven't had time to get into them. I have seen a few of the older shows and the one I liked was Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee, she would take food she got cooked at the store ad ingridents or dress the food up to make it more like homemade food. I like the idea of not spending so much time cooking in the kitchen.