Hello foodies,
There is a cooking show out there for everyone. Grillers, people wanting to learn about entertaining, various ethnic foods, the secrets of a restaurant chefs, best things our favourite celebrity chefs have eaten or made. From a learning perspective perhaps my favourite of all time was Alton Brown's Good Eats. But those tutorial type shows are a tiny part of my food show viewing. I turn to them only when I cannot find my true passion: the competition shows.
I am a cooking competition show junkie. I love them. Unlike the instructional shows, where you get the sense that many of the presenters are chosen for their polish and mass appeal more than their chef skills, most of the competition shows involve real working chefs at the top of their game, doing things I am not always familiar with, and wouldn't, or couldn't, do at home.
My introduction to the genre was Iron Chef: America, and the first episode I watched was battle garlic, where, if I remember correctly, Michael Symon, now an Iron Chef himself, was defeated by Mario Batali. What I remember most was the stylish plating involving a roasted bird clasping a roasted clove of garlic in its outstretched claw. That would never have occurred to me. It was macabre and fascinating, and I so wanted to be there eating that.
From there I expanded my repertoire. I now not only watch those at the top of their game, like the Iron Chefs and the Top Chefs; I watch amateur cooking shows like Masterchef and Worst Cooks in America. If week by week someone is going to get eliminated, I am there to watch them. It is the only reality TV I have ever watched (except one shameful part-season of Top Model, which I totally blame on my sister and our friend, M).
These shows are not specifically geared towards educating the viewers but I find I do learn from them. Watching the techniques used is always good, of course, but I learn a great deal from the judges. Listening to their comments and critiques has made me a more educated eater. I have come to a better understanding of composition and balance. I am now less likely to throw together my best main, my best side and my best salad and consider that to be impressive. I give more thought now to whether those three things go together. After listening, I get what they mean when they say a dish is balanced (and it is happens more rarely than you might think). I can recognize the difference between a solid dish and a home run. And the ways of analyzing dishes I have learned from these shows has made me understand better what it is that will impress me in a dish, so when I order, I am less likely to be disappointed in my selection.
Last night, Top Chef: Masters premiered. This season features Canadian chef Lynn Crawford, so, obviously, I will be pulling for her. Masterchef, a current favourite, is heading into the home stretch. The fall promises a crop of new seasons for the various versions of these shows, and I will continue to watch, devotedly.
For updates, follow me on twitter: @culinarykira
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