Probably because there are only so many times you can watch last night's NBA basketball highlights, my new favorite television channel for the last few years is Food Network Canada. Watching a ton of Food Network probably doesn't make sense to most people but I don't necessarily devote my entire attention to the television when it is on and it therefore on some days it serves as mostly background noise. Besides, since I am a shift worker I can almost guarantee you that there usually is nothing better to watch than Food Network Canada in the middle of the day unless you are really interested in watching The O.C. or Dawson's Creek reruns. There are really only so many ways you can make food entertaining and when you think about television shows on Food Network Canada you probably have visions of Wok with Yan or Pasquale's Kitchen in your head and for the most part you are correct as there are a ton of these updated 30 minute cooking shows on Food Network Canada. However, there is also a new second type of show dominating the television network and that is the cooking competition. In this type of show a bunch of chefs that you probably never heard of usually take secret ingredients to make a dish that you will probably never get a chance to eat and each dish gets judged be a panel of food experts. (side note: Aren't we basically all food experts? Isn't eating the primary skill required to be a food expert? Furthermore, how does somebody like Marc Ecko become a judge on these shows? Was being a judge on Iron Chef America part of his deal for creating their new jackets? Sure Marc Ecko has eaten at fancier restaurants than me but what makes him more qualified to be a food judge than any other regular Joe like myself?) I applaud the Food Network for trying to find different ways to make cooking interesting and settling for ripping off a Japanese television show (the original Iron Chef), but if you look at their television lineup, you basically are inundated with 10 different versions of the same cooking competition show.
Bobby Flay, the host of about 7 different Food Network television shows.
Using Wikipedia as a guide, here is a sampling of what is on Food Network Canada...
Show: Iron Chef America
Premise: A new challenger chef competes against one of the resident "Iron Chefs" in a one-hour cooking competition based on a theme ingredient.
Aside: The aforementioned Marc Ecko is sometimes part of the panel of judges. Nowhere near as good as the Japanese version mostly because the American version comes across as taking itself too seriously.
Show: Top Chef
Premise: Chefs compete against each other in culinary challenges and they are judged by a panel of professional chefs and other notables from the food and wine industry.
Spin-offs: Top Chef Just Desserts, Top Chef Canada, Top Chef Masters
Aside: Did you know it was award winning television show?.. cause they seem to mention it in every commercial.
Show: Chopped
Premise: In each episode, four chefs compete and are judged by three food experts. Their challenge is to take a mystery box of ingredients and turn them into a dish that is judged on their originality, presentation, and taste with minimal time to plan and execute.
Spin-off: Chopped Champions
Aside: Unlike the previous two television shows, in Chopped you basically don't get to know the chefs' personalities that well. Some only last on the show for a mere 15min.
Show: Sweet Genius
Premise: Pastry chefs make desserts given inspiration, surprise ingredients and a finite amount of time. The pastry challenges are judged by Ron Ben-Israel.
Show: Rachael vs Guy Celebrity Cook-Off
Premise: With a team of four celebrity chefs, the series will pit Team Captains Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri against each other to determine who the best cooking mentor is.
Aside: Aaron Carter was one of the celebrities on the show. Read this article from Grantland.com to see how well he did.
Show: Worst Cooks in America
Premise: Two competing chefs take a team of 8 recruits with poor cooking skills through a two-week culinary boot camp with the winning recruit earning a cash prize of $25,000. The final challenge is to cook a restaurant quality three-course meal for three food critics.
It's almost like the television network executives are not even trying anymore and just reusing the same bloody template complete with the same television personalities doubling as food experts and just changing the shows' titles, music and sets to make "new" television shows. Six (not including spin-offs) of Food Network Canada's prime time shows all have the same basic concept and you know what the best part is?.. with the exception of Sweet Genius, they all work very well for me. I don't really understand how I can be so captivated by experts eating food and judging it. For the most part, the viewer cannot make a strong opinion about the judges' decisions since we are basically imagining what the food might taste like because the majority of us probably have never ate the dish being served and even fewer have experienced it being made by somebody more accomplished than the 18-year-old working the grill at Appleby's. Furthermore, you can try to duplicate Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals but you probably cannot come close to copying what the Top Chef guy just made so it's not like these food competition shows are informative either. But these shows do work for me and there is a connection made between the dish and viewer that makes you root for one chef/dish over the other (again, some shows are better at making the connection with the chef while others hardly reveal their personalities at all). I kind of think these shows would be even better if I was 5 years younger living with a bunch of bozos in a basement apartment betting my student loan money on the outcomes.
So yea there may only be two types of television shows on Food Network Canada (Wok with Yan with different hosts cooking different ethnic cuisines and the food competition) but they definitely seemed to have found the right formula for one of them. I never really was a fan of Pasquale's singing and none of the Food Network chefs' personalities are that captivating to me that I would routinely watch their shows. What does grab my attention however, is a good ol' food competition. With the amount of similar shows on Food Network Canada, at almost any time of the day you can watch a food competition and the best part is as long as you like the generic concept, you will love all of the different television shows. That has to beat the Dawson Leery crying face right?
