Ciao House

Best accidental find I've had. This is the first culinary arts program that showcased what a chef does as a director of a kitchen: organizing, coordinating & utilizing the talents of chefs to prepare regionally themed meals. Moved beyond the gimmicks of single ingredient focus competition to a unique take on elimination. The personality traits of chefs are shown in the what & how they cook, yes; but moreover how & if they can lead. Gabrielle B. Was a great complement to Alex G. As cohosts. Alex shines in her pointed but superbly constructive criticism which helps participants learn & grow. The regional focus backdrop of Tuscany & sharing a villa's small kitchen adds a great dynamic. Beyond a focus on "rooting" for a personality to a fuller understanding of each chef. How do they respond to challenges of all sorts - whether cooking, interpersonal, situational. Steps up the quality of the Food Network's offerings. Can't wait for season 2 & an answer to the question: will Omar return?

Love cooking competitions shows. But the basis of a competition is the better chefs ultimately win. The foundation of contestants leaving this show is other contestants voting them out. Judges as a result are completely unnecessary. They played 0 role in the progression of the competition.

Unfortunately, at the end of each competition, it wasn't the weakest chefs going home, but the opposite. Strong chefs got voted out by weaker chefs binding together to get rid of skilled chef.

Judges should have had the responsibility to vote out chefs based on their performance. Very disappointing to see deserving talents leave the show because less skilled chefs took advantage of the poor structuring of the competition.

Alex G is the worst hostess. Her feedback is mostly negative, in a hurtful meaningless way. She's out Gordon Ramseying Gordon Ramsey, minus the yelling! Not one meaningful suggestion from her.

Sending only the captains to the cheese maker, not telling them what meal to plan, then coming into the kitchen for the smaller team with 5 minutes left and throwing negativity about their items - that is simply unpardonable hosting!

Also the show is spending money in sending all the contestants to lovely Tuscany, but poor production quality in setting the specific competition rules - both teams get same ingredients, but one team gets more time and look at the competition before they even start to plan! In which feverish nightmare of Alex G is this a real competition?

I have never been impressed with her cooking, even though she did advance in TOC 5. But seeing her character in this show revealed how shallow a person she really is because of her constant negativity. Please retire her Food Network!

What a disappointment that.this show follows the Food channel's formula--ridiculous time constraints, cruel food critics, crushed competitors. Alex's biting comments are vicious. Gabriele's arrogance is irritating. They even insult the Tuscan guests--nona's, wine makers, and butcher so far--by allowing them only few minutes and missing a chance for the contestants and the audience to learn about Tuscan food. Isn't learning about Tuscan food supposed to be the point of this show? Apparently not. What a wasted opportunity. Not the best choice of chefs, but if culinary education were truly the goal of the show, there were many missed opportunities.

Did the casting call for this show read "Looking for awful human beings who happen to be chefs"? There's nobody to root for on this show. If you want a display of pure narcissism to end your Sunday night, this is for you. It's just such a shame. I'm sure there were more qualified chefs, who also had a shred of humility and basic decency that would have loved the opportunity. The two judges are good! Big fan of Alex and always have been. It's just a waste of her abilities, but I'm sure she is not complaining about being in Tuscany. I hope that if this show gets renewed for another season, they can find contestants that people want to root for and see succeed.