Next Gen Chef

OK, first, I have to say, I am french, my passion is cooking and I love French, Indian Italian, Japanese and Thai food. I have to make a statement here: In the show, the CIA is presented as the worl'd premiere culinary college. Personnally, I have never heard about it so I checked and it is obviously a known and respected institution in the North America. But it certainly is not as renowned as the French schools in the world. In 2010, the "gastronomic meal of the French" was officially added to UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. That said, I enjoyed watching the first episode...entertaining.

99 out of 100 cookies shows suck. Most of the stuff with Gordon sucks, and just entertainment. Only one really good is Top Chef. This ain't to be that.

The good things: -Hard and competitive challenges. A bit different than Top Chef but not in a bad way. As is, they cook for less people, have more time, more $, and able to have more freedom. Yet it's still a cooking show about food -Judges appear to be good. The show offers enough detail about the cooking process, although I do feel like it should go into a bit more -Overall nothing about actual competition that was unpleasant to me

The bad things -Host, I suppose same as Top Chef s1 host, just a pretty face, without useful commendary. Top Chef's host padma and now new one, def brought in the chops ansd knowledge, vs just eye candy -Too much drama outside cooking (top chef is guilty of that too) -Too many tacky placements for cleaning supplies or other things.. FFD for me -Too much butt licking for the CIA. I know they likely had to, to film there and their staff, but to me it was a bit offputting

Overall, I enjoyed it. I think if they fix a few of these things, it could be a very strong show.

One thing that really separated top chef from any other show is that many of their contestants/winners are actually well known faces in the cooking world now. Time only will tell if this will happen here.

Entertaining show with likable contestants and fun challenges. Very poor decision to bring Olivia Culpo on as a host - completely brings down the show. Provides no useful commentary, other than occasional cringe remarks, and clearly she has no knowledge of anything food related. The show loves close up shots of her taking a bite of nothing or blankly staring into space while the other judges talk about the food. Please get a host with an actual cooking background.

It seems like it's a knock off of Top Chef. Why is Olivia Culpa hosting? She is not able to provide any comments about food. In one of the episodes, it seemed like she doesn't try one of the dishes. Licking a dish and being grossed out by it. She laughed at some of the food as if she was scared of trying it. She does not seem like a foodie or has any knowledge regarding it. At least Padma Lakshmi tried all the foods and could comment on food. Culpa needs to be replaced as host. It's honestly painful to watch.

This has very good potential as a culinary series. However, the host could definitely be replaced by someone who has knowledge of the different cuisines around the world. Someone who is a foodie and can't wait to try the final dishes!

The other pet peeve of mine is please chefs, put your hair out of your faces! It's so unappealing when I see this. Also, if you are not going to wear gloves to prep your dishes, remove your dirty rings and jewelry. It's just all over the food that is going to be consumed and is a non professional look for all. The staff of CiA looked great and professional.

Some contestants need to clean up their act.

Would love to see more of the prep work involved with each episode.