Cutthroat Kitchen

In many cooking contest shows they do things like have 6 haute- cuisine chefs preparing six haute-cuisine dishes using ingredients I can't even identify, or they pair ridiculously incompatible ingredients (chocolate, sardines and cotton candy). I can't learn anything from such shows.

Despite the fact that some of the sabotages are so silly they detract from the show, the food the contestants cook, on Cutthroat Kitchen is normal everyday food, such a tomato soup made from scratch. THAT, I learn from.

Sometimes when I cook I don't have every last ingredient I want, or don't have proper utensils, or have to used a heat source that is not my first choice. I think that happens to all home chefs. When two chefs have took cook tied together at the waist, well, that's just comic relief and sometimes a lesson in teamwork.

I find this game show to be a gem of a show. It's not, as some claim, about a bunch of jerks being jerky to each other because they like being jerks.

When you watch this show think of classic board games, like Sorry or humorous new fashion games like Munchkin. The point of these games isn't really to get to base first, or be the last Min-Maxer standing, the point is the game play itself, and that game play is Zinging your friends and family and to exchange competitive banter without hurt feelings.

The same is true for Cutthroat Kitchen. The players go into the game knowing that there are going to be be sabotages and the producers tell them to ham it up with the trash talking.

If you enjoy stupid beer and pretzels gaming, then you should enjoy these show, once you realize that this show is TV tapping into that same spirit.

This is now one of my favorite shows. Alton Brown is both a culinary genius and a masterful entertainer.

All of the hate for this show seems to stem from people missing Good Eats, which was also a great show. Or people complaining that food Network has "too many" competition shows and not enough old fashioned kitchen cooking shows. To be honest, how many traditional cooking shows can one watch? During the daytime that is all that is on food Network, and the cooking channel also.

As for Cutthroat Kitchen, it is highly entertaining and mildly educating. It is always interesting to see chefs improvise and create alternative ways to navigate their sabotaged kitchens. For cooks like me, who often have to improvise to create my own take on a dish, this is interesting and educational.

The only frustrating aspect of this show is that the best chef does not always win. Some times the best strategist wins. But that is typically the case with any competition.

A lot of people are complaining about how this show brings out the worst in people who are competing. It's like those people believe all Chefs and cooks are somehow superior and should never behave like that. Ridiculous! The show is entertaining and nobody forces the contestants to play the game. They do it simply to try and win some money and exercise their culinary skill.

The dishes that Alton makes them create are not rocket science, they're ordinary foods that most of the viewers are familiar with and probably many of us have made at one time or another.

MOST of the fun in the show is seeing some of the ways the chefs actually get around the sabotages because it does show their creativity and in some instances, absolute culinary genius.

I have YET to watch a single episode where I have not laughed out loud and with this show already going for 12 seasons, I only hope it goes for another 12.

This was our favorite food network show - so entertaining and clever and challenging.