Top Chef

This show is just so much fun! You can root for your favorites and rag on the ones you don't like. I have found that my favorites change as the show moves on, but there are some I simply did not like, right from the start. The first few episodes were kind of "getting to know the players" episodes. Then I chose Elan as the most likely to win. He just seemed to be the most professional of the bunch. Now, mid-season, I have changed my favorite three or four times. Now I'm torn between Elan, Cliff, and Sam. Then again, I think Marcel has real pizazz! He also has real potential as a celebrity chef. But who knows where it will go. Each week, I await the next episode eagerly. And not just incidentally, they cook some pretty amazing stuff. I really can't wait till this comes out on DVD.

A group of budding professional chefs come together to compete in a contest to see which of them will become "Top Chef". Each week they have a challenge and a "cook off" with the winner lauded by the panel of judges, while the individual deemed the weakest is sent home and takes no further part in the competition.

Yes, here we are in familiar territory with the reality contest model of a group of gradually dwindling people competing for a dream job. Fans of America's Next Top Model will recognise it and I'm sure it has been done many times in other guises in shows I just not aware of. Like ANTM, the contestants want to get a major jump in their chosen career and compete to get it. Each week we have the challenges, the in-fighting, the tensions and then the removal of one of the group. It is a winning approach so I can understand why others have just tried to apply that model to other disciplines – in this case cookery.

As with ANTM, the subject isn't really important because it the show is driven by the tension tensions between the characters. It may be clever editing but the most is made of the minor snaps at one another and the "diary room" comments are used to feed the minor fire. As such it is engaging enough guff that I find easy to watch without actually having to commit any emotion or brain power in watching. Everyone hates some characters and likes others and this is where the entertainment comes from. I confess that I found the judges quite dull and lacking in the sort of character and extremes that other similarly structured shows tend to have.

Overall then a fairly derivative affair perhaps but it is a formula that works and those that like this short of show will enjoy it. For my money though, it is distracting enough nonsense but nothing that I remember for more than five minutes after watching an episode.

The first 3 series were fun to watch. After that, the producers struggled to make a series that didn´t create a yawn. I couldn´t get past the first 5 minutes. There seems to be a desperation in trying to attract an audience with their challenges, which are mundane. In there attempt to improve the contest, especially the recent first round with each team of three given minimal time for prep, then taking away the knives before putting a meal together in short time did nothing to stir my interest.

So here's the formula....if you're Italian or French or from any predominantly historically white country, you have to change your style of cooking for every challenge. You may even get knocked if you do the same kind of technique (ie pasta) more than once in the entirety of the season no matter how long through the completion you make it. If you're a person of color, you can and are encouraged to make the same style of food every challenge on repeat and you're applauded for it. This goes double for South American chefs...even if they're born and raised in America, since they're of Latin decent, they're encouraged to make latin food from start to finish. But god forbid a white chef goes Italian, French, Greek, west African, Indian, Asian, Italian.....this second Italian dish will get them knocked by the judges for repeating a style. But the Latina can go 15 for 15 Mexican food and she'll be lauded. The double standard is so painstakingly obvious and the good news is, these shows are all run by liberal progressives and if they didn't have double standards they'd have no standards at all so we can look forward to this kind of added racial bias on white contestants from here on out. Equality y'all! Ain't it grand?!?!? Sad broken leftists....

Although early seasons are more focused on the drama and competitiveness, I can still appreciate it for what it is. When you think of it as a reality show first, those early seasons are pretty good. As the show evolves, it becomes more of a cooking show and less of a reality show and I can appreciate that as well. The food always looks so good and its fun seeing how contestants find their way around wacky challenges and restrictions. If you hate reality tv, skip the first half of the franchise. Otherwise, this is a great franchise!