Great Chocolate Showdown

Are all Canadian food show judges trained by the same person? "You must be so proud!" "A great reason to be proud!" "Be proud, are you proud? Proud, proud, PROUD!"

Come on!!! Stop with the everyone wins and we must not hurt anyone's feelings. It's delicious, good job! If it sucks, then it sucks. Or it's just ugly! Just typical Canadian cliche. I'm Canadian and I can't stand that type of behaviour.

I love watching cooking challenges! I love the idea of a chocolate challenge. I just wish the judges had some personalities. I really HATE when Cynthina says "ready set..." OMG please make he shut up! It's not cute or funny. Anna is the only one I can stand. Steven just seems condescending and disingenuous.

If these are all home bakers, how do they even know how to do a lot of these things? I bake and cook a lot but have never even heard of some of these things. How do they know how to make something they have never made before? Like does the show give them the recipes? Just curious...

Thank.

So far, this show is a string of every cooking competition cliche ever--they seriously haven't missed a one. And all the host's dialogue is written so insultingly simply it's like they think their audience has negative IQs. The contestants are nothing more than manufactured stereotypes that tick every demographic box possible. The hosts are stiff and wooden and I don't believe ONE SINGLE THING that happens this show is true or uncalculated, not what the contestants are "choosing" to bake on their own (yeah, sure) right down to what they say their names are. An entirely calculated cash-in that treats its viewers like morons.

I hate these live action competition shows. They usually pit people against each other showcasing not talents but petty meanness that we adults thought we left behind in sixth grade. Not so with the Great Chocolate Showdown. The contestants are amazing bakers who all seem to be genuinely nice people. People you actually would love to sit down with to discuss making macarons and what temperature is best for making chocolate not get all weirdly ashy looking.

Did I say talented? No. These people have skills that are impressive.

The downside of the show is the blandness of the judges. I liked that the reviews were honest yet not brutal like Gordon Ramsey, that man makes me cry for the contestants. But it still needs...something...not meanness but a little edge.

Overall it has made tv watching on Saturday night relaxing and fun.

How do you stand out from the glut of cooking contest shows on TV? Not by directing your judges and contestants to resort to a low common denominator of overblown, cartonnish, childish, saccharine expressions and rhetoric. It's annoying and most seriously, demeaning to all involved and their well taught and hard won creations. The editing reinforces this unrefined treacle with jump cuts that turn the participant's reactions into sterotypes. For example, take the overcute exceessively repeated «snap» test for well-tempered chocolate. Anna Olsen is the only one of the three judges who manages to speak consistently in genuine, learned, communicative, measured tones. I urge the creators of the show to relax and tamp down the phoney feel of their final product.