The Secret Ingredient

7.4 stars.

If you like reality baking shows you might find this movie familiar, although this is a strange sort of reality baking show. Kelly stays home in a small town and builds a bakery from the ground up, while Andrew leaves her behind and moves to Paris to become a chef. Several years later he comes back to visit and both of them seem to be over the breakup. They quickly rekindle the friendship.

The rest of the film is about a reality baking show in New York City that Kelly is a contestant on. Meanwhile Andrew is also in NYC for business. They happen to run into each other and grow a little closer. Will they have another chance at love?

I sense that people really enjoy this movie for the energy and fun of it. It does not lack for liveliness and activity in the big city. For any foodies out there, "The Secret Ingredient" might have some appeal.

The end was wrapped up very nicely, you could say it's the icing on the cake, however it wasn't enough to elevate the movie beyond average. For me this is just another attempt at a reality show themed Hallmark. It's not terrible, bad, good, or great. It's just okay.

If you love Hallmark movies + cooking shows, this movie is definitely for you! It was great and really well mad ... I loved it! It's like watching two shows in one!

A close copy of Just Add Romance (2019) with a few different plot details and different lead actors. Overall the story is a cute premise and not terribly angsty which is a nice change for Hallmark.

I happened to watch The Secret Ingredient, Just Add Romance and A Dash of Love very close together but actually they are quite different. Defo watch JAD before this movie if you can, as TSI has the more developed plot. I wouldn't say Hallmark were exactly romcoms, but TSI was a bit amusing at times. There are quite a lot of characters in this show so they don't get bogged down with too much detail, but they are all integrated well. A great film for all-ages.

I've never heard of a contest cooking show where the contestants were unknown to each other (and my wife watches dozens of them). But of course we can figure out why fairly early in the game and it's not a mystery for long. There are some twists and turns, but most of them are predictable.

These are two veteran Romance movie stars and they mesh well together. The two of them are more appealing than the story. This was a good role for Cahill. Without them, or actors of the same caliber, this would be more like 5 stars.

I'd like to see Chelsea Rankin again, but her resume is short and spread out.