A Blog About Cooking Shows From A Guy Who Can't Cook

After an episode last week that started slow and got better the further along we got, it was time for the first Team Challenge of the season! Guys, I’m going to be honest with you all right now. I was not looking forward to this episode. At all. And there is a very big reason for that.  In the early seasons, Team Challenges would take up the first half of the episode, and the second half would be a Pressure Test for the losing team that would see one contestant going home.  By the time we got into the 2020s, that basic format had changed. Now instead of taking up half of the episode, Team Challenges took up the entire episode. This made the episodes feel so much longer and boring. And last season was even worse with the team challenges, as due to the format of the season being contestants competing as duos, nobody would go home by the end of the episode, instead forcing us to wait until the following week for another challenge entirely, which would see someone from the losing ...

After a great start to the competition last week, it was time for the second episode, where the contestants had to make their own take on Eggs Benedict, while also infusing their own cultures into the dish. I’m just going to say this right now, I’ve never had Eggs Benedict before, and I’m not entirely sure if I ever will. That concludes your unimportant bit of information for the day. Before I get into the episode, let me just pose a hypothetical question for you all. Have you ever watched something that starts off incredibly slow, only for it to really pick up as it gets towards the middle, and just become absolutely amazing once it gets towards the ending? That’s exactly what happened with this episode. The truth is, when you’re watching people all trying to make the same dish that has essentially only two major components, it’s not going to be too interesting to see what everyone is making, even with all the ways that the contestants try make theirs unique from all the other ones. B...

After four rounds of auditions, it was finally time for the MasterChef competition to officially begin! I was looking forward to this, as whenever the competition officially starts, that’s when the season really kicks it up a notch.  To let you all know how the episodes are going to work, the home cooks are in four groups of five with each of them representing different global territories, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and The Americas. How it will work, at least for the first few episodes of challenges, is that the judges will choose the top dishes from each territory, and from there choose a winner, who will win the Immunity Pin, and end up saving the other contestants in their territory from elimination for that night. And from there, the bottom three will be called out, with the contestant who does the worst going home. For the first challenge of the season, the contestants had 60 minutes to make elevated versions of classic stadium foods inspired by their own cultures. The rea...

After another great round of auditions last week, which also taught me a lot about African Cuisine, it was time for the final round of auditions with contestants representing The Americas! To clarify, when I say The Americas, I mean every part of it. The United States, South America, Venezuela, Mexico, Barbados, and Jamaica.  Much like the other three Audition Episodes, the judges gave out five aprons among eight home cooks that were auditioning, except these were the last five aprons of the whole competition.  The first home cook auditioning was Tkaiya, who was from Jamaica, New York and was representing the island of Jamaica. The dish that she chose to make was Pineapple Glazed Jerk Chicken with Sweet Potato Puree. This is absolutely a dish that I would be willing to try. I mean seriously, have a look at it below.  When she finished plating her dish, there was just one problem. She forgot to plate the Pineapple Glaze.  The judges immediately commented that the dish...

After another great round of auditions last week, it was time for the third round of auditions for the contestants representing Africa! I’m going to be completely honest with all of you reading right now: before the episode aired, I had very little familiarity with African cuisine. I have never been to any African restaurants, and very few of the cooking shows that I watch had challenges where contestants had to make African dishes. So, I was going into the episode with absolutely no idea of what to expect in terms of what foods would be made, but I was also really curious and excited to learn about African cuisines.  Much like with the other two audition episodes so far this season, eight contestants were auditioning for an apron in the episode, and only five would get one.  The first home cook auditioning was Nadine, who was representing Sierra Leone, and the dish she made was a Peanut Butter Soup with Chicken Coconut Curry and Rice. For those of you that don’t know, Peanut ...