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Reality TV Show of the Week #2: Top Chef

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  • 26-04-2009 10:25pm
    #1
    Mr E
    Registered Users Posts: 55,519 ✭✭✭✭


    I want to talk about one of my favourite reality TV shows - Top Chef. The 5th season has just finished recently, and its a consistently entertaining show.

    It follows the standard reality elimination format. Start with 14-18 chefs, one gets eliminated every week, until there is just one left. Where this raises itself above shows like Hells Kitchen is that these guys are actually, for the most part, seasoned chefs. They own restaurants, they're head chefs or sous chefs, they have lots of experience, and they can actually cook. Part of the appeal of this show for me is that the food they cook looks bloody stunning.

    Each show is divided into 2 challenges - the Quickfire Challenge and the Elimination Challenge. The quickfire challenge is usually something simple and focussed - cook the best dish using limited ingredients, cook a particular protein, cook using a particular off-the-shelf product etc. The winner of the Quickfire is immune in the Elimination challenge. The Elimination challenge is usually considerably tougher - cooking for celebrity chefs, catering for large events, running a restaurant for a night etc. -- like I said, standard reality format.

    The winner each week is chosen by a panel of judges - host Padma Lakshmi, Chef Tom Colicchio (founder of the Craft chain of restaurants), Gail Simmons from Food and Wine magazine, and a guest judge. If you're kicked out, its not because you were nominated by a fellow chef, or chosen by members of the public in a phone poll -- it means your food wasn't as good as everyone elses.

    So..... good show, and a guilty pleasure of mine.

    Season 6 of the main show will be in the Autumn (on US cable network Bravo).
    A spin off called Top Chef Masters will begin in June.
    On this side of the Atlantic, I've seen Top Chef on Living TV and TV3.

    Check it out.


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    #2
    Sharpshooter
    Registered Users Posts: 31,859 ✭✭✭✭Sharpshooter


    Will do, I enjoy that type of programme.
    Have you any times or dates when it is on TV3 and Living TV?


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    #3
    Mr E
    Registered Users Posts: 55,519 ✭✭✭✭Mr E


    On Living it was usually on early evenings (between 6 and 8 maybe?)
    On TV3 its usually on Saturday morning.

    Not sure if either channel is airing it at the moment though.


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    #4
    Sharpshooter
    Registered Users Posts: 31,859 ✭✭✭✭Sharpshooter


    Thanks,I will keep an eye out for it.


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