Is anyone else appalled by "Worst Cooks in America?"

[carbonel]

As an amateur home chef who is also a teacher, I am completely disgusted by this show.

The hosts of this program know nothing about education, but they have mastered the art of humiliation.

While educators such as Julia Child (and Alton Brown and Rachael Ray) successfully demystify cooking and inspire home cooks to believe in themselves, these chefs seem more concerned with belittling their students.

It is truly sad that the Food Network believes this program is more worthy than the far more inspirational "Chef Jeff Project." That show was the exact opposite of "Worst Cooks." It taught people who had little self-confidence to believe in themselves in cooks and as human beings.

Obviously, these hosts have not seen the "Chef Jeff Project." If you haven't seen the program, you should try to track it down. It is an antidote to this dehumanized, toxic mess called "Worst Cooks in America."

Aaron

[donw9876]

I'm guessing that the show bombed and the network got a lot of complaints. The last two episodes were crammed together on two consecutive nights and to me it looked like they just wanted to get them over with.

Good freaking riddance. This wasn't a "fair fight".

It kind of amazed me how these non cooks all became so emotionally invested in the idea of becoming good cooks. I think they misused the contestant's "emotional capital".

[queencru]

I think most of the normal Sunday night shows this week were rescheduled so as not to conflict with the Super Bowl. I read somewhere that they are actually planning a second season, which seems strange to me.

[medRare28]

Chef Mcmillan was recent arrested for warrants
http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/10/food-ne... oks-warrant/

[goodhealthgourmet]

not plural warrantS. *one* outstanding warrant for an unanswered red-light camera traffic ticket sent in the mail. seriously, this is hardly news and just an attempt to exploit him & create drama where there's no real story.

[TrishUntrapped]

The traffic violation is nothing, he should have been arrested for taking part in such an awful show.

[goodhealthgourmet]

LOL! actually, i'd arrest the producers/creators first ;)

[gyc]

Good thing they didn't go with the original UK series title of "Kitchen Criminals" then.

[libgirl2]

I watched the first, second and last episode. Really they could have taught them basic cooking skills and basic family recipes. Do you think any of them can make a decent meatloaf? Or casserolle? Things that you might cook for a family.

[queencru]

I agree. Few of the dishes they cooked seem practical for the at-home cook. Starting out with basic comfort food and then teaching them how to make the leftovers interesting would have been a much better approach.

[chefathome]

As far as I know we do not get it in Canada. But from what I have read I know I would not like it one little bit. It sounds atrocious, deplorable, despicable and disturbing.

[HillJ]

I just caught my very first Worst Cooks...oh my gosh, awful. Train wrecks already get way too much attention. This show is just BAD.

[coney with everything]

I am completely amazed that NO ONE has even bothered to post about the finale of this show!

[TrishUntrapped]

Maybe because no one cares.

[LindaWhit]

I stopped watching it after the 2nd episode. It just wasn't a good show.

[chicgail]

What happened?

[Robinez]

The gal with the glasses that jumped around alot and the goth gal competed.In the end Ann Burrell and the little jumpy gal won :)

Robin

[bushwickgirl]

FN back on Cablevision now, I guess I can checkout what everyone has been opinionating about.

[jackbauer]

Enjoy the show, it's a lot of fun! (Unless you're too big for your britches)

[melly]

Ann Burrel's choppy voice is disturbing to me...and I've always admired the way she cooks.

[chef chicklet]

Thank you melly, that's just so true!
I'm trying tio remind myself its only tv, but its becoming rather difficult to keep my feelings in check. She should knock that off. People remember how you make them feel more than anything, and she makes me feel more and more uncomfortable.

[TrishUntrapped]

Okay, I just caught the show where the winner of the quickfire challenge got a HUGE advantage - her side's worst player was swapped for the other's best player.

So let me get this straight....this woman wins the challenge, and her prize is she now has to compete with the other team's best player...

This show is mean-spirited in many ways really... I think I will finish the season, but it's kind of crappy.

[JRCann]

Trish, it seems to be the common thread of all reality shows. Sadly, it also seems to be a reflection of our culture... mean spirited and narrowminded.

[chowser]

I just caught the show for the first time and didn't think it was terrible. It's like watching people go through a boot camp for cooking. I wish I had been chosen to be mentored like that. Some of the people are annoying but at least they're all self acknowledged as not having a clue. It would be nice if they focused more on technique so it could be a learning experience for everyone, not just the participants. I'd rather watch the two chefs teaching and less on the mistakes of the participants. OTOH, it shows what can go wrong and how for when people at home try the same thing. Boiled over milk, burned pans? Who hasn't experienced that?

[Midlife]

Each time I think Food Network has reached a new low they never fail to disappoint by sinking even deeper after a while. I caught maybe five minutes of this debacle about a week ago. If it weren't for Bobby, Giada, Ina, Tyler, Guy, and Ace of Cakes I'd never go near the channel any more.

[dolly52]

I have never watched it, commercials are bad enough

[TrishUntrapped]

I've taught several baking classes, and this show is making me cringe.

It's clear from all the previews that two contestants will indeed make it to the finals and will dazzle the judges. Good for them, they will have gotten something from the show.

As for the first four contestants who were booted, they got nothing. I did feel sad for that tall Southern guy who just wanted to learn how to cook for his family.

I truly hope that as a parting gift, FN givers all the contestants a certificate to a bonafide cooking school, because except for a lucky few, most of them aren't going to learn how to cook from this show.

[Kater]

I had such high hopes because I LOVE the premise of the show. But I agree that there is little teaching going on and the Chefs are simply dull. Rather than teaching them the essentials of cooking, they've set up a series of challenges that are quite dull because the only point of interest is the contestant's fear and trepidation. They aren't learning any technique and while the Chef's are fairly unpleasant neither has the charisma to bring a Simon Cowell or Gordon Ramsey vibe to the party.

It is a disappointment but Food Network is really weak in the Reality/Competition show department.

[Phaedrus]

Sad part is that it seems they are trying to fill their programming grid with reality shows, what they are really bad at.

[CucumberBoy]

The premise -- for me -- was flawed from the beginning. What's to stop a bonafide chef from acting deliberately clueless and cooking horrible dishes all in the name of competition?

I can't watch the show without thinking some of these "horrible cooks" are, in actuality, quite adept and are only faking it for the benefit of entertainment.

Oh well, as the saying goes, television is a medium because anything well done is rare.

-cb-

[JRCann]

I couldn't get past the first commercial break before grabbing the remote!

[Sam Fujisaka]

A lot of you don't like the show; but many of you accuse your own mothers (on various CH threads) of being equally heinous cooks. Aren't those accusations equally appalling for your mothers?

[chicgail]

I think the problem for me is not that the contestants are heinous cooks. I think the problem is that they are being subject to an artificial competition and that the opportunity for real compassion and teaching isn't happening. Ultimately it appears that there is precious little teaching going on for them and all the other heinous cooks who are watching leaving the "contestants" under a false pressure and subject to humiliation.

I'm not all that familiar with Guy, but Ann seems to be awkward and uncomfortable with her role.

[Pete Oldtown]

I hated the first show, but the second was far better. Some of them are actually learning something. The two winners actually did a decent job on some relatively complex dishes.

I'm going to hang in with it.

Some of these people are never going to learn, but it's obvious that if you pay attention, you CAN learn something. As the really horrible ones (like the waitress with the ripped stockings) get eliminated, we might get to see something really interesting.

[thew]

it's just the bizzarro world top chef. i'm amazed at the cluelessness, but somehow i enjoy watching

[Cherylptw]

I absolutely love The Chef Jeff Project; I actually shed a few tears over the last season's shows watching how much he really cared about those kids and wanting them to succeed..can't wait until the new season starts.

Worst Cooks in America is just a terrible show. They really expect these people to learn things in a short amount of time with no skills at all that students in a accredited cooking school program learn over a period of a 10 months for the basics to years to become refined. That dish that Anne Burell had the "recruits" make should have started in a lesson on stock making. You can't expect them to get it right when you give them pre-made stock & expensive saffron to which they have no clue how it is supposed to be.

Food Network really need to make a show on learning skills: braising, stewing, knife skills, produce, meats, butchering, etc. The closest they have to anything such is Good Eats.

[chef chicklet]

I have to remember they called it a bootcamp in the opening show. Bootcamp means its not going to be spa treatment. So far I'm liking it.

[elfcook]

just watched the second episode - in about 25 minutes. I fast-forwarded thru most of it. While I do not find it overly harsh or humiliating (compared to HK, it doesn't even come close), neither is it really enjoyable. I would have loved to see the knife skills they taught, not just a quick view of each cut. But, this is a so-called reality competition, not an instructional show. If I want serious cooking, FN is not where I go to find it.

[Rocky Road]

I was kind of disturbed when I saw this show last week. After it, I thought to myself….”wow, are there really people out there like that?” After all, for many years I knew nothing about cooking or food. Yet, I was never as bad as any of those people, even at the height of my culinary ignorance, nor had I ever witnessed anyone that bad. I suppose there really could be folks out there like this.

Then it hit me. This is just another reality/competition show, that’s tied to money and potential fame. It’s just on the opposite spectrum of the Chef Jeff Project. I think of the balloon boy Dad and his burning desire to get a reality show. So much so that he risks his wife’s deportation, jail, and public humiliation. If we think he’s the only one like that, we need to think again.

As I looked at some of those dishes, I wondered how many of those original 24 contestants didn’t just throw some nasty dish together on purpose because 1) The show is called “Worst Cooks” so maybe even if they didn’t know that first night’s premise; they decided to be the worst cook, or 2) If they knew the premise (and they did soon enough) being the worst was the way to avoid the mass elimination in that first round. So, the strategy may have been to be the worst, which wasn’t hard for most of them, then try to be the best.

So really, this is one of these contestants big chance at fame. Aside from the $25K, which is nothing to sneeze at, if the eventual winner of this thing has any charm or likeability, and comes off well on TV, it’s their ticket to potential more spots on air with FN. This show is what they are referring to a cooking “boot camp.” Anyone in the service knows there is a launch from boot camp to a next level. It’s usually school/education. There could be a logical next level here, if the winner is likeable and FN survey’s show people are drawn to one of these people.

I saw Ann and Guy together on his show this weekend too. What a natural to throw the winner of this thing with Melissa D’Arabian or Big Daddy to take them to the next level.
So, I agree with most that – these two host’s main goal is to humiliate and not teach, that FN’s ultimate goals for this competition seem to be at odds with the basic premise of the show, and the contestants goals, and that the foods/ingredients & techniques they are trying to cook are too complicated if they are this inexperienced.

As to the contestants- I too think some are genuinely sincere about learning. Others I see as fake. I don’t know if any of them will have the TV personality for further gain but I don’t feel sorry for them at all. They signed up. I don’t necessarily fault FN for putting on the show either. Who on CH would really watch a basic entry level show teaching home cooks to make basic knife cuts and wash your hands after handling poultry etc.? I wonder what the ratings have been for the show? I wonder what demographic they are going for? I don’t think it’s the CH set, but more younger people and the hardcore reality/humiliation junkies. I’m not entirely sure this show is aimed for anyone interested in food. Just as the Chef Jeff Project was not really geared toward food. That was an emotional show that had to deal with real life. One didn’t need to know a lick about cooking, food, or CH to have enjoyed that show.

[queencru]

After reading these posts I thought episode 2 would be awful in terms of the humiliation, but I didn't really think it was as bad as what I've seen on other shows.

I have to agree that it's not going to do squat in terms of giving the contestants any usable skills. If you're starting at level 0 and given challenges that would be challenging for a level 4-5, of course you're not going to do well.

I think what frustrates me the most is that these people just want to learn to be decent home cooks. Why do Anne and Beau insist on using ingredients and techniques the average home cook would never need to know? Who is going to be cooking on a hibachi while making his spouse/kids dinner or using duck? They should be starting with the typical ingredients a home cook would use and then build from there, not throwing them into ducks and mussels right off the bat.

[goodhealthgourmet]

"Why do Anne and Beau insist on using ingredients and techniques the average home cook would never need to know? '
~~~~~
because the show has an identity crisis. the ultimate "goal" for the chefs and the show is to train two of these people to pull off a restaurant-quality meal for the final face-off...but it sounds to me as though the goal for the contestants themselves is simply to learn basic cooking skills. the two don't mesh.

[mattwarner]

I think what frustrates me the most is that these people just want to learn to be decent home cooks.
-------------------------------
I think what frustrates me is that they don't seem entirely interested in learning to cook, so much as they are really quite interested in being on television.

[chicgail]

I think some of them want to learn to cook, but clearly some are interested in "winning" or at least just want to good/not look bad. Very different motivation.

But then if all they wanted to do was learn to cook, they wouldn't have put themselves on a TV show. sigh.

How do non-cooking people -- or anyone -- find the audition notices about stuff like this or Chef Academy? Do they go out and look for it? Do other people suggest it for them? Do you suppose they do it because it is free (no tution) or because they want their 15 minutes of fame like the guy with the balloon or the couple who crashed the WH soiree? I'm trying to not be cynical here.

[thew]

it's a tv competition. what would be wrong with going with the motivation of being on tv or winning the prize? why would that be somehow less "pure" a motivation than learning to cook?

[chicgail]

I don't think it's BAD or WRONG being on a TV competition. And I wasn't putting a value judgment on their motivation.

I was responding to the previous poster who said he was frustrated that "they don't seem entirely interested in learning to cook as much as they are really quite interested in being on television."

And then I found myself speculating about who goes on shows like that that, why they do it and how they even find out about them.

My world is a little different in that if I wanted to learn to cook the first place I would look would not be to find some TV reality show so maybe they didn't really want to cook all that much. The other side of it was that maybe they could learn something and it wouldn't cost them the fee or tuition of taking a class.

And it may be that people don't even really know what they are signing up for. A colleague of mine applied to be on an Apprentice-type show, (and nearly made it) only to find out after the fact that the show was actually designed to openly humiliate the contestants for a laugh. She was glad she wasn't on it.

[Ideefixed]

Of course they know. I used to work on a show about clutter, and people manufactured cluttered rooms, just to get on the show. We'd go on a scout, and they'd be scattering stuff around the living room--even though they didn't really live like that. Hoarders shows the houses our show wasn't willing to do.

For some people, being on a TV show, no matter how silly or inconsequential, is fun. Or at least noteworthy. If you don't live in a big media center, it's exciting and cool. If you live in NYC or LA, chances are you probably know someone in entertainment, and thus, it's no big deal. Like in Atlanta--you probably know someone who works for CNN, but in Billings MT, not so much.

Casting notices are all over Craigslist, so it's easy to find out about the shows. There are casting agencies, but for most shows like this, people just answer an ad.

Like this one for a new Gordon Ramsey show. http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/...

[mattwarner]

I don't think it's an impure motivation. But since the premise of the show is cookery instruction, I believe that a more genuine - or at least a better portrayed - desire to teach and learn cooking would make for a more interesting show.

[queencru]

I figure they go onto channels of interest and just search for casting calls. If you're just looking for your 15 minutes, I imagine you just sign up for anything and everything for which you could possibly qualify. That said, Worst Cooks is only a 10-day competition, so it's probably less likely to attract quite as many fame seekers as we saw on the 6-8-week Chef Academy.

I don't think everyone who goes on reality show is really looking for a career in acting. When I taught in Japan, one of my coworkers was on the first season of what became a very popular Road Rules-like reality show. Aside from that experience, he seemed like a perfectly normal, down-to-earth teacher who was enthusiastic about his job. I wish I'd asked him how he found out about it or why he decided to apply.

[LindaWhit]

Guess what? There's a whole industry that has cropped up for finding these auditions - just Google "reality show auditions" and you'll come up with dozens of sites, including:

http://www.reality-tv-auditions.com/
http://www.sirlinksalot.net/castingcalls.html
http://www.actorspages.org/realitytv.php

It's actually quite frightening how many of them there are.

[Vladimir Estragon]

Humiliation is what TV is all about these days, my friend. Not only do people by the millions tune in to watch others be humiliated, they also line up around the block for the opportunity to be humiliated themselves.

[donw9876]

This show is a big train wreck. IMO it's rather obvious that Food Network took the confrontational aspects of shows like "Chopped" and multiplied the angst.

I think the level of cookery expected from the contestants is ridiculous. They're being told to make complex dishes that many middle class people have never encountered or eaten, using techniques and ingredients that 95% of the amateur cooks in the US have no idea about. It would be much more meaningful if the boot camp progressed through some basics, such as making a reduction sauce by deglazing. Instead it's this showy nouvelle cuisine stuff.

Of course, a sensible approach wouldn't get ratings and it would take too long. You have to make people break down and cry on camera and you need to eject someone after each round.

The show that is closest to this I've seen lately is "Hoarders" on A&E. It makes me squirm the same way because you just don't see a happy ending. If I were a contestant who made it to the end I would feel like crap for all of the friends that I saw get booted.

Guess we'll see if this concept has legs.

[Beckyleach]

In defense of Hoarders (I'm a recent fan) many of the episodes really do appear to reach some helpful semi-resolution. A few are notable for the amazing psychological growth and accomplishment of the participants, in fact (I'm thinking in particular of the young man with the alcoholic father, who cleaned their entire house and really, really gained some deep personal perception, in the process).

Additionally, the intent of the Hoarder shows truly seems to be HELPFUL. Some of the more frequent helpers are getting snippy, though (the man who is in charge of the dumpster detail, for instance, is running out of patience) but many of the mental health professionals seem really compassionate.

That's all. Now, to return to our regularly scheduled programming... <g>

[sunflwrsdh]

Yikes! Haven't seen "Worst Cooks" and probably won't now..."Hoarders" was just completely disturbing!

[howlin]

what does middle class got to do with anything?

[susancinsf]

I watched tonight and decided that's it. I agree with much of what you say. Apart from belittling the students in the name of competition, the challenges don't appear to match up with the ambitions of the cooks (most of whom seem to be genuinely more interested in learning to cook for the sake of learning to cook than they are in competition. For example, they had training on knife skills, ok, I can see that, but then they are asked to use their skills in teppanyaki cooking (on a teppanyaki grill at a restaurant). So, what home chef is ever going to need to know, much less WANT to know, how do that?

[goodhealthgourmet]

interesting to see the disparate opinions:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/678067

personally i find it unwatchable. i tried twice, but everything about this show makes me cringe. the contestants are clueless, some of them are scared of their own shadows so trusting them with sharp knives and flames in a stressful environment is an accident waiting to happen, and Anne Burrell's demeanor just rubs me the wrong way. and the woman who breaks down weeping all the time is just more than i can tolerate. it's absurd. she acts as though the fate of the free world rests on her learning how to cook, and you'd think this show was her only option in the entire universe. take a freaking cooking class!

i've already wasted 2 hours of my life on this train wreck. that's more than enough for me. the Cablevision customers who were upset about losing access to the channel can rest assured that they're really not missing anything.

[LindaWhit]

I watched this for the first time (and last!) time last night. Really NOT a good show - but then again, no surprise, considering who's putting it out.

Why aren't they REALLY teaching them the basics? They get less-than-cursory knife skills training, and then have to use them in a teppanyaki challenge? I guess ratings wouldn't be as good without the challenges and humiliation.

Seriously amazing that the people who go on this show are that clueless, or would want to humiliate themselves just to be on TV. Why not go to a local culinary class or two and really learn?

TFN really dug deep into the bottom of the barrel for this one. Oy.

[bushwickgirl]

Thanks for your opinion, ghg, I was wondering. I can't handle cluelessness.
No FN for me these days; as a Cablevision customer, I actually don't miss it.

"take a freaking cooking class!" I scream this at the TV frequently.

[CoconutMilk]

Its the worst show I have ever seen on the Food Network, and thats saying something considering what the programming has been like in the last few years.