My Favorite Reality Contest TV Shows - Cooking

This show is the first one that started my fascination with cooking show challenges.
It gets better every year.

Cool Tom and classy Padma. Can't beat the chemistry.

About the show:
What happens in Vegas will be delicious. The sixth season of the No. 1 food show on cable, Bravo's Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series returns with Top Chef: Las Vegas, premiering Wednesday, August 19th at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The 17 new chef'testants take on Sin City this season to see if they have what it takes to become Top Chef.

Once again returning to the kitchen, cookbook author, actress and host Padma Lakshmi presides over the judge's table alongside head judge Tom Colicchio, renowned culinary figure and chef/owner Craft Restaurants, and judges Gail Simmons, of Food & Wine magazine and Toby Young, food critic and best-selling author of the book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Some of the top names in food, movies and entertainment including Wolfgang Puck, Todd English, Natalie Portman, Daniel Boulud, Penn & Teller, Hubert Keller, Laurent Tourondel, Tim Love, Michelle Bernstein, Tyler Florence, Charlie Palmer, Paul Bartolotta, Nigella Lawson and Jerome Bocuse will be featured this season on Top Chef: Las Vegas.

Bravo's Top Chef offers a fascinating window into the competitive, pressure-filled environment of world-class cookery and the restaurant business at the highest level. The series features seventeen aspiring chefs who compete for their shot at culinary stardom and the chance to earn the prestigious title of "Top Chef." Each episode holds two challenges for the chefs. The first is a quickfire test of their basic abilities and the second is a more involved elimination challenge designed to test the versatility and inventiveness of the chefs as they take on unique culinary trials such as working with unusual and exotic foods or catering for a range of demanding clients. The challenges not only test their skills in the kitchen, but also uncover if they have the customer service, management and teamwork abilities required of a Top Chef. The competing chefs live and breathe the high-pressure lifestyle that comes with being a master chef and each week someone is asked to "pack up their knives" and go home.

Credit: Top Chef on bravotv.com

It's been panned by the critics for being a lame follow-up to the Top Chef show because it lacks the rivalry of the younger chefs. I like it because there is a grace free from drama about the Master chefs treatment of each other.

About the show:
Top Chef Masters pits 24 world-renowned chefs against each other and see how well they fare in the tried and true format of Top Chef. In each episode, money will be at stake for the chefs, with the winners of eliminations being awarded cash donations for their charities. The first six episodes will consist of four chefs competing against each other to name one winner. The six winners of each episode will then meet up for the final four weeks when one person will get eliminated each episode until the finale where one winner is crowned Top Chef Master. The winning chef will receive $100,000 for the charity of their choice.

Each episode of Top Chef Masters holds two challenges for the chefs.The first is a twist on the classic Top Chef Quickfire Challenge which tests their basic abilities - for example in season 2 of Top Chef where the chef'testants had to create an amuse bouche out of items from a vending machine. Each Quickfire Challenge will be judged by a blind taste test and a five-star system, similar to fine dining reviews.

The second challenge is a more involved elimination challenge designed to test the versatility and invention of the chefs as they take on unique culinary trials such as working with unusual and exotic foods or catering for demanding clients. The food will be tasted and evaluated by the judges and a wide range of tasters for whom the challenge is aimed, whether it is patrons at a five-star restaurant or a room full of hungry kids - the food has to appeal to the diner as well as the critics if the chef is to survive.

Credit: Top Chef Masters on bravotv.com

Buon Appetito Art Print
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I like to see Bobby get beat trying to come up with a better version of the meal of which his guest chefs are well known. Sometimes it does happen.

Told you it was Evil. :D

About the show:
Chef Bobby Flay is on a secret mission: to challenge the absolute masters in different kinds of cooking - award-winning BBQers, bakers, pizza makers and more. In each episode, one of these cooks thinks Food Network is shooting their profile for a show. What they don't know is that Bobby is going to drop in for a surprise visit and challenge them to an unexpected cook-off. Since they're in their element and Bobby's out of his, prepare for an exciting, tension-filled competition.

Credit: Throwdown with Bobby Flay on foodnetwork.com

There's nothing like a all-in-the-family business....

About the show:
Buddy Valastro is one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the United States. Master baker of Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, Buddy is the cake boss.

He supervises a team that includes his mother, four older sisters and three brothers-in-law. And when you're working with family on a daily basis, there is bound to be a lot of drama. The Valastros know drama but and at the end of the day they also know love.

Cake Boss chronicles Buddy's over-arching desire to achieve his late father's dream of making Carlo's Bake Shop a household name with or without the help of his family.

Credit: Cake Boss on tlc.discovery.com

Buon Appetito Art Print
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Love the contrast of a tattooed, biker-looking, rock musician with a successful cake business.

About the show:
Meet Chef Duff. Shaping cakes with drill saws and blowtorches, and staffing his bakery with fellow rock musicians, he's not your typical baker. However, he's one of the most sought-after decorative cake makers in the country. Every week at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Duff and his team of artists try to meet the demands of creating up to 20 cakes a week, some of which take up to 29 hours to build! From a tilted Dr. Seuss-like seven-tiered wedding cake to an almost perfect replica of Wrigley Field, Duff can build it. Go behind the scenes to see how he and his fellow cake bakers dish up sugar and spice in the most unexpected and entertaining ways.

Credit: Ace of Cakes on foodnetwork.com

Very little drama, just for drama's appeal, beyond the hectic contest itself.

About the show:
The greatest cake artists in the world go head to head in competition to build the ultimate cake. Each week, three renowned cake decorators lead their teams to build cakes over five feet tall, weighing hundreds of pounds. These cakes are themed to fit a marquee event where the winning cake will be showcased as a centerpiece. Normally, it would take weeks to construct cakes of this magnitude. Our experts will have just nine hours. Who will have the vision, skill and determination to create the ultimate cake?

Credit: Ultimate Cake Off on tlc.discovery.com

Sonoma Aroma Art Print
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