Top Chef

A cooking show that focuses on flash rather than the ingredients needed; it's all about privilege, product placement, busswords (organic) and an anti-science (gmo) approach to agriculture.

Top Chef is more of a "Housewives" show that centers around chefs and their egos than the food They prepare. It's a reality show that places far too much importance on tears, conflict, & petulant temper tantrums.

The best episodes & seasons are ones that feature Anthony Bourdain - because he was always unpretentious, honest, and genuinely cared about food.

It is very entertaining and gives me tips for dinner !! Howerver, I think the contestants in Season two ( except Elia, Sam and Marcel ) are really, really unpleasant ! Especially Betty ! She is really behaving ugly

A group of budding professional chefs come together to compete in a contest to see which of them will become "Top Chef". Each week they have a challenge and a "cook off" with the winner lauded by the panel of judges, while the individual deemed the weakest is sent home and takes no further part in the competition.

Yes, here we are in familiar territory with the reality contest model of a group of gradually dwindling people competing for a dream job. Fans of America's Next Top Model will recognise it and I'm sure it has been done many times in other guises in shows I just not aware of. Like ANTM, the contestants want to get a major jump in their chosen career and compete to get it. Each week we have the challenges, the in-fighting, the tensions and then the removal of one of the group. It is a winning approach so I can understand why others have just tried to apply that model to other disciplines – in this case cookery.

As with ANTM, the subject isn't really important because it the show is driven by the tension tensions between the characters. It may be clever editing but the most is made of the minor snaps at one another and the "diary room" comments are used to feed the minor fire. As such it is engaging enough guff that I find easy to watch without actually having to commit any emotion or brain power in watching. Everyone hates some characters and likes others and this is where the entertainment comes from. I confess that I found the judges quite dull and lacking in the sort of character and extremes that other similarly structured shows tend to have.

Overall then a fairly derivative affair perhaps but it is a formula that works and those that like this short of show will enjoy it. For my money though, it is distracting enough nonsense but nothing that I remember for more than five minutes after watching an episode.

Or cooking. It is ALL about product placement. Hey, let's step into the kenmore pro kitchen and gather all the calphalon equipment which is, of course, prominently displayed. This has the opposite affect on me. I would NEVER buy anything so unabashedly hawked.

And I don't understand why the so called hosts in season one and two are so monotone and awkward. Their delivery is incredibly lame and boring, no personality at all. They are a mess.

Add the insanely frenetic editing, which never focuses on anything for more than a millisecond, and it all adds up to nothing more than a shameful display of product placement.

Season 15 brings up Parma dressing herself in the most inappropriate clothing for a cooking show. Her dresses are so revealing that she might as well not be wearing anything at all. It is garishly inappropriate.

The first 3 series were fun to watch. After that, the producers struggled to make a series that didn´t create a yawn. I couldn´t get past the first 5 minutes. There seems to be a desperation in trying to attract an audience with their challenges, which are mundane. In there attempt to improve the contest, especially the recent first round with each team of three given minimal time for prep, then taking away the knives before putting a meal together in short time did nothing to stir my interest.