Bakeaway Camp with Martha Stewart

I love baking competition shows. I enjoyed seeing what the bakers created and I liked the challenges, but the fawning over Martha was too much. Every time someone started gushing about her, I pushed fast-forward. She is not authentically warm enough for a show like this. The worst part was the contestants craving a one to one with Martha and having really basic baking knowledge foisted on them like it was some kind of gift. I had to wonder how putting pretzels in a dessert was a revelation to her. Both of the judges sounded far more knowledgeable. I also think Jesse does well as the host.

I barely made it through 1 episode. I have enjoyed the Great British Baking Show, at least when it was hosted by Mel and Sue with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, so I thought I would give this a try. I wasted $9.99 by accidentally hitting the entire season tab instead of just the first episode. This series is appallingly bad. The host is stiff and Martha looks unwell. The contestants seem to be have chosen mostly for their ability to scream. When one of the contestants wins a trip to Martha's house it is almost painful to watch. Martha looks annoyed and put out to have a commoner in her kitchen and gives some tired and unoriginal "baking secrets". Who knew about gelatin? This is an extremely dumbed down version of the GBBS and just like everything produced now by the Food Network is filled with clownish, personality-driven programming. One star is too generous for this under-proved and over-baked, twice-baked stinking pile of wet batter.

What an incredible bait and switch this is. This game show takes place on Martha Stewart's property -- an effort to hit that Great British Bake-Off feel -- but Martha only pops in briefly at the start and near the end. The rest is Food Network's very, very tired operating procedure of diverse contestants wasting food and constantly yelling at each other in an obviously manufactured way: "How's everyone doing?!" is spoken in nearly EVERY Food Network program. This throws in a silly contrivance of "outdoor cooking." If they concentrated more on the process of cooking (see Great British Bake-Off again) and not on creating false drama of reality TV garbage, this show might be worth watching. As it is, it's not worth your time.

I generally enjoy baking shows and competitions, especially on Food Network. Except for this one! I can't even begin to explain why, except the show was annoying, being outside and then having Martha Stewart pop up, in her usual condescending manner. I thought I would give the show a chance, but couldn't even make it through the second episode. My advice, don't waste your time.

There is one really important key ingredient that just makes this show sizzle: saccharin. The coo-ing and ewh-ing was straight from the little blue and pink packets. Who would have guessed that this is a program for the diabetic baker.