The Julia Child Challenge

As a lifelong Julia Child fan, I started watching this with a little trepidation. I thought it would be too easy to turn Julia into a caricature and I was concerned about how they would incorporate her into the show. It turns out that my concern was unfounded. They did a great job.

I loved this show and I'm not over-fond of many current cooking contests on Food Network. My complaint against most shows is that they prefer flash-bang, edgy contestants and weird banter that ends up detracting from the cooking.

The Julia Child Challenge seems to take a page from The Great British Baking Show play-book; kinder, gentler, but no less entertaining and certainly more educational than most of the current crop.

I love that the contestants are nice folks, that they genuinely support each other, and don't talk smack. Each of them is truly talented as a home cook, too.

Antonia Lofaso does a great job connecting with the contestants and providing honest constructive criticism.

I'd happily watch more seasons of this.

Came into the show with the idea that Julia would be guiding the contestants on how to prepare certain dishes. Not necessarily the "worst cooks" level but slightly elevated family cooks. These people are not those type of people and they use Julia in tidbits to bring in some nostalgia for the viewer but the chefs themselves don't care.

The premise of the show should be: Provide some footage of Julia cooking and the chefs follow along with cutting a fish for the first time and then cooking it a certain way as shown by Julia and judged.

The end.

This is "Chopped" on a vintage looking set.

No thanks.

Antonia Lofaso and guest judges assign various cooking challenges to a group. The twist is that the challenges all come from Julia Child's famous cook book. There are also many clips of Child from various TV shows.

Main problem is that the format is dull and the competitors are not very interesting. More low key than other Food Network cooking competitions.

Lofaso tries but she can't force much life into this dead fish of a show. The most interesting part is the barrage of Child clips.

Boring cooking competition that uses Julia Child as an "inspiration," but it's just a rip-off of Child's name and reputation. But I'm sure the Julia Child Foundation made some money on this.

The most boring collection of cooks I've ever seen on a Food Network shows "compete" by making dishes that really have nothing to do with Julia Child. Example: Julia used wine in her fish stew. Make us a meal in which you use wine. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

There's more time spent on the contestants yapping about themselves than there is on cooking. Antonia Lofaso (host) and two guest judges ooze on about Julia Child and have a "family" dinner at a big table where everyone is forced to eat the food. Raw salmon? Raw chicken? NO THANKS!

I guessed in the first 5 minutes of episode 1 that Bill B. Would be the winner since he sells cookware. Stay tuned .... I won't.

What a refreshing change from the nasty, vulgar competition shows that seem to breed like, well, rats in a kitchen. This one is about the food and Julia Child's amazing legacy of making great cooking accessible to all. The contestants and the judges are respectful to each other and clearly find joy in what they do, as Julia did. The interspersed videos of Julia are so inspiring.