Ciao House

My fiancée and I were intrigued by this show when we saw the commercials. Set in Tuscany, lots of opportunity to showcase the locale with all the foods etc. Unfortunately, while they've shown some of those things, the format of the show is ridiculous and super unfair. Constantly lopsided teams, people being captains multiple times while others not at all, has allowed floaters to get further than they should have, while better chefs have gone home. The judges are different and their choices for choosing the winners are wishy washy and we just watched an episode where a judge pointed out something to the chefs about their choice for the menu, questioning it, thusly allowing them to make a change which really gave them an advantage. Ridiculous.

We watched the first season of this show only because we were going to be visiting Italy soon. It seemed disjointed and very low budget. We are very pleasantly surprised with the second season. Much more compelling and the production values are far better. We like the concept of team members deciding who will be going home. We also feel like we are learning a lot about Italian cuisine. Alex is not as obnoxious in the second season as she was in the first. If you were not happy with the first season, I definitely think you should give the second season a try. The setting is beyond beautiful and the food looks fantastic. I hope it comes back for a third season.

Did the casting call for this show read "Looking for awful human beings who happen to be chefs"? There's nobody to root for on this show. If you want a display of pure narcissism to end your Sunday night, this is for you. It's just such a shame. I'm sure there were more qualified chefs, who also had a shred of humility and basic decency that would have loved the opportunity. The two judges are good! Big fan of Alex and always have been. It's just a waste of her abilities, but I'm sure she is not complaining about being in Tuscany. I hope that if this show gets renewed for another season, they can find contestants that people want to root for and see succeed.

Alex G is the worst hostess. Her feedback is mostly negative, in a hurtful meaningless way. She's out Gordon Ramseying Gordon Ramsey, minus the yelling! Not one meaningful suggestion from her.

Sending only the captains to the cheese maker, not telling them what meal to plan, then coming into the kitchen for the smaller team with 5 minutes left and throwing negativity about their items - that is simply unpardonable hosting!

Also the show is spending money in sending all the contestants to lovely Tuscany, but poor production quality in setting the specific competition rules - both teams get same ingredients, but one team gets more time and look at the competition before they even start to plan! In which feverish nightmare of Alex G is this a real competition?

I have never been impressed with her cooking, even though she did advance in TOC 5. But seeing her character in this show revealed how shallow a person she really is because of her constant negativity. Please retire her Food Network!

Scenery, setting, production, judges all get a thumbs way up. But, honestly can they not find contestants that don't make every chef in the world look like giant, whiny egotistical jerks? There is not one person here you hopes win or root for! You watch every week hoping the worst of the worst go home! There must be nice, decent talented chefs somewhere! Please find them for Season 3. I know being a successful chef requires immense dedication and hard work and an ego but the Season 2 contestants are so ridiculously over the top. I had one I thought was talented that I did back but of course they were eventually eliminated. Please do better casting wise next season.