How Cooking Competitions Took Over TV (Part 1)

Proof

America's Test Kitchen

Cooking, Culinary, Food, Arts, Society & Culture, History

4.4 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From Iron Chef to Big British Bake Off, the cooking competition show has been a staple of American entertainment and education for ages. But America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation contestant Garrett Schlichte has seen a shift in these shows over time; whether it's about how competitive they are to what they're cooking, to who their intended audience really is. Garrett takes us behind the scenes across two episodes as he unravels the history and behind-the-scenes insights from the bake-offs and kitchen gauntlets from over the years.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Americans love food TV.
0:04.0	Now, I know a thing or two about food shows.
0:07.0	I've been a fixture on public television for 25 years,
0:11.0	and I teach Americans how to shop smart
0:13.0	when they're making grocery selections at the supermarket.
0:16.0	It's hard to think of an ingredient more important in the kitchen than flour.
0:20.0	Without flour, there's no fried chicken, there's no Thanksgiving gravy, and there's no birthday cake.
0:25.9	So here's what you need to know about flour.
0:28.0	Americans also love competition TV shows of all sorts.
0:33.7	Survivors ready.
0:36.9	Four suitcases are traveling around the wall right now.
0:40.5	Three contain clothes, but one of them is cake.
0:48.8	More and more food TV now falls into the competition genre.
0:54.0	This genre has evolved over time. There were the
0:56.6	early days where hyper-competitive kitchen stadium setups like an iron chef were king. We then got shows
1:04.0	like the Great British Bake Off, where contestants still competed, but everyone was somehow
1:08.8	very nice to one another. The tenor or intention of each
1:13.0	culinary competition show seems to reflect the time in which it was born. And it's been interesting
1:18.8	reflecting on what makes a show more competitive, mean, wholesome, or educational. This week's reporter has been diving headfirst into the evolution of the culinary competition
1:32.9	genre, and he provides unique insight from the vantage point of someone who has competed
1:38.2	on a food TV show.
1:40.5	Garrett Schlick-D. is a writer, co-host of the Virgo Supper Club, and most importantly, a finalist in season one of our very own competition show, America's Test Kitchen, The Next Generation.
	...

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