Worst Cooks in America

[Liveitloud]

Seems that the food network is casting for people who cannot cook for a new show.

Link to article

Show to air Jan. 3rd.

[jpropaganda]

Yea, they advertised for this show pretty hard during last night's Next Iron Chef finale...although I don't think they're casting anymore because it looks like it's been produced/in production.

[RWells]

Seems that the food network is casting for people who cannot cook for a new show.

Link to article

Show to air Jan. 3rd.

This is too easy, how about if they just look around the building. Let's see Guy Fieri, Sandra Lee, the Neeleys, dare I say Rachel........do we really need to continue?

Bob

[gfweb]

Seems that the food network is casting for people who cannot cook for a new show.

Link to article

Show to air Jan. 3rd.

I'd say that they have enough of them already on the payroll.

[Liveitloud]

Seems that the food network is casting for people who cannot cook for a new show.

Link to article

Show to air Jan. 3rd.

This is too easy, how about if they just look around the building. Let's see Guy Fieri, Sandra Lee, the Neeleys, dare I say Rachel........do we really need to continue?

Bob

ouch.

Well you make a good point.

[Jon Savage]

There's an article about it in today's LA Times.

In the opening episode, the 12 players -- all competing for a chance at a $25,000 payday -- were asked to serve up a signature dish for MacMillan and fellow chef Anne Burrell. One contestant, Marque Hernandez of Brea, above, prepared asparagus for the judges by cutting off most of the tops -- and serving the hard, stringy bottoms. (He explained that he thought they looked better that way.) Another contestant cooked a whole chicken by plunging it into boiling water, plating it up, and then covering the beige, rubbery skin with a canned sauce. Goulash was made, inexplicably, with rice and lentils thickened with flour and mustard. And one person made a pasta dish and added pineapple at the end. "For crunch."

clicky

This show could prove to be quite spectacular in its awfulness if the above examples are any indication. On the other hand perhaps its intent is to actually teach some of these folks to cook.

The audition tapes for the contestants are really amazing. It seems as if even boiling water might be a bit of a reach for some of these folks.

[Holly Moore]

Painful to watch - and not in a good way.

[LizD518]

I was laughing hilariously throughout this. Honestly, I felt so sorry for most of the contestants. But at least a few of them seemed like they really wanted to learn - and had produced a passable effort.

I also wonder if there are any common personality traits (for lack of a better phrase) that are common among good cooks, and thus, the lack thereof are common among not-good cooks. It seemed like very few of them took any time to think about what they were doing and what the result would be when they were cooking their "signature dishes". They also seemed to lack any instincts when it came to flavors and seasoning.

[TheFoodTutor]

I thought it was fairly entertaining. The canned soup thing made me laugh out loud.

That peanut butter fish dish was probably the most revolting thing I've ever seen.

[Reignking]

I thought it was hilarious, too. It is definitely an entertaining concept, but I wonder how bad they are.

The casting...showing people lined up bringing their awful food? I'm sure I could make something awful, too.

[GwennP]

I thought this was very funny - the boiled chicken with the cheese on top and the peanut butter crusted fish - wow. Then there were the different types of canned soup in one bowl! I think it's a great concept and way much better than watching the likes of Sandra Lee!

Edited January 5, 2010 by GwennP (log)

[Kouign Aman]

w the right fish, pnutbutter fish could be good. A few chilis, a bit of lime...

[TheFoodTutor]

w the right fish, pnutbutter fish could be good. A few chilis, a bit of lime...

I see where you're going here, and I can imagine that. A nice firm fish like Mahi with a satay-style sauce or something. In this case, however, we're talking about a whitefish fillet with a gigantic smear of jarred peanut butter on top, cooked until it was black and hit, post-mortem, with too many shakes of cayenne pepper.

Chef Anne Burrell spit it out, and Chef Beau was afraid to even taste it.

I know that it seems like I could fake being a lousy cook, but I get the feeling that this group is the genuine article.

[cathrynapple]

It's obviously fake, given the several contestants who have openly admitted to auditioning for as many reality shows as they can.

One contestant has an agent: http://www.rebeccahooper.com/resume.html

Here is a clip of Sophia talking about auditions: http://www.youtube.com/user/SophiaGettys

Like every other reality show, it's all staged.

[gfweb]

It could be worse I suppose.

[violetfox]

What an incredibly stupid idea. Of all the clever and interesting things possible for TV, this is the best that Food Network can do? Pathetic.

[brokenscale]

they did a show exactly like this in the UK...Kitchen Criminals was hosted by Johh Burton Race and Angela Hartnett and set out to find the country's worse cooks and chefs. It only ran for one season and premeired on august 13 2007.

[Kajikit]

Just because you have an agent and want to be on reality television doesn't mean you know thing one about cooking! I laughed my head off at the first episode... 'decoratively' arranging the silverware over the top of the plate! It would be a disaster if the whole thing revolved around just how bad they were, but they do actually have to demonstrate some kind of skills and improvement to stay in the game... it's a kitchen bootcamp and I'm not going to knock it just yet.

[TheFoodTutor]

Just because you have an agent and want to be on reality television doesn't mean you know thing one about cooking!

I was actually formulating a post that would read, "Just because one is an actor/actress, that doesn't mean that one can't also be a genuinely bad cook." Actually, I think the intersection of those two groups could even be quite wide.

And if I were to make it onto a reality show - highly unlikely, since I haven't tried out for one - I would hire an agent or a career consultant immediately, if I didn't have one already. Given the number of reality shows around these days, you need to capitalize on whatever celebrity you hope to gain in a very timely fashion, because the next Top Chef contestant, Wanna-Dancer or whatever is following right behind you.

Are the "Real Housewives of Atlanta" really just a bunch of attention whores who hope to springboard this into some other career opportunity? Absolutely. Are they really as ghetto-fabulous as they appear to be on the show? Yup. Do they represent a certain percentage of the population in Atlanta? Oh boy, yes indeedy. Which is why I've been unable to watch a single entire episode. It kind of makes me ashamed that I live here.

I still don't doubt the veracity of the cooks who are on here, and I'm looking forward to watching the train wreck that airs tonight.

[Holly Moore]

New chugging game - every time Rebeca breaks out in tears and says she doesn't want to let down her family.

[Arey]

After watching the second installment which I had recorded on my DVR I came to the conclusion that this show approaches America's Worse Cook from the wrong end. At the end of each installment they should eliminate the best or most promising competitor. They could give him/her a paid tuition to their favorite culinary school and tell them they show promise and they should develop their skills. Then they should continue to eliminate the promising cooks until they end up with the most absolute awful cooks in the USA. For instance the guy they eliminated last night who has never learned that you peel onions becore slicing or dicing (the non-peeling of garlic I'm ignoring since I notice that often chefs do or don't peel garlic depending on what they're going to do with it), would be a finalist in my concept. Then starting from the bottom, having determined who are the absolute worse cooks in America,they start all over from the bottom up, in which they take people who's cooking isn't fit to throw into a chum pot when fishing, and turn them into cooks who Sara Moulton asks for cooking hints, Lydia Bastinich wouldn't allow into her restaurants because their standards are too high, and Jacques Pepin regrets that he never had the opportunity to introduce them to Julia.

Edited January 12, 2010 by Arey (log)

[Zeemanb]

New chugging game - every time Rebeca breaks out in tears and says she doesn't want to let down her family.

Yeah, I keep picturing her family bound at gunpoint in a basement waiting for her to win some ransom money and spring them.

The most dumbfounding thing about the show for me is that they don't seem to even try to get them to cook "normal" items that a horrible cook should at least be able to come close to completing. Crepes aren't so crazy tonight I guess, but instead of things like omelettes, burgers, chicken stock, etc., my guess is that Anne and whatshisname will have to continue wondering "why they couldn't bring the layers of flavor together" in dishes that may very well end up poisoning them.

But all in all, I find the show infinitely less annoying than The Next Food Network Star or Alton's weight fluctuations, so I'm hooked.

[LizD518]

Well, it is a competition, not a realistic cooking class - I guess that wouldn't turn out very fun to watch. Although, with good editing, I think there could be a number of highlights that would send us into gales of laughter.

I have been enjoying it so far, but I'd think the ultimate challenge should not be to have them cook for food critics, but to have them choose a recipe of their choice (maybe from a pool of selected recipes of a certain difficulty level) and to produce the recipe, as well as appropriate side dishes, with no input from the professional chefs. I think this would show that yes, they really did learn something. Even better would be if they had chosen said recipe at the very begining of the competition and produced it then, so that there was a comparison.