food tv: Cook It! anyone seen it?

[marlena spieler]

anyone seen Cook It on television the other evening? its about someone who can't cook, then they get a cooking teacher to show her how, then she has to compete with a professional chef in making a meal.

[ravelda]

I taped it but haven't had a chance to watch it yet (I know, I really am that sad!)

[Matthew Grant]

see the thread on Pearl (a couple below).

[marlena spieler]

so last night the person who wanted to be a better cook and not have everyone throw her food into the rubbish, triumphed over the two professional chefs.

what do we think?

the soup looked really good, but would someone so ill-adept at cooking get the flavor balance right? it seems that a soup like that would need a sensitive ability to taste and season? anyhow, i like the way she tidied up the not-so-nicely fish garnish!

[Matthew Grant]

Maybe Jay "MPW" Rayner can enlighten us on the judging process, perhaps the other 2 had worked in kitchens for "10 years between them" as kitchen porters or something?

[ravelda]

That is the same thing I am wondering Matthew - they tell us how long the competitors have worked in "professional kitchens", but I want to know what they do and where they work. From the people they have had on competing with the "student" so far, I tend to think that they have been working in Wetherspoons or Harvester Pubs empting the bins!

[marlena spieler]

EXACTLY......

something doesn't compute so far.....though....they can't have all of the 'professional chefs' be losing to the home uncook.....or can they?

and who plans the menus/recipes for the professional chefs? two venison mail courses? and the one beef.....? (beef the winner, perhaps the judges don't like venison?).

when i had discussed the whole concept with the producers they were emphatic that they wanted the 'teacher' to really be a teacher, of good food, but so far it seems more like jumping through hoops, and the teacher is of course a well accomplished professional chef......

on the other hand, the uncook did seem to actually enjoy the whole thing. maybe she has an inner chef that is bursting to come out?

[ravelda]

My other major issue other than the one above is whether the student really learns to cook. to me it seems that they learn 3 dishes and practice them to compete - a monkey could do that, that is not learning about food, flavours, techniques, etc. Rosemary Shrager's Kitchen Showdown was a better example of teaching people techniques that they could adapt to other dishes, but even this was a very basic lesson and limited to very few techniques.

[Matthew Grant]

The other thing that bothers me is that they really don't show any of the cooking. When she prepped the beef with JT in his "cookery school" they showed her putting oil on the beef and the next shot was of it being plated up, what happened in between?

Edited October 18, 2006 by Matthew Grant (log)

[jayrayner]

Such suspicious folk. To take the various points raised here in no particular order, her soup really was spankingly good: intense, rich but without being overwhelming or simply too salty. It was a strong piece of cooking.

Yes, they cooked in real time, and no we had no way of knowing who was who. And indeed my two colleagues didn't have any idea there was a faking it element to the show (though, for various reasons too complicated to explain, I did. Nevertheless I didn't have a clue who was who and, not knowing, voted on execution alone.)

The two other chefs do each have five year's experience, but not perhaps in the most illustrious of places: both, as I recall, out of town or grand airport hotels. Nevertheless one of them prepared a very good gezpacho. But it was not as good as the winner's fish soup.

None of the meat dishes were as impressive as any of the soups but again, hers did the job (though the description was a little confusing. Both Paul Merret and I wondered why you would bother putting any flavouiring in a salt crust, as salt crusts seal meat and any traffic would, osmotically be out rather than in; the salt pastry nature of it made more sense.) And yes, all of us like venison.

A final point. In the after match interview I did say it was very good cooking but were those the only two dishes she could do? The answer I now see is yes.

Still and all, I think it made for fun food television. As for the outcome of each show it ain't predictable. I suggest you carry on watching.

[ravelda]

Thanks for the update Jay - always good to get an inside line!

[marlena spieler]

next weeks judges will be carol godsmark and frank bordoni.

[Carlovski]

I think if I were asked (Not that I am likely to be!) to some odd location with 2 other people to judge 3 peoples cooking (Or anything for that matter) for what appears to be no apparent reason I may guess thatsome sort of 'faking it' deal was in order.

[jayrayner]

I think if I were asked (Not that I am likely to be!) to some odd location with 2 other people to judge 3 peoples cooking (Or anything for that matter) for what appears to be no apparent reason I may guess thatsome sort of 'faking it' deal was in order.

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At what point did I say we were not given a reason? Young chefs; cook off; we need judges.

But hey... sorry your searing foresight is going to waste.

[Carlovski]

I think if I were asked (Not that I am likely to be!) to some odd location with 2 other people to judge 3 peoples cooking (Or anything for that matter) for what appears to be no apparent reason I may guess thatsome sort of 'faking it' deal was in order.

←

At what point did I say we were not given a reason? Young chefs; cook off; we need judges.

But hey... sorry your searing foresight is going to waste.

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Does that sort of thing happen often then - 3 way cook off outside of any structured competition (Which is what it appears to be, or was there a more elaborate cover story)? I assumed not, if it does then my apologies.