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NBC's Celebrity Cooking
Showdown premiered last night after weeks of less-than-optimistic reviews. The show, in case you missed it, is
Dancing with the Stars meets Iron Chef America. A celebrity, of whom the most famous is Tom Arnold, is paired with a real
chef, either Cat Cora, Wolfgang Puck or Govind Armstrong. The chef
must attempt to train the celebrity to cook in a mini "boot camp", after which the celebrity and chef will
face off Iron Chef-style against another team. Confused?
Last night's premier episode featured the following teams: Cindy Margolis and Wolfgang Puck, Tony Gonzalez and Cat Cora, Alison Sweeney and Govind Armstrong. When the show began, the celebs came out. Cindy was almost not wearing a shirt, Tony was twice as tall as Cat and Cat's hair was styled professionally, like it never is on Iron Chef America. Alison was wearing a short dress, but seemed to have more culinary prowess than the others based on her cooking-lesson clip.
{spoilers ahead}
The celebrities started cooking on their own, using recipes they learned to prepare in advance. Two ingredients were missing from their mise en place (set-up) that the celebs had to identify and retrieve from the pantry. Their chefs mostly coached from the sidelines, but were allowed to come in for a few two-minute "Chef passes" to help out. They also came in for the last 5-minutes of the competition to assist in plating.
The official judges awarded scores on presentation and flavor when the cooking was done. The dished had to sit out for the whole judging, so the first contestant to go, Cindy had a big advantage over her competition. Cindy's salad was great, but the judges didn't think her beef was spicy enough. Tony's dessert wowed the judges, but there was too much vodka in his vodka sauce. Alison's lobster was perfectly cooked, but her tenderloin was stuffed with too much cheese. Cindy's total score: 34/40. Alison: 31/40. Tony: 33/40. Cindy, the winner, will return on Thursday night to try to repeat her victorious performance.
I thought that Alison did a much better job at staying organized and seemed to have a better grasp of cooking than her opponents. The audience, which could vote for their favorite during the show, agreed with me and backed Alison to win. Tony seemed to be completely out of his element, but maintained a positive attitude. Both Alison and Tony were slightly disadvantaged, not only because their dishes had to sit around, but because one of the judges disliked cheese, which really affected their scores negatively. Overall, I can't say that I loved the show. I'd rather watch Iron Chef America, especially given that the network hardly aired any of the cooking lessons that the celebs received prior to the actual competition.
The show will air tonight through Friday at 8pm. The judging to determine the winner of the series will be done live, by viewers, on Thursday night after a final showdown of the winners from Monday - Wednesday, and the grand champion will be announced on Friday. Will you be watching?
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4-18-2006 @8:06AM Bobbi said... NOT, NOT, NOT! BORING!!!
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4-18-2006 @8:14AM RoseMarie said... I thought the entire show was a fiasco. It was not entertaining. They should have been dressed like Chefs, and at least shown some kind of respect for the subject at hand. I watched it for 15 mins and I will not be watching it again.
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4-18-2006 @10:22AM Jessica said... it was one of the worst cooking shows ever- very boring. the host and judges were terrible.
NOTHING compared to Iron Chef
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4-18-2006 @10:45AM Avitania said... I was totally disappointed by this show.
1. C-list celebs. Alan Thicke? Cindy Margolis? Who's next, Gary Coleman?
2. Boring recipes. Anyone can make caprese! I would not be surprised if one of tomorrow's recipes involved a can of cream of mushroom soup.
3. "Hidden ingredients." It would have been more interesting if the missing ingredients were not available at all. What's the fun of running to a pantry? I couldn't tell you the number of times I started making a recipe, only to find that I'm missing an ingredient. Improvisation adds spice -- no pun intended.
4. Wolfgang Puck just needs to go away already.
I stopped watching after about half an hour. I had such high hopes.
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4-18-2006 @11:04AM VEE said... GIVE ME A BREAK//
WHAT HAPPEN TO MOVIES?
JUST ONE A WEEK WOULD BE NICE.
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4-18-2006 @11:52AM shawn said... i was done when cindy margolis came out in the sleeve-less low cut top and open toed shoes. i was hoping for a dropped chef's knife, or a spilled pot of hot oil. (not that i wanted any bad to happen to her mind you...)
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4-18-2006 @8:32PM yatesy said... I was amazed that Cat Cora had...personality. And looked good.
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4-18-2006 @10:11PM Sam said... I thought I was watching porn. Cindy Margolis showed way too much cleavage for this type of show. I am a man and enjoy watching women but this was too much. Come on guys, at least put this on after the kids are in bed.
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4-18-2006 @10:15PM Sam Noung said... I thought for a moment I was watching porn. Cindy Margolis showed way too much cleavage. Come guys, put this on after the kids are in bed.
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4-20-2006 @3:05PM Christine said... The show is awful! I started watching and turned it off about 1/2 way through on Monday night. The audience's yelling and screaming throughout was just noise pollution and had NOTHING to do with who won or didn't. It is forced and contrite. And it certainly could not have helped anyone cook under pressure. I thought someone from the show would realize this by Day 3. And Alan Thicke's make-up people need to tone it down. He certainly looks MUCH older than his 59 years (the hockey accident?). He looks stiff and awkward in this show. All in all ... IRON CHEF RULES!
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