'Dotch Cooking Show' - Japan Recreates 'Top Chef' with a Side of Insanity

by Michael Thomas Hastings, Posted Jun 30th 2009 @ 2:00PM

It's amazing what a couple of rabbit ears will pick up, and it pays to do a little futzing around with the remote to sample the bevy of weird and wonderful channels and sub-channels blazing through the airwaves in all their pixelated glory.

Case in point: "The Dotch Cooking Show." This little gem of Japanese pop culture may have ended in 2007, but it lives on thanks to Los Angeles' KSCI-TV channel 18.2 -- not to mention online, in countless YouTube clips and less-than-legal downloads.

America's cook-off shows seem downright sleep-inducing by comparison. As TV spectacles go, Dotch occupies a space somewhere between the loose, tipsy fun of the celebrity-studded '70s staple "The Match Game" and the free-wheeling nuttiness of "Peewee's Playhouse."

Like so much Japanese TV, the premise is blissfully simple: Two chefs each whip up a dish along a similar theme -- meat bun versus curry bun -- to be judged by a panel of 11 tasters. The catch is that if you vote for the losing dish, you're forced to watch the others enjoy the wares of the winning chef. (Cue the moment where an exaggeratedly hungry husband stands over his wife's shoulder as she tries, unsuccessfully, to demurely devour some fried rice.)

The competition may be the show's hook, but it's the dish prep -- including chef selection and and ingredient hunt -- that makes the show a keeper. The hosts take us on a journey through both the city's seamy underbelly and the rural countryside for "the finest ingredients."

We're treated to such spectacles as free-range chickens being fed grape skins to produce the fullest-yolked eggs for an omelet, and Hidesan, a farmer whose ability to talk with his vegetables results in the sweetest onions for curry buns. The English translations are often hilarious and perplexing at once: Meat buns are "fancy and healthy and very popular among women."

Once you get acclimated to the whiplash editing and pachinko-machine sound effects, Dotch starts to resemble nothing so much as a tripped-out, foodie-centric version of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," but with a tour of Japan's culinary legends, tall tales and practices.

The best part? Unlike the judges, you don't have to fast in agony while you watch and learn.

Filed Under: Television/Film
Tags: dotch cooking show, DotchCookingShow, japan, television, tv, youtube

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-01-2009 @1:23AM Andrew said... I loved this show!

The expressions on the faces of those who dont get to eat are just so frickin priceless.
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7-01-2009 @1:01PM wattacetti said... It took you this long to discover Dotch?
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7-06-2009 @12:20PM Food Monstar said... RIP New Dotch Cooking Show..

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7-07-2009 @9:16PM Steph said... OMG love love love this show. Best. Food. Show. Ever. I ended up buying $200 worth of digital equipment just to watch reruns of this show (and am thinking of throwing down another $250 for a OTA DVR so I can keep them for later).
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8-30-2009 @7:27PM Joe Bua said... Huge Dotch Cooking Show fan here. I had no idea that the show was still running on the digital channel. Looks like I'll be buying an antenna to hood up to my new digital TV.

I watched this show (either live or on tape) for years here in Southern California. I was beyond forlorn when it went away.

I didn't just love it for the food, though, I loved the features they'd produce from the place that made the best soba on some fisherman who caught the best tuna or the tour of outstanding joints for okonomyaki in Tokyo ... great TV.

Links to my posts on the show below:

http://iamatvjunkie.typepad.com/i_am_a_tv_junkie_a_blog_f/dotch_cooking_show_aka_cooking_showdown_tv_show/
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