The level of cooking on this show is incredible. Anyone watching? I’m on episode 7.
#teamHollingsworth #teamOchoa
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I started watching over the weekend. I don’t usually watch food cooking contest shows, but I’ve found this to be interesting and enjoyable so far. I just finished the Brazil episode.
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It’s excellent. Probably the best culinary competition made for television. My favorite is Episode 8. Binge watched the entire season this past Saturday.
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Thought dump:
Really amazed at how far Ochoa went. Glad to see an update on him post-LA.
Surprised yet not surprised that Tim won - he has the pedigree and hometown advantage.
The Indian chick that got star struck by Grant was hilarious.
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Finished it yesterday. I wish they had toned down the drama a bit (those long dramatic pauses in particular), but besides that I loved it.
Finally finished this last night, lots of thoughts incoming.
I had some issues with the execution of the show, but overall enjoyed it, mostly because the competitors were so talented, and all the food was so obviously high-level stuff. I also liked that they didn’t force the teams to fight with each other, or stir up drama or any of that - it was clearly about the food.
As far as my complaints, which are mostly nitpicking - I didn’t love the host and his delivery, I wish the first round of judges had been a little more qualified and had more to say than the ‘actor, athlete, critic’ panel they typically went with, and I thought the set was absurd and too big and they didn’t need the live audience.
This is also a super tiny thing, but I thought it was very, very dumb that they made the host pretend they were traveling to the next country on the list. Like when he would say ‘see you in Japan!’ or whatever as if they were picking up and moving the set.
I’m looking forward to a second season, and I think this competition could roll on for a while.
(I’m also super stoked for and proud of Chef Esdras, who is a great chef and a great dude and reps LA and Mexicali very, very well)
… and your 60 minutes starts…
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Now.
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Just finished the series…might now have to pay Otium another visit 
On the other hand, I really should’ve went to Shane Osborn’s Arcane while I was in Hong Kong…
It still sucks.
Chef Timothy reserves his A-game for cooking shows.
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Just curious, when was your last visit? I’ve only been there for the funnel cake and dessert a few years ago.
5-6 months ago - Friend dragged me. Uninspired food. Service was cold, holier-than-thou.
I found it unwatchable. Too much music, ridiculously pompous announcing.
Caught this over the course of 3 days, and I really enjoyed seeing the different culinary points of view. It’s like an international version of Top Chef with a quickfire and an elimination challenge…except there was less torture and a more impressive set and pantry.
The plating of the dishes was just gorgeous. The overhead camera work that ran across each of the stations and caught the chefs conversations was interesting. However, I found that there were some things I didn’t enjoy. I had previously seen Andrew Knowlton in various media appearances before, and I rather liked him because he’s knowledgeable and articulate. But I found him too dramatic, over-produced, and he over-articulated his voice so much that I felt he was yelling to rather than talking to the chefs. The long dramatic pauses and the false impression that they were actually traveling around the world was dumb, too. It’s shot on a super nice set in L.A. with a live audience (which I thought was a little odd, too). That poor audience…they had to sit through at least 5-6 hours of filming each episode smelling aromas of food they don’t get to eat.
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Iron Chef Japan set precedence here.
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I had completely forgotten that the OG Iron Chef has a live audience.