Celebrities
Sweet Sides, Bona Fides & Blindsides: This week in cooking shows
Want to know what’s cooking each week when it comes to your favorite food and dining shows? Be sure to check out our weekly roundup of what’s sizzling, what’s salty, and what’s a little under-seasoned on your favorite food, lifestyle, and cooking competition shows.
‘Kids Baking Championship’
The combination of precocious kids and cuddly animals could have been a cuteness overload, as this week’s “Kids Baking Championship” challenged its young chefs to whip up a dessert inspired by a cute, fuzzy barnyard animal. Live animals were even on set to really crank up the adorable factor. Luckily, Cole Frederickson — a dimpled 12-year-old with an angelic face — kept things from getting too saccharine.
Given a miniature pig for his animal muse, Cole decided to whip up some maple bacon donuts… And mercilessly fried up bacon in front of his new piggy pal. The other kids are basically like, “No, Cole! How could you do such a terrible thing? But actually that bacon does smell pretty good…”
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In this end, things turn around: Duff Goldman praises Cole’s gutsiness for being able to serve up bacon in front of a live pig, pronouncing his literary and culinary creativity the sign of a “real chef” — and we have to agree. We love bacon as much as the next person, but we’re pretty sure we wouldn’t have the audacity to fry up a cute mini pig’s brethren right in front of him. These kids prove once again that they are way more capable in the kitchen than most adults.
‘Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party’
Coming out of a slightly rocky start to the season, Martha and Snoop prove they’ve elevated their game in this episode. They finally seem to be settling into their roles, and becoming more comfortable on camera — both have very dry senses of humor that don’t work well when they try and amp up the zany antics.
It seems the show’s catching onto the gold here, and letting the amazing and awesome ridiculousness of the premise bring the interest factor all on its own, rather than twisting our hosts’ well-established personalities and making them deliver dumb jokes. When Snoop finds an alternate place to store the fine sugar Martha is using to make a traditional Cuban mojitos, it’s too perfectly shocking to be anything but improvised… And that puts Martha’s hilarious recovery on an even higher plane.
‘My Kitchen Rules’
While there’s sometimes a bubbly brightness to her, Brandi Glanville is not known for being soft and cuddly: She’s made a name for herself as by turns blunt, prickly, defensive, and aggressive. But we can’t help but feeling fond of her — something about the way she goes for people’s soft spots when she’s angry makes us feel like she just needs lots of hugs. That’s why this week’s “My Kitchen Rules” gave us such a delightful surprise: A kinder, gentler Brandi we’d nearly forgotten existed.
Andrew Dice Clay has been less and less present in his kitchen every week, wandering off to socialize and screw around while wife Val does the heavy lifting. When Brandi sees Val clearly struggling emotionally, she heads right over to offer some comfort — and a firm, no-nonsense pep talk. We love Brandi’s saltiness, but it’s nice to be reminded she can still be sweet, too.
‘Top Chef’
In recent seasons, “Top Chef” has become a really great guide to the cuisines of particular regions. Because they set entire seasons in cities with rich culinary history, and allow the chefs to dive deep into regional flavors and traditions, we as viewers get to join them on a particularly meaningful journey. In this episode, the show uses regional ingredients and techniques in a whole new way — throwing the contestants seriously off their game during the elimination challenge.
The chefs were stripped of every kitchen implement except knives and wood burning grills, and had to compose their meals out of largely-unfamiliar ingredients used in Mayan cooking. Watching the chefs try to figure out how to compose a dish without basic ingredients like onions is a fascinating exercise: Without the acids and aromatics (not to mention kitchen tools) they’re used to, two of the three final chefs are thrown for a major loop.
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So many people only think of Tex-Mex, when they think about Latinx food and culture at all. This episode demonstrates the wide variety and sophistication of flavors found in different regions of Mexico, and shows us even an amazing veteran chef can be surprised by food — just another inspiration to embark on a culinary journey of our own.
“Kids Baking Championship” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network; “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner” airs Mondays at 10 on VH1; “My Kitchen Rules” is on Thursdays on Fox at 9; and “Top Chef” wraps its season next Thursday, Mar. 2, at 9 on Bravo.