This cooking show, coming from Australia, introduced me to a lot of cuisines I now like enough and am curious enough about to further explore. The competitors are very nice and work well together. I wish I could fly over from this side of the world and make reservations at some of these cool restaurants, like Dandelion or Africola, but enjoying this is the next best thing! It's very chill in sensibility and positive in attitude, Grade: B+
11 Reviews
Fantastic
lanaliliya3 August 2019
This show reminds me of The Great British Baking Show since it features home cooks competing. The twist is that they also compete against restaurant cooks/chefs, which makes it even more entertaining. I have learned so many new dishes while watching this show and it's great that they focus on authentic cooking from different cuisines. Also, there isn't a lot of drama like with so many other cooking shows and this is a HUGE plus!! I absolutely love this show!
Such a heartwarming show
kn-4483310 August 2019
I love food competition shows and this show has different taste of others. You can watch not only amazing techniques and ideas but also such a beautiful personality and heartwarming behaviours! Wonderful show, I'd love to watch more seasons!!!!
Don't listen to negative reviews.
thomasflockjr29 June 2020
Most the people complaining about lack of PoC probably only watched the first 2 episodes. There is tons of diversity. Also, no this isn't an "American" cooking show, its a refreshing change of the angry and yelling cooking shows, the people are friendly, holy moly people can be nice..... it's an awesome show that is relaxing and enjoyable.
Weird format and editing
brooke-alversonr22 August 2019
The judges are weird. As they talk about the food they seem slightly sexual towards each other across the table their judging. I've only seen 1 episode and that's enough for me.
"It's a competition, do you feel competitive?" Dumb question. The winner gets asked "how was this competition for you?" Like he won, of course he enjoyed the competition. It's just a weird show format and editing. I guess I'm use to American cooking shows that actually show the hustle and bustle of competitions. They have a plot each show, there's always a slow start, a peak and then a satisfying ending. This show I could've slept through.
"It's a competition, do you feel competitive?" Dumb question. The winner gets asked "how was this competition for you?" Like he won, of course he enjoyed the competition. It's just a weird show format and editing. I guess I'm use to American cooking shows that actually show the hustle and bustle of competitions. They have a plot each show, there's always a slow start, a peak and then a satisfying ending. This show I could've slept through.
What a refreshing twist! Fantastic!
beaubear-1972223 January 2020
What a refreshing twist on the quintessential competitive cooking show!
No more screaming Executive Chefs controlling every aspect of their team's preparation, cooking, plating, etc... No more random "shopping for ingredients, or random cooking tasks. The topic for the week is known. Every dish is a popular dish, mostly recognizable by a majority of the viewing audience, and with the exception of a few familial recipies/modern takes, the preparation and cooking of each dish is straightforward. Don't change a thing! This show is what every competitive cooking show, shy of Iron Chef/(Whatever Country's) Next Top Chef, should base their premise on. Fantastic Job, I'm enthralled!
No more screaming Executive Chefs controlling every aspect of their team's preparation, cooking, plating, etc... No more random "shopping for ingredients, or random cooking tasks. The topic for the week is known. Every dish is a popular dish, mostly recognizable by a majority of the viewing audience, and with the exception of a few familial recipies/modern takes, the preparation and cooking of each dish is straightforward. Don't change a thing! This show is what every competitive cooking show, shy of Iron Chef/(Whatever Country's) Next Top Chef, should base their premise on. Fantastic Job, I'm enthralled!
Great Show!
nibejul1 September 2019
There's many things I like about the show. It helps people celebrate their heritage with the love of their food. But more importantly is the fact that unlike many American chef shows, this is about celebrating the love of cooking, not the love of backstabbing and drama that many others in the past have exploited. Well done!
Disappointing and not as representative as I thought
kristenle26 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Warning: Spoiler alerts ahead.
I was initially excited about this show because there seemed to be a lot of people of color (POC), and the hosts/judges are POC, and we need more of them on TV! Myself being Vietnamese, I was even more excited that the main host was Dan Hong, who is also Vietnamese.
However, I was particularly upset while watching the "African" and "Vietnamese" episodes.
I absolutely hated how this show clumped "Africa" into one category and portrayed it as just one country, when it is a continent full of beautiful countries with their own unique traditions, customs, cultures, cuisines, and values...while all the other episodes recognized their own countries: Italian, Greek, Chinese, Turkish, and Vietnamese. To me this totally ignores the rich history and traditions that the countries of Africa offer, and in a way, marginalizes them even further than they already have been for the past several hundred years.
Furthermore, in both of the Vietnamese and African episodes, the chefs that the home cooks competed against were white male chefs. I understand that the both chefs of Dandelion and Africola are incredibly skilled and excellent chefs, and I can even acknowledge that Geoff Lindsay seems to have hired an entire team of incredible Vietnamese chefs/cooks.
What makes me upset is that even though all of these diverse home cooks and cuisines are being honored and recognized, this show still portrays the tired and overrated white male chef to come out on top and seen as the expert, even though all Geoff did was come to that country (Vietnames episodes), studied the food, then came back to Australia to cook the same food and triple the prices. In the Africa episodes, sure, Duncan himself is from South Africa, but he definitely doesn't seem to honor where all his cooking came from, which is from the indigenous peoples of South Africa (in which he is not, but a descendant of colonizers).
TL;DR - I wish you had more chefs of color that are not male. All I'm looking for is representation.
I was initially excited about this show because there seemed to be a lot of people of color (POC), and the hosts/judges are POC, and we need more of them on TV! Myself being Vietnamese, I was even more excited that the main host was Dan Hong, who is also Vietnamese.
However, I was particularly upset while watching the "African" and "Vietnamese" episodes.
I absolutely hated how this show clumped "Africa" into one category and portrayed it as just one country, when it is a continent full of beautiful countries with their own unique traditions, customs, cultures, cuisines, and values...while all the other episodes recognized their own countries: Italian, Greek, Chinese, Turkish, and Vietnamese. To me this totally ignores the rich history and traditions that the countries of Africa offer, and in a way, marginalizes them even further than they already have been for the past several hundred years.
Furthermore, in both of the Vietnamese and African episodes, the chefs that the home cooks competed against were white male chefs. I understand that the both chefs of Dandelion and Africola are incredibly skilled and excellent chefs, and I can even acknowledge that Geoff Lindsay seems to have hired an entire team of incredible Vietnamese chefs/cooks.
What makes me upset is that even though all of these diverse home cooks and cuisines are being honored and recognized, this show still portrays the tired and overrated white male chef to come out on top and seen as the expert, even though all Geoff did was come to that country (Vietnames episodes), studied the food, then came back to Australia to cook the same food and triple the prices. In the Africa episodes, sure, Duncan himself is from South Africa, but he definitely doesn't seem to honor where all his cooking came from, which is from the indigenous peoples of South Africa (in which he is not, but a descendant of colonizers).
TL;DR - I wish you had more chefs of color that are not male. All I'm looking for is representation.
Stupid timing requirements
tcya-97-26593826 August 2019
This is such an unreasonable show when one of the key components of good cooking is the timing of certain dishes. The creators deliberately deduct almost an hour's worth of time for certain dishes to be properly cooked and then proceeded to complain, criticise, and then condemn the cooks that couldn't produce a good outcome. They then proceeded to award the cook with the borderline acceptable dish with a trophy simply because they finished the dish ignoring the taste factor.. That is plain dumb. Anyone who has ever cooked a duck, prepared phyllo dough, made bread knows that one simply cannot hurry a certain process. Yet another pointless show coming from down under!
Good Food, but..
noujmoua20 August 2019
I really love cooking shows and so when I stumbled upon this one featuring a Vietnamese cook off (Season 1), I was so excited. The whole idea of having home cooks competing against professionals threw me off a bit. I felt like it was too obvious the professionals had the upper hand in these competitions. BUT still, I loved the food that everyone cooked up. Made me hungry throughout the whole show.
The judging process was a bit weird to me. I've only seen season 1 so far, so maybe it's different for the other ones? But I just felt that having one judge determining the winning plate was a bit...unfair and that three opinions would've been so much better in determining the best.
The judging process was a bit weird to me. I've only seen season 1 so far, so maybe it's different for the other ones? But I just felt that having one judge determining the winning plate was a bit...unfair and that three opinions would've been so much better in determining the best.
Horrible show
deezysinned1 July 2020
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
