I hate to admit that I got sucked into watching this. The chefs really cook so that part's real, but almost nothing else is. I'm not even sure the scant little audience is!
The 'randomizer' is a joke--clearly nothing random there. It's all pre-set, like even though there are 8 or 12 different options on each dial the fridge happens to only hold whatever the randomizer lands on in convenient trays--and not much else. The fear the chefs pretend to have for the randomizer is obviously faked. Sometimes the chefs appear to bring their own prepped ingredients or sauce mixtures that wouldn't in a million years be standard even in a "well-stocked pantry". The judges are more or less the same people all the time and so forth, who pretend not to know who made what in spite of the fact that nobody makes Indian food but Maneet--and she makes nothing else.
And yet I watched. The only truly interesting thing that happened the whole season was the finale risotto Mei Lin made from sunflower seeds. Definitely need to get to the bottom of that!
Anyone else watch?