Call Me a Curmudgeon

....but is there really a TV viewing audience out there for watching little kids cook?

Gordon Ramsay's show Master Chef is at least mildly entertaining when serious chefs are participating, but while watching kids (age 8-13) might entertain some, it won't likely be because of the food preparation skills involved.

This show may not be as bad as some of the 'Bleach Blonde Idiot's ' (initials GF) laughably contrived attempts at combining food and prize shows, but I think it still leaves out any interest for people that take cooking seriously.

Until Master Chef gets back to at least some serious cooking and ditches the rugrats, I'll content myself with watching old reruns of Alton Brown's Good Eats.

Bill
(channeling Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, sitting on his porch and scowling at passing children)

You're a curmudgeon.

But I agree with you on the kiddie cooks.

Cur-ma-dudgeon!

[Jenise]

I remember actually liking the first season of the kiddo version. However, in that case there was one particularly serious and talented contender, and ice cream didn't fall out of the ceiling to douse the hosts as has routinely happened since. It's turned into a joke, and we no longer watch it.

[Jenise]

Bill, you complain about Master Chef BUT you don't watch the very best cooking show on TV, hands down, and it's been around for 15 or so years. It's Top Chef. Get with it!

I've watched Top Chef for years and record every episode.

[Jenise]

Oh good! I hadn't thought so as 1) you never mention it and 2) when I brought it up once in conversation at your house Sue made faces about it. She clearly did not like Padma and I had the impression then that it was not viewed in your home!

The only cooking shows she liked were Alton Brown's Good Eats. I think that she finds the 'competition' shows a bit artificial and I can't argue too much about that in regard to cooking 'game shows'.

I liked the kid shows when they first started, however as they went along some things just did not add up and I began to feel it was all staged. Having raised three of our kids and always having a bunch of their friends around, and teaching ours to cook so when they went to college they did not have to live on Ramen, I knew a little about their behaviors. I finally gave up on watching.