Chefs running against time to prepare a mouthwatering dish, ingredients gone wrong, cooking for a large number of guests in a service challenge, new experiments in the kitchen and an alluring prize in the end — cooking reality shows trigger an adrenaline rush much like a thriller film. While you wait for the latest season of Masterchef India to air on Sony Entertainment Television and Sony LIV, here are five competitive cooking shows on Netflix to keep you charged up.
Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend
A spin-off of Japanese reality cooking show, Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend is a face-off between a challenger chef and a ‘resident’ iron chef from among Marcus Samuelsson, Curtis Stone, Ming Tsai Dominique Crenn and Gabriela Cámara — all prominent faces in the culinary world.
In every episode, the challenger chef competes against the Iron Chef by cooking dishes featuring a theme or a chosen ingredient.
Television personality Alton Brown and Top Chef winner Kristen Kish host this culinary competition, while martial artist Mark Dacascos presides over the judges’ table. Nilou Motamed and Andrew Zimmern are recurring judges on the show and every episode features a guest judge.
Hell’s Kitchen
Hosted by celebrated chef Gordon Ramsay, each episode of the show features two teams of chefs who compete for a job as head chef at a restaurant. The teams have to work in a makeshift kitchen of a restaurant set up in the television studio. One contestant is eliminated in every episode. The show is particularly famous for Gordon Ramsay’s angry outbursts as he pushes the chefs to their breaking point.
The chefs compete in various challenges set by Ramsay. The losing team nominates two members for elimination who need to participate in a cook-off to save themselves. In the finale, the two remaining contestants must prepare for service from scratch — setting the menu, decorating the restaurant and providing high-quality service.
The Final Table
This American reality show features chefs from around the world vying for a coveted spot at the ‘final table’, along with nine luminaries from the culinary world. Hosted by food writer and critic Andrew Knowlton, the competition comprises 12 teams of two professional chefs representing a country. In every episode, these teams must cook dishes celebrating a theme country.
The first round is judged by a panel comprising a food critic and two celebrities representing the chosen country. The bottom three teams compete in the second round to save themselves from elimination. This round is judged by a legendary chef from the theme country. The teams have to cook a dish featuring an ingredient chosen by the judge. In the finale, individual members of the two remaining teams compete against each other to claim a spot at the ‘final table’.
Nailed It!
The winner of MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Lifestyle Show, Nailed it! is a bake-off between amateur home cooks. The bakers who compete in this show have a track record of poor culinary skills. This contest provides them a chance at redemption, along with a cash prize worth USD 10,000 and the coveted Nailed It! trophy.
Hosts Nicole Byer and Jacques Torres are joined by a third guest judge in every episode. The competition is divided into two challenges. In the first one, known as Baker’s Choice, the contestants get to choose the confectionery dish they have to recreate. In the next challenge, known as Nail It or Fail It, they must create a cake with a complicated recipe.
The Big Family Cooking Showdown
This is a British reality TV show featuring families fighting it out in the kitchen. The competition is held in three stages. In the heats, two teams, comprising three family members each, compete in three challenges. Then eight teams move on to the semi-final from which three vie for the champion’s trophy in the finale.
Celebrity chef Giorgio Locatelli and cookery teacher Rosemary Shrager judged the teams in Season One. For Season Two, Celebrity MasterChef winner Angellica Bell and chef Tommy Banks took on the mantle of hosting and co-judging the show.
