Top 10 competitive cooking shows to watch this week

Watching competitive cooking shows can be a fun experience for any audience. The first ever cooking show aired all the way back in January of 1937 on BBC. It was called Cook’s Night Out which featured Marcel Boulestin. Through the years cooking shows have become more developed and many more have come to light. Cable TV first came out in 1948 which would then help more of these show go on the air. After cable came out, though it wasn’t very accessible until the 80’s, Julia Child came out with her popular cooking show in 1963. This show was loved by many and is still talked about to this day. Cooking is a universal language,  being enjoyed through every culture across the globe.  Food has always been a key factor for bringing people together. Whether you just want to watch for the competitive atmosphere, to laugh at how bad the competitors are, or watch in hopes of learning something new. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best cooking shows out there, in our opinion, for you to enjoy with family, friends or by yourself.

Next Level Chef – Next Level Chef is a new cooking competition show hosted by Gordan Ramsay, Richard Blais, and Nyesha Arrington which can be watched on Fox Now, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Tubi Tv. Fifteen Chefs from around the country come to compete for 250,000 dollars. There are three kitchen levels, the basement level which has low end, run down equipment, the middle level which is your typical restaurant kitchen, and finally the top level which is the best equipment imaginable. Each host gets a team that they pick and each episode they choose a key card for the elevator that takes them to a random level. 

Crime Scene Kitchen – Crime Scene Kitchen is one of the newer cooking competition shows but with a twist. Two groups, A and B, have six teams each. A team is picked to start and they go into a “crime scene” where they have two minutes to look around the kitchen at clues to try to figure out what dessert was made. Once all teams are done they go to their stations and discuss what dessert they think it is and proceed to make it. After two hours of baking they get judged and at the end the real dessert is revealed. Whichever teams got it right, gets a special clue at their station for the final dessert. 

Chopped –  This classic show premiered all the way back in 2009 and has now ran for a total of 51 seasons. It’s arguably the most well known show on Food Network starting off with 4 talented chefs given a basket of mystery ingredients, usually unusual and they must incorporate them into a dish. After the appetizer round a chef is put on the “chopping block” and is eliminated from the competition, this goes on for 2 more rounds until there is only one chef standing. The winner gets a $100,000 prize. Chopped can be streamed on Hulu, Sling TV, or the Food Network website.

Kids Baking Championship –  What’s more entertaining than watching adults be more talented than you? Watching pre-teens be more talented than you of course. The Kids Baking Championship features talented ten 10 to 13 year olds from all around the country and puts them all in one place to battle it out. The kids are given different themed challenges where they must work on a time limit and sometimes limited ingredients. The show is also hosted and judged by Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman, two baking icons. The baker that has done the best in the most challenges wins $25,000. There are currently 5 seasons out right now that can be streamed on Hulu, Sling TV, or the Food Network website. 

CupCake Wars – CupCake Wars is a baking competition show that all ages can enjoy and love. Four contestants come on the show and they bring a sous chef along with them. They go through 3 rounds and each round, a team gets eliminated. The first round is forty-five minutes long and is mainly focussed on taste. The second round is seventy-five minutes long and focuses on taste along with presentation. In the last round there are two teams remaining. They have two hours to make one thousand cupcakes of their improved flavors and designs from all three rounds. Then they design a display to put them all on. The winning display and cupcakes will go to a special event along with the bakers. 

Nailed It! – Nailed It! is a Netflix original show. It has a similar idea to the other competition shows. Instead of trying to find the best of the best, they find the worst bakers and have them try to recreate different desserts. They have three amateur contestants that compete for ten thousand dollars and a Nailed It! trophy. Each episode they have a random guest judge along with the host Nicole Byer and Jacques Torres. The desserts do not typically look the best but surprisingly they sometimes have good flavors. At the end of each round three judges taste the desserts and pick the best one based on taste and presentation.  

Beat Bobby Flay –  Most people are pretty familiar with the name Bobby Flay as he has hosted and competed in a variety of Food Network shows including Iron Chef America, Worst Cooks in America, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Brunch @ Bobby’s, and more. In this show two skilled chefs are chosen to compete against each other in the first round making a dish of Bobby’s choice. They are judged by a panel of well known food network stars, usually close friends of Bobby himself and whoever wins moves on to face Bobby in round two making a dish of their choice. If the visiting chef wins they walk away with major bragging rights and $40,000. Beat Bobby Flay can be streamed on Hulu, Sling TV, and the food network website. 

Guy’s Grocery Games – Another familiar face for the foodies is Guy Fieri, easily recognizable with his ice blonde hair, bright red sports car and a liking for alliteration. Guy hosts a few other shows namely Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Guy’s Chance of a Lifetime, and Guy’s Ranch Kitchen. In this show Guy selects 4 chefs from across the country to face each other in 3 rounds, each round a different challenge such as a limit on ingredients to be used, a theme, or flipping one dish into something else. What is unique about this show is that it is set in “Flavortown” a grocery store set that’s about as realistic as it gets with real food and isles. The last chef standing gets read 5 clues describing a certain food item each one worth $4,000, they have 2 minutes to get all 5. 

Worst Cooks In America: Similar to Nailed It, Worst Cooks in America focusses not on the best cooks, but the worst. Various contestants come to an interview room with their “best dish” and the two judges/hosts Anne Burrell and Bobby Flay choose twelve to sixteen contestants with the worst of the worst dishes. Contestants get divided between the two teams and they then compete against each other until they have one chef left on each team. They get taught different skills with each competition and the overall winner gets a prize of twenty five thousand dollars. 

The Great British Bake Off – Who doesn’t enjoy a good British accent? This show filmed in Berkshire, in the famous white tent, stars hosts like Noel Fielding, Paul Hollywood, Sandi Toksvig and Prue Leith. They come together with aspiring British bakers to judge their creations and test their skills in making some of the most complicated baked goods out there such as varying types of breads, pastries, cakes, and more. The competition starts with 12 bakers. Each day of competition consists of two rounds, a preliminary round and a real challenge. The person who does the worst overall in both gets eliminated and the show continues until one remains and takes home the title of the great British baking champion.