Chef's new season makes it an excellent show for anyone who misses sports

Now that almost all major league games in the world have been canceled over the next few months, there is a great need for competition on TV. While I love a good TV show, there is something about the emotional ups and downs of games that you can't get out of most on TV. And most of the actual competition shows that they don't show the kind of high-quality work you get from the world's best players. Thankfully, one reality show can successfully fill that gap: Executive Chef.

Competitors on Executive Chef they are the best athletes on TV right now, and the newest season of the show is as close as ever to sports.

For me Executive Chef the trip started just a week and a half ago. By default, as I've never seen her in a show, I've watched season 16 before season 17 on Thursday, March 19, so I'm not Executive Chef expert. In particular, I am a sports enthusiast with a passion for professionalism in the field of high quality, now that every major stadium in the world has canceled its games in the next few months. And it turns out, Executive Chef completely satisfy my craving for competition.

Photo: Michael Hickey / Bravo

For people like me who have watched all this: Executive Chef it’s a real competitive cooking show. In almost every episode, there is the Fire Challenge Challenge, a short-lived contest that begins the episode and gives the winner a chance over time, and the long, descriptive Elimination Challenge will send one contestant to pack. The final chef receives the award and the Top Chef title, as well as a cash prize and a few looks for the main event.

Unlike most reality contests, Executive Chef It's about amateurs with hidden talents, or weekly war heroes with enough ability to surprise the judges. This is a show cooked up by helpers who will gather to take the show of glory. These are independent chefs, great chefs, award winners, and restaurant owners all taking a break from their lives as real professionals to compete.

This gives the show a different feel to something similar Great Britain Baking Show. None of the competitors was ever confused on how to make a meal, and none of them returned home because they could not pull off a modestly prepared cake. These chefs create unique looking food for each episode. Even the show's most intelligent underdog is a disgrace to a home cook. In other words, they are not much different from competitors in any major sports league.

And that is twice the 17-year-old air-conditioning season, featuring some of the best chefs who have competed in the show, but never won. This means that the competition is more intense than usual, and every chef already knows how to play the game. It makes this season a point to get an easy jump, because these chefs have a lot of built-in issues and relationships. Every time someone brings an inside joke or a memory from their season you get a description of a talk or a short clip from previous seasons that shows what they are talking about. It's a reality TV show with a very catchy album.

While the chefs are the stars of the show, the editing does Executive Chef work. The setting of the show is similar to a sports commentary: its main purpose is to explain things to viewers in easy-to-understand ways, and to break down complex ideas. It makes viewers feel like professionals without making them feel comfortable.

Every challenge is carefully set up so you can understand everything that went wrong with each competitor, even if you don't know how to fix a shell lump or what's really in gnocchi. As chefs rush into the kitchen trying to make gourmet perfection in a few hours, the show doesn't let you lose track of who's doing it, or where you are in the process. Even in the busiest times, as the clock deteriorates, it is easy to say who will make it work under the phone, and who deserves it.

Photo: Nicole Weingart / Bravo

Most importantly, all the contests of each episode build on pulse-pounding crescendos. It's like getting the last two minutes of a basketball game tied up in every episode. Every chef is trembling as he puts the finishing touches on his bowl. The chefs come up with small final unfinished additions that can keep them from being challenged, or cutting corners to make sure all the food ends up on the plate. And finally, one always goes home, so the math is baked from scratch. Just like in games, there is always a loser, and there is always a call to watch.

No quality of happiness or happiness has surprised me. I've heard people sing Executive ChefThe psalms are about twenty years old, and it turns out that they were right. What surprised me was how quickly she took care of my indoor sports fan. After a few episodes, I had my favorite cook – season 16 was Eric Adjepong, who returned from the current star season – and all of a sudden the whole episode felt like we were enjoying a home party.

Watching Eric overcome Quickfire challenges or get rid of them is totally intoxicating. Every time he bites more than chews or takes the wrong step, it's like suffering watching my favorite team lose their worth. Getting frustrated as the judges are constantly criticizing it feels the same as sitting in my living room, beating the referee with the wrong penalty.

Even seeing my favorite underrated salt cooker with six ingredients I've never heard of gives me the same feeling of watching one of the NBA's best heels with a pointer stack. Did I do better? Not at all. But schadenfreude will leave me happy for hours.

Executive Chef it takes all the hot white feelings of the game for three hours and cuts off the fat, cooking them all into a 45-minute gourmet-TV entree. It's definitely not a game, but it's as close as we will get in a few months, and thankfully, it's worth the time.

Chef airs are on Bravo every Thursday night as well The first episode of Season 17 is available, entirely on Bravo's YouTube channel. Previous seasons, such as Season 16, are available for streaming on Hulu.

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