TV Review: The Kitchen

The Kitchen is an hour-long talk show that premiered this morning on the Food Network. I can't say I was waiting with baited breath for the premiere once I found out that FN would be cutting yet another hour of the ever-dwindling time allotted to instructionals in order to air the show, but I decided to see what it was all about. I also wanted to see if this was simply FN's take on something like The Chew, and apparently that's exactly what it is. It was chuckle-worthy considering that Mario Batali's a host for the latter. The show's hosts are Sunny Anderson (who's been hiding out in the FN attic for awhile), Marcela Valledolid (who's been in there for a minute as well), Geoffrey Zakarian, Katie Lee and Jeff Mauro.

Image courtesy of Food Network

The first segment of the show saw Katie and Geoffrey making kale and eggs, while the other three watched and were asked their opinions on current food trends. The next segment had Marcela helping Jeff make his Chicago-style gumbo, and after that break the hosts got to try out a few new kitchen accessories. They sampled about 3 kitchenware accessories by splitting up into teams and making it a contest, then deciding whether or not they'd use it in their home kitchens. Geoffrey and Katie returned for the next recipe, which used pre-cooked food at the supermarket (in this case, the whole rotisserie chickens) in order to make weeknight cooking easier. The hosts gave their shopping and money saving tips, then Sunny made a fake crepes dessert, and the final recipe was for champagne cocktails by Geoffrey, or GZ as he's been nicknamed on the show. The show wrapped with the hosts enjoying their cocktails in a cozier living room-type set, talking about the food trends that they were into and disliked.


Here's the good:


The hosts do seem energetic during each segment; they don't appear to dislike each other and they don't appear disinterested in what is being said. They are all involved and I like a lot that they take turns throughout the show, allowing each chef to have their time to be featured. I also like that everyone's opinions are asked on various things throughout the show; many home viewers wonder how chefs shop and what they do to save money so I think they were pretty relevant questions. I appreciate the laidback format to the show; the concept nor the show's hosts take themselves too seriously and I liked that a lot.

The part of the show that I actually liked the most was when they were trying out the different kitchenware accessories. Usually talk shows that involve food will mention different food products that are new on the market, but you have no idea how they work and usually neither does the host. The method that was employed on The Kitchen not only allowed home viewers to see how the product is used which will help you decide whether or not you should buy it, then the chef using it is asked whether or not they would purchase it, which also helps you to decide. Making a contest out of using the products was a good idea.

I like that the panel of hosts was relevant to food; I hate when shows have hosts or judges on it that aren't really involved with the industry. The only one I wasn't overly familiar with was Katie Lee, but I remember hearing something about her releasing a cookbook and after a little research, found that she's an industry foodie of sorts. Okay, so she's no Iron Chef. But she's been involved with food in some way since 2006, so I'll take it. Three of the hosts have or have had shows on FN, and from what I read apparently Zakarian is now an Iron Chef. I'd heard of him way before now, I just wasn't sure what his role in the industry was exactly. Regardless, all of the hosts are currently involved with food in some way, so I trust that their opinions are both knowledgeable and relevant because of their different career paths and experience levels.



Another thing that I liked was the variety that the show did have; the Instagram portion was a little ehh but I could tell that they were trying to mix it up a bit and it showed how much they could tell about someone by their Instagram photos. There was a lot of laughing and I enjoyed that. I'm not a big fan of the talk show genre as a whole (not since the '90s, where Ricki Lake and Jenny Jones reigned supreme LOL) anyway, but I have noticed that I don't much care for the shows that take themselves too seriously and there isn't much laughing. This thankfully wasn't one of those shows, so I liked seeing that the hosts were enjoying themselves and trying to make sure it was an enjoyable experience for all.

Now here's the bad:

This could be because it was just the first episode, but it looks a little like the hosts haven't quite found their stride as a group yet, so the chemistry was a little off. It looks like they'd probably enjoy each other's company in their time off, but in a more formal environment they're not really meshing as much yet. But again, this was just the first episode. That has room for improvement.





That lack of cohesion was painfully evident in the constant yelling over each other that everyone was doing throughout the show. They weren't sure when the others were going to talk, so they started talking. Unfortunately, it seemed as though most of them had that thought, so a large part of the segments consisted of the hosts yelling over each other to be heard. It was kind of annoying, to tell the truth. But that could just be me; I don't care for the overyelling in conversation anyway. It's one of my biggest pet peeves and I have little to no patience for it.



One thing that I noticed that drove me up the wall is Jeff's dominating of conversation. During both his cooking and refereeing segment (for the contests) he talked so much, so loudly, that it didn't really give the others a chance to say what they wanted to say a little more quietly. He stood directly in the middle, kind of in the way, and yelled over everybody during the contests. I saw when one of them was about to say something and he'd start yelling over them. I can't even remember what he was saying any of those times, which shows me how significant what he was saying really was. He came off a little try-hardish to me. Maybe he's just a loud talker? I don't know.



I wasn't overly crazy with the constant barbs being thrown at Sunny for winning something--Jeff had to have mentioned that he'd lost to Sunny about 3 times during his cooking segment alone (which didn't last any longer than about 10 minutes)--but at the same time she's also a pretty bad winner, which she showed during the contest segment, so I guess that brings it to about even. A humble winner she is not. lol I still wouldn't want to hear either the bragging or the whining every single week.




Finally, the little nod to Iron Chef with Zakarian trying to show off and open that bottle of wine was a touch lame to me. lol Color me an asshole, but I just didn't think it was necessary. He opened that first bottle in such a classy way, which I thought was a good way to end the show, but then spoiled it by exploding the second bottle all over himself. I am not sure if it was intentional or not, but meh. My life was better without it. lol


Overall:

Overall, this show does have some potential. The hosts are energetic, relevant to the type of show they're hosting, and look happy to be there. They look like they're having fun. They've come up with a pretty innovative way to try out new products, so I hope that segment of the show continues. I also like that the opinions of all are asked on different food-related topics throughout the show; it allows the focus to shift a little to the hosts while keeping food as the contract player of the show which is very important. I don't like when there's supposed to be a specific focus to a show but distraction continues to take said focus away.

The chemistry is probably my primary complaint with the show because it is from that lack of said chemistry that everyone compensates by overyelling each other and cracking corny jokes. The constant yelling is distracting and it gets hard to focus on what's actually being done because you're trying to figure out who's talking and listen to what they're attempting to say. The recipes were rather random; I would never eat Chicago-style gumbo after eating kale and eggs. I guess there doesn't have to be a theme to the recipes they feature per show, but ehh. It didn't seem to flow to me. Jeff needs to take it down a few notches; 1-the others are not guest hosts on Sandwich King so be quiet just a little bit, and 2-they're indoors. I know everyone learned the 'indoors voice' lesson in kindergarten. There's no need for him, or any of the others, to shout for the entire hour. Take turns, kids.

So at the end of the day, would I watch this again? Sure, if only to see if there's been any improvement. Some shows roll out their very best for the premiere to draw in viewers, only to monumentally drop the ball in all subsequent episodes. So hopefully it'll be better next week. The jury's still out on this show for me, but I didn't hate it.

The Kitchen comes on every Saturday morning on Food Network at 11/10 EST.

*Did you watch the first episode of The Kitchen yesterday? If you did, what'd you think? Will you be watching again?*