I am a big TV watcher and a big foodie. So the shows that you can typically find me watching are cooking shows or food competition shows. It is a staple of late night watching or late Sundays mornings. I have watched so many that I find myself talking to the TV about what I would have done and/or correcting the competitors. I mean it looks easy enough on my TV screen. I think anyone in my family could give those guys a run for their money especially in something we do everyday. Well, Netflix decided to test home cooks against top restaurant chefs in Australia.

The cuisine from each episode revolved around the specialities in the particular restaurant and  home cooks. For example, part of the competition was based on Turkish food and another was based on African food. So I was able to be introduced to dishes and foods that wouldn’t find typically in my hometown of Dallas. I learned about how to prep the new foods, but how they were developed. I still don’t think I can cook Simin or Tiramisu despite the clear explanations by judges and players a like. So enough about the food. How do you win?

Home cooks must prepare a dish that is also the restaurant’s speciality with their own flair. The start off facing the lowest on the hierarchal chef’s line, the apprentice chef. A judge will blindly taste each dish and pick the dish that is the best presented. If the home cook beats the apprentice, they receive a trophy and move onto the next round. If apprentice wins, they congratulate him before moving on. Then they pick the worst dish, that person will leave the competition. Each round is against the next level in the hierarchal system if the chef’s line until it is down to one home cook and the head executive chef.

All the dishes looked flavorful. The players were all contributed to the entertainment by telling their connection to the cuisine as well as the good competition heckling. Of course, it was all done with some Australian flair that was funny, and good-hearted. So now for the ultimate question,  do you think you are better than an executive chef?