dailyloe.com – Food Network’s Tournament of Champions VII concludes tonight, crowning a winner from a field of chefs known from shows like Top Chef and Masterchef. The competition is simple and largely gimmick-free, centered around a device called the Randomizer. This slot machine delivers combinations of food and techniques for the chefs to use. There are no mid-challenge surprises or fights for ingredients during the cooking process.
After the Randomizer’s wheels spin, the chefs cook using their creativity and experience. They have a short amount of time to craft a dish. Their plates are then presented anonymously to judges by Justin Warner and Tiffani Faison. The judges give numerical scores to each anonymous dish.
The writer loves this blind judging method. They note that more shows have adopted blind judging or added objective scoring. Evaluating dishes is acknowledged as ultimately subjective. The writer also appreciates the show’s evolution over seven seasons, or eight counting a holiday season.
The brackets are no longer simply east versus west, creating different match-ups. Qualifiers added weeks of competition and introduced new chefs. Past winners are now among the judges for the competition. If the show continues annually, the writer suggests three tweaks to dramatically improve it.
The primary complaint is that chef biographies are too one-note. The writer cites jokes and references to Jonathon Sawyer’s sobriety in recaps and comments. They clarify no one is making fun of his sobriety. The writer hopes his mentions of it help viewers struggling with substance abuse.
However, that is all the audience knows about Sawyer, especially as other cooking shows highlight the same detail. The writer is not asking for mini-documentaries in each episode. They also complain about other competition shows overloading episodes with background stories.
The writer wants the show to get to the cooking action. They suggest giving viewers more than one note for each competing chef. This is the first of three suggested improvements for future Tournament of Champions seasons.
