Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Move over, Chopped. There’s a new Food Network king in town, and its name is Beat Bobby Flay.
Okay, Beat Bobby Flay isn’t exactly new. It originally premiered on Food Network in 2014 and has aired almost 150 episodes, and of course Bobby Flay is no newbie to the competition scene. But for the last three years, BBF has played second fiddle to Chopped, the network’s most well-known competition show. That all ends now. It’s time to finally recognize Beat Bobby Flay for what it is: the best damn competition cooking show around.
Each episode of BBF includes two different competitions. In the first round, two chefs have 20 minutes to create the best dish using an ingredient chosen by Bobby. They can make anything –no rigid appetizer, entree, or dessert requirements here. Two guest judges, usually famous chefs and friends of Bobby’s, choose a winner based on the quality of the dish and the chef’s overall potential to, well, beat Bobby Flay. Next, the chef who won the first round chooses a dish for both the competitor and Bobby to make in just 45 minutes, and the overall winner is determined by a blind taste test with all new judges.
If it sounds like a lot happens in each episode, you’d be right. That’s exactly what makes this show so great. Each competitions is fast-paced, high stakes, and features some amazingly delicious looking meals that you’d actually want to eat. Sorry, Chopped, a pig ear frittata covered in lotus root glaze doesn’t really do it for me. Instead, the chefs looking to beat Bobby mostly choose to cook their signature dishes, which are generally normal things like pho or chicken pot pie or tiramisu (if you ever cook against Bobby, pick a desert: he sucks at pastries).
Plus, Beat Bobby Flay features some of the best trash talking on television. The guest judges in round one may be friends of Bobby’s, but they’re just as invested in seeing him lose as the chefs competing against him. The show is filmed in front of a live studio audience who are actively encouraged to cheer against Bobby, so whenever the Iron Chef makes a bad move, we hear boos coming from audience members on the balcony. The high degree of trash talking could easily get old or make the show less fun, but in this case, it serves to unite viewers with the competitors in their quest to beat Bobby. To his credit, Bobby takes all this in stride: he’s totally fine being the villain, and he leans into the cocky persona that has come to represent his brand.
On top of all this, each episode is only 30 minutes long with commercials, which makes it perfect for a short (or long) binge watch. For a show like BBF, the 30-minute run time hits the sweet spot. Each episode is just long enough to identify with the competitors and see what they’re cooking, but short enough that you don’t get bored or sick of all the ego flying around the kitchen. The show is so fast paced that it’s easy to watch five episodes in one sitting, which often isn’t the case with other cooking shows–hello, Cupcake Wars?
If there’s one downside to Beat Bobby Flay, it’s that Bobby wins about two-thirds of the time, which is a tough loss after you’ve been actively cheering against him for half an hour. However, no matter the hurt feelings, it’s amazing to see him beat someone at their own signature dish, and after a single episode, you’ll be shocked at how much better he is in the kitchen than the average contestant.
Beat Bobby Flay has taken the strengths of other Food Network shows and combined them into an engrossing, fast-paced package. Screw Chopped’s bizarre ingredients or Guy’s Grocery Games’ unusual cooking utensils. In the current TV landscape, it doesn’t seem as if any cooking competition show can beat Bobby Flay’s.
