Netflix’s ‘The Big Family Cooking Showdown’ Gives Us More Of What Cooking Show Nerds Love: Nadiya!

The Great British Baking Show is a truly great reality show for many reasons – The soothing pastels! The impressive bakes! The dirty puns! — but perhaps its greatest contribution to society is one woman named Nadiya Hussain. Nadiya started out in her season as an underdog: a stay-at-home mom who boldly made her own fondant from marshmallow and who also got flustered on the technical challenges. But as the season went on, Nadiya began to gain confidence in her skills and in her creativity. Nadiya won her season and her tearful final “confessional” to camera is frequently cited amongst fan circles as a perpetual tear-jerker. It’s not that it’s sad, rather it’s inspiring in a pure way we don’t see very often.

Two years later and Nadiya is a legit culinary star in her native England. She’s got her own spin-off show, baked a birthday cake for the queen, and is now popping up as a glam host in another amateur cooking competition. Luckily you can catch her in action in Netflix’s latest original import, The Big Family Cooking Showdown.

What, pray tell, is The Big Family Cooking Showdown? Essentially, it’s The Great British Baking Show meets Family Feud. Two rival families have three meals to prove which fam makes the best nosh. The first one is a challenge to see who can do the best job feeding a family of four with just £10 (or $13.17). Then we visit the teams in their homes for a family feast. The final challenge is meant to be a show-stopping “Impress the Neighbors” meal. Judging each round are Giorgio Locatelli (an illustrious Italian chef) and Rosemary Shrager (a famous cooking teacher). So where does Nadiya fit into all of this? She and Zoe Ball are presenters. That is, she’s here to host and chat and lift the spirits of the contestants around her.

The show is delightful in the same way that The Great British Cooking Show is. You’ve got exuberant amateur cooks doing their best to prove their worth — and like Nadiya, some of these contestants are real charming characters. In just the first episode, we meet Torren, a randy Swedish grandma who doesn’t want to admit she’s in her 80s because she has a younger boyfriend. Torren is an absolute ham who cares more about the cameras than the cooking, which is only funny because she seems to be her family’s secret culinary weapon. But it’s not just Torren; Each family we meet — and these families seem cherry-picked to represent the diverse face of modern Britain — has jokers and charmers. Essentially, the show argues that real people are just as compelling as big name chefs.

Oh, and if you find yourself wanting to try any of the dishes seen on the program, the BBC has an online library of all the recipes seen on the show. Click here to see. 

Stream The Big Family Cooking Showdown on Netflix