Guilty Pleasures: Top Chef Masters

I love cooking shows. It seems that as I have lost weight (down 60 pounds from 2008) I developed an insatiable hunger to at least watch food being prepared. I am also a frustrated cook. I make a mean lasagna with homemade pasta. Vince and I have become certified BBQ judges with the Florida Barbecue Association. I am a huge fan of the Food Network. I especially enjoy "Diners, Drive In and Dives", "Iron Chef America" and "Ace of Cakes".

But the last few weeks I have started watching Bravo Network's, "Top Chef Masters" in which they bring 4 well known - at least to foodies - chefs and pit them against each other for $10,000 to be given to their favorite charity. The 6 winners at the end of the preliminaries will compete again for the chance at $100,000 for the charity of their choice.

These are women and men at the top of their chosen profession. They are - a surprise to me - as competitive as Pastors at a local association meeting. They do not want to be shown up to a national TV audience as not making the cut and told, as the show puts it, "pack up your knives and go home".

To watch these chefs being presented with a challenge such as cooking a formal dinner with a microwave and hot plate in a college dorm room and coming up with amazing food is a joy to watch. Some of the chefs had NEVER used a microwave. Some of them had to get re-acquainted with shopping in a grocery store because a head chef in a 5 Star restaurant orders food to be delivered. It's also amazing to watch as these experts with considerable egos have to be frustrated at failing in doing what their sous chefs usually do and fail. They then stand in front of food critics and get rated for what they prepared face to face rather than read about it in a newspaper column. Last night a Michelin rated chef received half a star for preparing raw eggs.

Try out Top Chef Masters on Wednesday nights after you come home from church.