Watched a couple of episodes again yesterday, and I keep having an issue with a major premise of this show. It kills me how the chefs he is throwing down with are supposed to act surprised when he walks up. To me, it’s a fatal concept flaw. I mean, why else would there be a camera crew and a crowd of people already there?
Drop the pretense and be up front with the challenge, show each “side” doing their prep work and then the face-off.
Is there something I’m missing?
I have a vague recollection from seeing an episode of a prior season of this show that the camera crew says they’re shooting some generic documentary about local chefs, and so said local chefs agree to participate, and then Bobby shows up and z0mg IT’S BOBBY FLAY!
Of course it could just as easily be BS.
I have no idea how the show works in reality but the premise is that they believe they’re taking part in some kind of a special looking at local cooking or a particular item they make well. In all the episodes I’ve seen they depict the local cook talking to the camera as if they were a guest host on a food network show, explaining their technique and suggesting they believe it’s a food network special.
I wouldn’t be the LEAST bit surprised if they’re secretly in on it, but I think it’s at least a reasonable in-show explanation. They have so many actual stupid specials on local restaurants that it seems reasonable that one would believe they’re taking part in one. Any foodnetwork special - general or with Bobby Flay - would be amazing free PR. Most of those genuine shows even focus on something really specific, so it wouldn’t raise suspicion if the producers said “we want all the shots to be about your sticky buns”.
Also, just as an anecdote, the time there was a Throwdown at a place in DC, the local food blogs knew Food Network was shooting there in advance and speculated that it was really a Throwdown episode. I don’t know if the actual restauranteurs knew for sure but they surely at least suspected it too.
If it ever was true it isn’t any more. The show has been around too long and is known too well, and the chefs they feature on the show tend to be Food Network insiders already.
I dislike Reality TV under the best of circumstances and cooked, badly acted faux-Reality TV is utterly painful to watch. This show fits that description, but at least 75% of the show is devoid of any manufactured “drama” and filled with cooking and food porn, which makes it bearable for short stretches in between flipping channels.
Like the others have said, the producers just tell the local chefs that they’re working on some random Food Network show.
What I’d like to know is have any of them ever refused to have a throwdown with Bobby Flay when he shows up. What happens if they get really pissed when they find out they were hoodwinked and tell Flay to take a hike?
Remember, they’re chosen as being the best in the country at their particular dish. Who wouldn’t want the chance to take down a high level chef like Flay?
I’ve always though the show was kind of obnoxious. Doesn’t Bobby Flay have anything better to do that try to prove to local pizza joints and donut shops that he can make a better version of the product they’ve spent their whole career perfecting?
I always assumed he had nothing better to do because no one wants to hang out with him. We’ve all seen that guy, the guy who insists in front of professionals in ANYTHING that he could do it better without anything to back up that belief. Granted he is a talented chef, this IS his arena, but he still looks like a dick. If you spend your whole lives perfecting a recipe and business based around it and then he waltzes in and destroys you with barely lifting a finger, how is that going to feel? How is that going to look for your business? I just don’t get him or this show… :rolleyes:
Flay is 22-1-48.
There have been a couple of episodes where the opponents seem to not know who he was and seemed a little annoyed by the obnoxiousness of it. Those were in the first season when the ruse may have been more effective. A couple contestants seemed to take the challenge as a bit more of a personal challenge and approached it like a real competition. There’d be the occasional brush off or lack of banter during the cooking. Again, those were early in the show. Recent seasons seem much more inorganic.
22-48-1 in common use. 48 ties would really be amazing!
I’ve only seen him lose, which is not surprising considering that he is going up against people who specialize in making one dish with the best freshest ingredients.
also flay isn’t the greatest chef out there…
Yes there is. At the start of each episode, Flay explains that the people he is challenging all think they are part of one of those random “Best XYZ Food in America” specials that Food Netowkr airs from time to time, where XYZ is the type of food they are known to be good at making. So they know they are going to be on The Food Network, but they just think it’s a regular program showcasing their food/restaurant, not Throwdown.
Edit: Whoa, beaten by a lot. I swear when I opened this thread a few minutes ago it didn’t have any responses, though cleary it did…weird…maybe I just clicked on ‘Reply’ before I let the rest of the page load.
Yeah, but they could still be upset over the ruse. And if they have a particularly thin skin, they may not want to face the prospect of having their dish upstaged.
This show is why I think Flay is such a tool–because it’s win/win for him, at the potential expense of the competition.
If he loses, then he loses to someone who’s an expert at their specialty, so what would you expect?
If he wins, he gets to show up someone who takes particular pride in that style of food by beating them.
I don’t travel in the culinary community, so maybe Flay is so revered that getting beat by him, or even being on the same stage, is considered an honor and priviledge.
But I just think it makes him look like a douche (well that, and his faux-modest demeanor), and nothing would make me happier than if the Food Network held a monthly Bobby Flay Loses Marathon (where we see him get his hat handed to him here and on Iron Chef all day).
Yes, except for the fact the Flay doesn’t shirk from revealing his lack of knowledge about certain dishes, and the show shows him getting help from assistants in duplicating/improving a recipe for a particular challenge first.
I’ve never heard that, maybe I haven’t tuned in early enough in an episode or maybe I was mentally tuned out when explained. However, if the same ruse is used over and over wouldn’t it automatically raise a red flag of suspicion.
I just think they could get more mileage out of shots of the chef he’s challenging getting prepared to kick Flay’s ass than being faux surprised.
Well, of course he has to give himself some prep time, but it still seems monumentally immodest to be a more seasoned and professionally trained all-around culinary expert who “challenges” someone who does one thing very well but usually are otherwise pretty humble and self-effacing about the quality of their product. I’d be more impressed if he had to come up with something on-the-spot; by researching and testing in advance, it feels like he stacks the deck even more.
I think I read somewhere (although I can’t recall where at the time) that Food Network came up with this because so many viewers thought he was a dick that they created a show where he has a greater chance of losing than on other competition shows that he’s done. The viewers wanted to see him lose, so they set it up that way to get him to look like a gracious loser.
I just like seeing him get his ass kicked occasionally - he annoys me too much to watch it regularly.
What I imagine is an intentional side-effect is the publicity these local businesses get from Bobby Flay… the fact that he researched, identified, chose, showcased, and then competed against them provides unparalleled exposure…