Cooking Under Fire: Already Over Done?

By JULIETTE ROSSANT When I watch a good cooking show, I want to rush to the kitchen and try my hand at the recipe I have just seen or at least rummage through the refrigerator. Watching PBS's Cooking Under Fire just makes me yawn. How is it that Todd English, who has tremendous energy and sparkle in real life, translates to such a dull performer on TV? The same goes for Ming Tsai and Michael Ruhlman. Rather than experts watching amateurs, I feel like we viewers are watching nothing but amateurs. What is a whirl of excitement on the Food Network's Iron Chef America is merely talk-talk-talk and inept cooking students without pizzazz on Cooking Under Fire. The real-time experience of Iron Chef America (whose audience I recently joined -- see upcoming article) makes me feel like I am in the kitchen: I don't want to go near Cooking Under Fire. Mind you, it has been so long since I predicted that Cooking Under Fire would fall flat (see last December's article) that I was able to view the show freshly, with doubts aside (forgotten). Nor have I been Iron Chef America's cheerleader (see Iron Chef America: Running on Empty). In last week's episode, the cooks were instructed to use kaffir lime leaves, duck, and a few other ingredients. The kitchen is so crowded, few can prepare anything that dazzles, and the confusion is painful to watch. Maybe a real restaurant kitchen is as tightly packed, but having to invent a dish on top of the lack of space plus a TV crew and one or two celebrity chefs watching your every move is not what cooking is all about. I am unconvinced that the aspiring cooks are learning much or having much fun -- and I don't feel like I am, either. Somehow, the show seems out of proportion on the little screen of TV: rather than exude the tension implied by its name Cooking Under Fire, I cannot help but think that the show is merely over-hyped and over-done. It is self-conscious: no one seems able to forget for one moment that they're cooking under camera. Previous articles: Ming Tsai TV Iron Chef America: Running on Empty Todd English: Trip Over Table? Gordon Ramsay Joins Richard Branson in Fox's Reality TV Hell Iron Chef: America vs. USA Todd English: American Chef Gone Wild