Top Chef Junior

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Need another sign that cooking is a competitive sport? Bravo is developing a teenage version of Top Chef: "Top Chef Junior," which will be based on the Emmy-nominated hit culinary series "Top Chef," is an eight episode series where teens (likely ages 13 to 16) will compete to see if they have what it takes to become a junior "Top Chef." Season-to-date, Bravo's "Top Chef" ranks in the top 15 among kids/teens 2-17 in the Wed 10-11 p.m. time period (at No. 14) versus ad supported cable entertainment networks. So, the thinking is that if Top Chef is so popular among teens, they'll enjoy watching kids like themselves compete even more (or at least the same amount). Finally, it seems, television executives are waking up to the fact that food television appeals to children. The question is: is it food that appeals to them or the reality TV aspect of the show? There are plenty of cooking programs for children of all ages, including great scholarship and mentoring programs like C-Cap, which already includes plenty of serious competitions for student chefs. Top Chef Junior could include underprivileged kids, and offer scholarships, mentoring and advice in conjunction with C-Cap, further strengthening C-cap's mission and motivating students. Bravo says that the show will be instructive as well as entertaining. Is Top Chef instructive? Since the show rarely shows the competitors doing anything in the kitchen start to finish (time won't allow for that), how can anyone learn much from Top Chef besides how to compete? Since there are so few cooking shows on TV that aim to teach kids how to actually cook, understand ingredients, and develop a sense of taste, will Top Chef Junior be an empty shell? Many chefs have commented to Super Chef that years ago young cooks wanted to be chefs because they had a passion for everything about food, cooking, and restaurants. Now, they observer, that too many young culinary students want to be chefs because they want to get on the Food Network or Bravo, and have glamorous, lucrative careers like their favorite stars. Even given the plethora of shows like The Next Food Network Star, fame and fortune is largely unattainable for most chefs and cooks. Will a show like Top Chef Junior do the same for younger kids? Will it risk glamorizing and sanitizing the profession until it no longer resembles the real day-to-day work in the kitchen? Previous articles: Rocco DiSpirito: Top Chef Chicago Top Chef's Tom Colicchio Courts Sara Lee Tom Colicchio: Top Chef 2 Top Chef 2: Already Casting Top Chef: Tom Colicchio Padma Lakshmi: Tangy Tart Hot Sweet Tom Colicchio: Top Chef 2 Carrie Nahabedian Knocks Top Chef Top Chef 2: Already Casting Top Chef: Harold Dieterle Won Top Chef: Taste of the Nation Top Chef: Tom Colicchio [Food Television - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef