Top 5 List of the Best Cooking Based Reality Television Shows

Naturally I'm talking about reality shows, and these days there seems to be a reality show to suit any interest in any subject.

For those of you who claim not to watch reality shows I think you're not being entirely truthful with me because some of the highest rated shows on television these days are, in fact, reality shows.

In any case, Christmas is right around the corner and although Christmas is known for gift giving it is also known for all the great foods that and treats that we all know and love and since we've established that Americans love reality TV I think it would be fun to run down the top 5 reality cooking shows.

So lets jump right in and get this list cooking.

5. "The Chopping Block" is an offering from NBC but it origins are from the land down under. The Australian version of the show was hosted by Matt Moran and Catriona Rowntree. The premise was that two Australian restaurants were reviewed secretly, they would then be given $5000 Australian and 72 hours to revamp their menu at which point they would be judged by the food from the new selections

NBC picked up the rights to the show and produce an American version hosted by Marco Pierre White. The US version has a different format with multiple contestants competing in an objective based format with a heavy emphasis on competition.

4."Top Chef" is a fine cooking reality show offering from Bravo in which several contestants complete different food based challenges and are then judged by a panel of well established chefs.

It's actually a good show but in recent years, Bravo, hasn't had the type of commercial success that they enjoyed in the past but "Top Chef" comes in at number four because it really doesn't wow people for some reason. Personally I think the show is very enjoyable.

3. "Next Food Network Star" comes in at number four and airs on The Food Network. The reason this show only comes in at number three is because as much as we love the food network we don't really love the winners of the "Next Food Network Star".

Previous winners, With one or two exceptions they usually get a lousy time-slot for a few months and within a year they are gone. "Next Food Network Star" is a lot of fun because of the wide array of personalities that compete and the celebrity chefs that judge them.

2. "Iron Chef America" because you can't have a top 5 reality cooking show list without one of the most popular cooking shows around today.

Hosted by the much beloved Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame) and present by "The Chairman" who is portrayed by martial artist Mark Dacascos. Dacascos is introduced as the nephew of the original "Chairman" from the Japanese version of "Iron Chef".

The premise of the show is not unlike a boxing match. There is a professional competitor chef who challenges one of the Iron chefs. The shows iron chefs consist of some extremely well known celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay and Mario Batali.

The competitor and the iron chef both have an hour to cook a five course meal from a secret ingredient which is revealed at the start of the show by the "Chairman". Once the clock runs down the one hour time limit, each chefs dishes are critiqued by a panel of celebrities and food critics. It is truly a feat for the challenger to beat the Iron chef and is a fairly rare occurrence. Probably one of the greatest all around shows on television, if you ask me.

1, "Hell's Kitchen" is a reality cooking show offering from Fox and it is also the number one pick in this top five list. The show is hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Ramsay is a high strung perfectionist and very short tempered, he is not afraid to let everyone know his feelings in a slew of some rather harsh language.

Hell's Kitchen is a competition based show featuring two teams competing in various cooking challenges throughout each season. Each week someone is eliminated from the teams and once there are only five remaining contestants, the two teams are merged.

The competition switches from team based to individual based and at the conclusion of each season, when there are only two competitors remaining, six previously eliminated contestants are brought back to help the two contestants in preparing their meals by which a winner is determined.

There is so much going on in "Hell's Kitchen" that it's almost impossible to describe every nuance of the show. Suffice it to say that the show really is a must see as is reflected in the shows ratings.

Well, that's the top 5 cooking based reality TV shows as I see it, no matter what all the shows listed are great fun and a great learning experience for the audience. All the shows are also responsible for inspiring many young people to study the culinary arts and become chefs themselves, and any way you slice it that's always a good thing.

By: Rob Korczak