Food Network’s Tournament of Champions VII is already at its end, and we’ll see who wins tonight.
It’s a gift to watch chefs—people we know from Top Chef, Masterchef, Food Network, and elsewhere, besides those who are new to us—compete in this game, which is simple and gimmick-free.
Of course, the Randomizer is a big gimmick, a slot machine that delivers sometimes wacky combinations of food and techniques. There’s no mid-challenge surprise, or a fight for ingredients, or having to cook for 2,219 people on a bunsen burner while trampolining (ahem, Top Chef).
After the Randomizer’s wheels spin, the chefs just cook, using their creativity and experience to craft something in a short amount of time. Then their trusted colleagues, Justin Warner and Tiffani Faison, present their plates anonymously to judges, who then give numerical scores.
I love the way it’s judged, and that more shows have adopted blind judging or just added objective ways of scoring—even if evaluating dishes is ultimately subjective!
I also appreciate that TOC has continued to evolve throughout its seven seasons—eight, if you count the holiday season last winter. The brackets are no longer east vs. west, giving us different match-ups; the qualifiers added a few weeks of competition and even more fresh blood; past winners are now among the judges.
If we’re lucky enough to keep getting TOC every year, there are some things that could be tweaked. For me, there are three things that would dramatically improve the show.
1. Give us more than one note for each chef
Tournament of Champions season 7’s quarterfinals ended with Bryan Voltaggio facing off against Shirley Chung (Photo by Food Network)
In my recaps and the comments, there have been lots of jokes and references to Jonathon Sawyer’s sobriety. No one is making fun of his sobriety, and as I’ve written, I hope that when he mentions it, that helps or reassures viewers who are also struggling with substance abuse.
But that’s all we know about him—especially since that’s the one thing other cooking shows he’s on have highlighted, too.
This is my number-one complaint about TOC: the bios of the chefs are too one-note.
I’m not asking for mini-documentaries in each episode. After all, I also complain about American Ninja Warrior and America’s Got Talent and other shows without “America” in the name overloading their episodes with background. Get to the thing!
TOC’s formula gives us an introduction to the chef, and then Guy Fieri’s intro to them in the arena. We hear their accomplishments and see an on-screen listing that details things like how many years they’ve been a chef and how many restaurants they’ve opened. That’s all good information.
Yet viewers and fans often mention fast-forwarding through the show, and I think that’s because these intros and trailer time can feel monotonous—especially after we’ve seen the chefs once.
Almost every chef has a one-note thing: Shirley Chung’s cancer battle, Bryan Voltaggio never winning a show by himself, et cetera. Sometimes that note changes: Tobias Dorzon’s past in the NFL was his one note, and now it’s about his recovery from being shot.
Obviously, that’s important to Tobias and his fans and all humans who wish for other humans to not be shot! And of course Shirley’s last few years have been the focus of her life, and am so thrilled she’s okay and as impressed with her cooking and persona as ever.
So I also don’t want TOC to ignore what’s important or top-of-mind for its contestants. Rather, I want it to go deeper than just repeating the same point.
It’s hard to get that out in the middle of competition, or immediately afterwards; even a skilled sideline interviewer would struggle to get chefs who walk through the doors to say something insightful. And TOC doesn’t have a skilled sideline interviewer. Or a skilled talker.
So this is probably a job for producers who are in the trailers with the chefs, and who interview them afterwards. For example, what about asking chefs about:
- how they prepared for this season, if at all
- if they have any new techniques or ingredients they’re hoping to incorporate
- how they dealt with last year’s loss
- what they do in their downtime between cooks on TOC
- where they’ve traveled to recently
- why they like this format, or how it compares to shows like Top Chef or Chopped
- how painful it is for them to listen to Hunter attempt to construct a question
It’s highly likely producers are already doing this, and it’s just footage that ends up cut for time.
I’m aware that TV network executives don’t always trust that viewers are paying attention, and genuinely believe we need to be told the same thing again and again. (Here are some hilarious examples.)
But the chefs’ careers and lives are so much richer than TOC lets us know about. I talked with Britt Rescigno last week, and we focused almost entirely on TOC, so it’s not like I was asking her about her hobbies and favorite reality TV shows. (Dammit, I should have done that!)
Still, Britt had a lot to say about how people perceive her, the pressure she feels, and her new nickname. How is that she changed nicknames and the show didn’t even explain it? Why not explore some things chefs say with more emotional depth?
None of this would require changing TOC; it’s just changing what we’re seeing to deepen it. And speaking of more depth, I’d also like…
2. More of Simon Majumdar’s judge chats
Amanda Freitag plates her first-round TOC 5 dish while Simon Majumdar takes notes (Photo by Food Network)
Simon Majumdar’s backstage conversations with the judges are a fun hang, the judges having a drink and talking through dishes. Of course, it’s also delightful that Guy Fieri and the producers have kept Simon as part of TOC while he attends to brain cancer.
Alas, we only see a few seconds of his chats—though when we do, those can be revelatory! Oh, that’s why the person lost, just that one thing. Since we see a small fraction of the judges’ comments while they’re tasting, and since cooking competition judges always discuss strengths and weaknesses, it’s not always clear what really mattered.
I don’t need 10 minutes, but what if we cut back on the chef intros by 15 seconds each and used that 30 seconds to boost Simon’s segment?
I’d especially like to hear Simon ask the judges about their differences in opinion and/or scores. Maybe that’s sensitive and they don’t want to call attention to the fact that, you know, I’m the one who tanked Shirley Chung’s season because I didn’t like the presentation so I scored it a 3.
Maybe that’d be an opportunity to show us individual ballots, or at the very least, the scores across judges, so we could see how the average came together? I’d love to know if all judges scored the same in one category, or if there was a range.
In short: more Simon, more depth into the judging.
3. Please keep TOC: All-Star Christmas
On Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas season 1 episode 4, Guy Fieri laughed at Hunter’s outfit and/or stocking distribution skills. (Composite by reality blurred)
TOC began as a March Madness stunt; I think that’s some kind of basketball thing involving fans drinking and going insane.
Keeping it to once a year makes it special. The addition of Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas last winter, though, was an absolute delight.
The brilliance of TOC: All-Star Christmas was having pairs of chefs compete together, which brought an entirely new flavor to the competition. They had to create a savory and sweet dish that ate well together using the Randomizer’s choices.
While there was banter and fun, especially from those pairs who’ve known each other for a long time, and some laughs (More Hunter the Elf as comic relief; less Hunter the Reporter!) the season ended up less fun-and-games than I thought it might be.
I expected something more like The Great British Bake-Off does with its Christmas and New Years specials, which ramps up the playfulness and dials down the expectations. Tournament of Champions didn’t do that, and gave us a seasonally appropriate version of itself with some warm camaraderie and cutthroat competition. And that’s why I hope it becomes an annual tradition, as TOC has in the spring.
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