Have You Ever Seen These Food Channel Christmas Baking Shows?

Link or it didn’t happen

Boring show

I watch them and what pisses ME off is even when they do a stellar job the judges bitch about something the chefs could never have foreseen:

“I really loved your salted caramel orange cinnamon sixteen layer cake frosted with camel’s milk chocolate ganache and topped with candied hazelnuts but I really would liked to have seen you incorporate earthworms into your dessert.”

I almost wish one of the cooks would tell the judges to shove it.

Quite. The American shows are filled with bad bakes, lots of running around and sob stories.

You’ll never get a crisp crust with this weeping.

Holiday Wars has to be scripted. Someone always stupidly drops something that a toddler could hold.

And why wouldn’t you automatically make more dough than you need? It takes seconds to put the ingredients together when you’re an experienced baker.

Christmas Cookie Challenge is really, really bad. I think they got the contestants from a rehab center

I was in a hospital waiting room yesterday and Holiday Baking Challenge (or Championship?) was on the tv and I burst out laughing at one point it was so ludicrous. The contestants really sounded like first semester CC students taking a baking class.

I'm watching it right now and there's a contestant named Stephany who's supposedly some master certified baker or something like that, and nearly everything she makes is crap. The judges find fault with something in everything she's baked.

Jesse Palmer is pretty to look at while they're baking.

I’m watching one now where a cookie being made has to be inedible. The person is using all kinds of molding toppings and using their hands way too extensively in making this cookie a work of art. It’s too shiny. I don’t know what they’re using but I would never eat that thing. Too many glazes and moldings and shards, glitter, sprinkles and fondant. I refuse to eat fondant. Don’t put your damn hands all over my food that much.

OP, you sound like a blast to watch TV with.

No, wait, the other b word. Boor. You're boorish.

I don't know why anyone would take these shows all that seriously. Also, they tend to have plenty of gay representation among contestants, judges, and even "Datalounge favorite" Jonathan Bennett hosts one of these things.

And what cooking show DOESN'T have a chef who talks about their previous addiction or whatever. Have you never seen reality TV before?

If you want to complain about pitiful backstories, I dare you to sit through an episode of American Ninja Warriors.

At least some decently hot guy will be doing the course nearly naked.

And yet it'll still suck the life out of you.

R12 Great British Baking Show is about *baking*. It's not about faux drama, endless (and quite pointless) running around to make simple bakes. Instead, it's highly organized, everyone baking the same thing for one challenge, then creating something pretty spectacular at the end.

The prize? A cake plate. It's very compelling as you wind up cheering for everyone. There's plenty of gay representation as well. The biggest dramas have been Ruby's personal spat with Paul Hollywood and the poor woman who accidentally wrecked another contestant's bake. She was so upset, she left the competition.

Want to see someone create a lion from bread dough? That's the show. Spun sugar basket weaving. Yep.

The cookbooks by Mary Barry and Paul Hollywood are wonderful. The first baking I've done in years was one of Paul's bread recipes. So easy and simple - my partner asks for it every week.

That's why I hate Food Channel shows and stick with GBBO.

And you can eat the food on GBBO. I wonder if fondant is outlawed.

I haven’t seen those “cupcake wars” shows lately. Maybe all the cupcake shops went out of business and there aren’t any contestants anymore. If I ever had a kid I’d want it to be one of those little gayling chef kids from Chopped. They’re unbelievably sophisticated with their cooking. I’d just sit back and let that kid shop & cook for me every day. I’ll do the cleaning up.