I've been watching loads of Top Chef lately and I couldn't help but make comparisons with Hell's Kitchen. So I thought I'd compare the two shows and decide which is better!
Contestants (or Cheftestants as I read somewhere!)
Top Chef win this hands down, the competitors are all talented and have a decent amount of experience. Hell's Kitchen picks less talented individuals, sometimes even picking people who work in waffle houses or steak houses.
The Prize
Top Chef offers a cash prize of $10,000, a feature in Food and Wine magazine and the opportunity take part in a 'food classic' whatever one of those may be! Hell's Kitchen claims that the winner gets to become head chef at a 5 star hotel's restaurant. Are you kidding me? There is no chance any 5 star establishment is going to allow a reality show contestant to be the executive chef in their kitchen! Besides the proof of the pudding lies with previous contestants, Heather from Season 2 was named senior chef not executive chef at Terra Rosa (she's now a sous chef in Season 6!) and The Rock from season 3 had only a year as head chef at his location before his contract expired and it appears season 4 champ Christina isn't doing anything major either. So it appears that HK sometimes bends the truth when describing some of the prizes!
Challenges
Hell's Kitchen has a few challenges which are always fun to watch including the taste challenge where they are blindfolded and have to guess the ingredient by taste alone. But mostly the challenges are pretty basic like how to prepare shrimps or who can make the most fresh spaghetti. Meanwhile Top Chef's challenges seem to be fairly different each week usually involving creating dishes with various ingredients pre-selected by the guest judge. My favourites include the challenge of creating something using ingredients from a petrol station and a vending machine!
Format
HK starts off with the men vs the women who have their own kitchen and have to cook for a dining room full of customers where as TC chefs in the most part cook for themselves (although team challenges seem to appear more as the seasons go on). HK is probably a more pressurised enviornment and with so many personalities and a foul mouthed, bad tempered head chef makes for some major drama!
Hosts/Judges
TC has Padma Lakshmi as the host of the show, she's not bad, very easy on the eyes and seems to know a fair bit about fine dining. However, someone needs to be fired for having Katie Lee Joel as the host in season 1, she was truly terrible. The main judge is Tom Collichio, personally I've never heard of him but he seems like quite a fair judge and definitely knows his stuff when it comes to cooking. Gail Simmons from Food & Wine Magazine is the other judge, she's kind of annoying but not too bad in small doses. On HK, obviously Gordon Ramsey is the master. Despite the fact that the show concentrates on portraying Gordon as an agressive loud mouth bully, he seems to pull it off without being disliked. In the UK version of HK, a more supportive and friendlier Gordon was on display, something I believe is closer to his real identity. Other bit part players include the sous chefs Scot and Gloria (who has since been replaced by Heather from Season 2) who have very little screen time and Jean Phillipe the Belgian Maitre d' who has become more and more of a comedy actor in recent years.
Verdict
Although HK is enjoyable, I personally believe it has started to become too formulaic. Every season we have a couple of hopeless cases, one guy who has to drop out for medical reasons and lots of shouting and swearing from Gordon. Top Chef, despite being a cooking show at heart has had some pretty major dramas to keep the viewers entertained. The challenges are more creative and tougher and the cheftestants have a lot more expertise when it comes to cooking.
Top Chef wins it!
Contestants (or Cheftestants as I read somewhere!)
Top Chef win this hands down, the competitors are all talented and have a decent amount of experience. Hell's Kitchen picks less talented individuals, sometimes even picking people who work in waffle houses or steak houses.
The Prize
Top Chef offers a cash prize of $10,000, a feature in Food and Wine magazine and the opportunity take part in a 'food classic' whatever one of those may be! Hell's Kitchen claims that the winner gets to become head chef at a 5 star hotel's restaurant. Are you kidding me? There is no chance any 5 star establishment is going to allow a reality show contestant to be the executive chef in their kitchen! Besides the proof of the pudding lies with previous contestants, Heather from Season 2 was named senior chef not executive chef at Terra Rosa (she's now a sous chef in Season 6!) and The Rock from season 3 had only a year as head chef at his location before his contract expired and it appears season 4 champ Christina isn't doing anything major either. So it appears that HK sometimes bends the truth when describing some of the prizes!
Challenges
Hell's Kitchen has a few challenges which are always fun to watch including the taste challenge where they are blindfolded and have to guess the ingredient by taste alone. But mostly the challenges are pretty basic like how to prepare shrimps or who can make the most fresh spaghetti. Meanwhile Top Chef's challenges seem to be fairly different each week usually involving creating dishes with various ingredients pre-selected by the guest judge. My favourites include the challenge of creating something using ingredients from a petrol station and a vending machine!
Format
HK starts off with the men vs the women who have their own kitchen and have to cook for a dining room full of customers where as TC chefs in the most part cook for themselves (although team challenges seem to appear more as the seasons go on). HK is probably a more pressurised enviornment and with so many personalities and a foul mouthed, bad tempered head chef makes for some major drama!
Hosts/Judges
TC has Padma Lakshmi as the host of the show, she's not bad, very easy on the eyes and seems to know a fair bit about fine dining. However, someone needs to be fired for having Katie Lee Joel as the host in season 1, she was truly terrible. The main judge is Tom Collichio, personally I've never heard of him but he seems like quite a fair judge and definitely knows his stuff when it comes to cooking. Gail Simmons from Food & Wine Magazine is the other judge, she's kind of annoying but not too bad in small doses. On HK, obviously Gordon Ramsey is the master. Despite the fact that the show concentrates on portraying Gordon as an agressive loud mouth bully, he seems to pull it off without being disliked. In the UK version of HK, a more supportive and friendlier Gordon was on display, something I believe is closer to his real identity. Other bit part players include the sous chefs Scot and Gloria (who has since been replaced by Heather from Season 2) who have very little screen time and Jean Phillipe the Belgian Maitre d' who has become more and more of a comedy actor in recent years.
Verdict
Although HK is enjoyable, I personally believe it has started to become too formulaic. Every season we have a couple of hopeless cases, one guy who has to drop out for medical reasons and lots of shouting and swearing from Gordon. Top Chef, despite being a cooking show at heart has had some pretty major dramas to keep the viewers entertained. The challenges are more creative and tougher and the cheftestants have a lot more expertise when it comes to cooking.
Top Chef wins it!
