Food Network Fans Can’t Stand Cooking Sanitation Rules Being Ignored
Food Network is much loved by foodies and home chefs across the country. Several of the network’s series are led by the top names in cooking. It’s home to favorites like Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins and The Pioneer Woman.
It also boasts quite a line-up of cooking competitions, from Chopped to Guy’s Grocery Games to Beat Bobby Flay. Contestants are usually competing for large sums of cash, and the competitions can get quite heated. We love it, though, because once the frenzied madness erupts, that’s when all the entertainment happens.
Although fans enjoy these shows, there seem to be certain similarities between all of them that make viewers a little crazy…
Food Network fans get really irked by a few repetitive behaviors
Food Network fans have noticed some behaviors across numerous cooking competitions that really bug them. These irksome habits seem to get under their skin, making it nearly impossible to finish the show. Somehow, they power through.
A recent Reddit thread spiraled into oblivion with the long list of annoying tendencies shared by nearly every cooking show known to man… There were quite a lot of complaints, from little things like phrases the judges used too much to bigger problems like ignoring sanitation rules. After reading through the thread, there seem to be three specific things that annoy Redditors the most.
Like contestants who make hairy food…
First up on the complaint list? Long-haired contestants. Specifically those who let their locks swing long and loose and right into the food. Also, long beards. One Redditor complained, “I was watching Duff’s Halloween Bake-Off and one of the contestants had so much loose hair, I commented on I wouldn’t want to try her cake for all the hair that must have been baked into it.”
Viewers feel like the practice of not tying your hair back is completely unprofessional and just spits in the face of common sense. No one wants to eat a cake with a hairy filling or find long strands twirled into their forkful of spaghetti. Tie it up, people!
Or the ‘Misery Olympics’
Another common theme in these competitions seems to be the contestants’ numerous sob stories. It’s beginning to seem like you can’t pass the audition for these shows unless you come from a tragic background.
One Redditor actually stated that the incredibly sad backstories are enough to deter them from watching the shows. “I can’t watch Chopped anymore because it has become The Misery Olympics. The sob stories are just too much to take.” Bottom line? Viewers want the sob stories kept at home where they can’t influence the judges. Or the taste of the food. Tears make it extra salty.
And the perpetual last-second plating on Food Network shows
This one doesn’t just pertain to Food Network shows–it seems to span the world of cooking competitions, regardless of network. It’s the frantic, down-to-the-wire plating that occurs as a large, red, digital countdown is shown ticking away the last seconds of the challenge.
Viewers just aren’t buying that this happens every time–“The editing of the shows as time is running out to make it seem like EVERY time EVERY competitor is finishing their plating right as the last 2 seconds tick away.” Either this is a scam to make the show more exciting, or these cooks have serious time-management issues.
They weren’t in the majority, but there were plenty of other little quirks that Redditors find super annoying.
For example, when contestants spend half an hour cooking something really great and then forget to put it on the plate. Cliché tattoos (like ‘BEEF’ across one’s knuckles), slow motion camera pans, and bakers who forget necessary ingredients are a few more things that make viewers batty.
