‘Tis the season, and as we all gather together (in a wholly responsible manner, naturally) with friends and family, one of the universal truths of end of the year get togethers is baking. Yes, baking. You’ll be baking (or buying baked goods if you aren’t blessed with the ability to master your flour, butter, and stove), your friends and family will be baking, there will be calorie-rich foods all around. It’s the joy of the final two months of the year.
But the final two weeks of the year tend to be – for the most part – relaxed, with very few outside responsibilities, a chance to recharge before the clock strikes on 2023. With that in mind, I’ve put together a list of food-friendly competition shows (see what I did there – baking and relaxing!) that you might not be aware of (this means no Great British Bake Off or Top Chef) that will give you some joy – and maybe inspiration for a recipe or two – as 2022 comes to a close.
The Big Brunch (HBO Max)
Hosted by the absolutely delightful Dan Levy (of Schitt’s Creek fame), and with a solid judging panel of Will Guidara and Sohla El-Waylly, this show takes a bunch of professional chefs with big dreams and asks them to complete a series of brunch-related cooking challenges in the hopes of scoring a life changing $300,000 to turn their culinary dream into reality. What dreams are those, you ask? Well, it can be anything from expanding their business, creating a cookbook of recipes from their current restaurant, or getting a brick-and-mortar location. If I’m honest, the weakest element of the series is the requirement that the chefs have a clear goal for that cash prize – something that becomes clear in the finale where the uses of the money seems to trump the cooking that is being completed. But if the money is the weak point, the strength of the series comes from its contestants.
In this Great British Bake Off world, we no longer want contestants who are cutthroat and win at all costs. Rather, we are looking for more kind, caring, and collaborative cheftestants. And boy does The Big Brunch deliver in that area. Yes, there are emotional stories that pull at the heart strings, but it’s more than that. These contestants become each other’s greatest cheerleaders – they’re constantly clapping for one another, hugging when someone is sent home, and offering to lend a hand whenever needed. There’s a camaraderie that develops over the course of the eight-episode series, and it’s a joy to watch. It certainly helps that the series allows us to be present at the chefs’ “family meal” before the major challenges. You get to see who each chef is outside of their culinary abilities, and that helps us to fall in love with them. A word of warning, however: This being HBO, there is some salty language, so this is likely not a show for the little ones to watch. Teens and older should be just fine though.
Baking It (Peacock)
I stumbled across this gem of a series a week ago and have been raving about it to anyone who asks for a fun recommendation to binge. The first season dropped last holiday season with Andy Samberg and Maya Rudolph as the hosts and season two is slowly rolling out on a weekly schedule with Amy Poehler replacing Sandberg this time around (as someone who believes a little Samberg goes a long way, I have to say he’s absolutely charming in season one, and I actually miss him this time around although Poehler is good at hosting). The contestants are, as with Great British Bake Off, home cooks, and they are a joyful group. Yes, there’s a cash prize at stake ($50,000), but that doesn’t cloud their teamwork, with them offering to aid each other whenever needed. And, as with The Big Brunch, you can watch the contestants become close over the course of the shoot. In a twist on most baking shows, however, the contestants are teams (parent and child, best friends, couples, etc.), and work as a pair to complete their bakes. I would say that, on the whole, the baking isn’t as much of a draw as the people involved – you don’t really get a great look at the baking process and the suspense isn’t so much in whether or not the bake will work as it is in whether or not the judges will like it.
Which brings me to the best part of the series: The Judges. Without this fearsome foursome, the series wouldn’t work at all. Instead of culinary stalwarts, Baking It has a team of “judgmental grannies.” The four women do have the credentials for the part – two are culinary instructors, one has a host of baking awards, and the fourth is a known baker in the Los Angeles area. But they also have the screen presence to be commanding of our attention, the comedic chops to keep us laughing, and the poise to know when and how to deliver critiques. It doesn’t hurt that after each elimination, which the grannies handle, each leaving contestant receives a “hug from granny” to lessen the blow. Yes, the grannies take the focus from the baking – they are the true stars of the series – but it’s lovely to watch the duos bake together (they all really do love each other and let it shine through) and see the grannies bounce off one another in the judging. The balance of personalities is perfection.
The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Holiday (Roku Channel)
Over the last decade, there have been a couple attempts to bottle to joy of The Great British Bake Off into an American version. The first attempt in 2013 failed as the contestants were catty and unhelpful and America really hadn’t jumped on the GBBO train yet. From 2015-2019, ABC aired a version of the series that had Mary Berry as a judge, but it, too, failed to catch on (and the American judge for the first two seasons ended up embroiled in sexual harassment allegations). But the third time is hopefully the charm, as the series is moving to Roku (which is available on smart TVs even if you don’t have a Roku device), keeping Paul Hollywood and Prue Leath as the judges and bringing in the lovely Ellie Kemper (The Office, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Zach Cherry (Severance) as the hosts. Thus far, the series has only released a one-off Celebrity Holiday Baking episode (which was an absolute gem – Marshawn Lynch’s baking skills might be suspect, but he’s a heck of a personality), but a full season is in the cards for 2023. While we wait, I recommend watching that holiday special – it certainly brought my family a lot of joy and had us laughing out loud throughout. This seems to be the right mix for this series to succeed, and I think we’re ready for it.
