If you're a fan of Top Chef, there's nothing tougher for the contestants than desserts. Just this past week during 'restaurant wars,' did you notice that one team decided to have no desserts on their menu at all. They just didn't want to risk blowing it. Well, Bravo noticed, not just last week but all through the Top Chef series. Bravo's creating a Top Chef spinoff called Just Desserts in which chefs will have no choice, they'll have to deal with sugar, icing, cakes and struedels.
Top Chef: Just Desserts is the second Top Chef spinoff, after Top Chef Masters. I'm anticipating Top Chef: Maitre D's down the road, aren't you?
Seriously, Just Desserts will be turning up on Bravo in 2010, probably in between the other two series. The network realizes that the difficulty of dessert cooking makes for good TV. If it didn't, why would there be Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, Ultimate Cake-Off and Amazing Wedding Cakes on other cable nets? Then there's those elaborate Food Network Challenges, where contestants carve Mount Rushmore from spongecake.
For me, there are two things that Top Chef: Just Desserts has going for it from the start. First, the name. That's a great name for a show. Brilliant.
Second, the Top Chef production team are very good. Both of the previous two series have worked. As a viewer of both, I'm inclined to give Just Desserts a taste (get it, taste?) just because I liked their other programs. Like trying Law & Order: Criminal Intent because of the other two Law & Orders.
For the record, as if you couldn't figure it out, Just Desserts will house a group of contestants, pastry chefs, in a house during the competition and have them go through a series of challenges like Top Chef. No hosts or judges have been named as yet.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-26-2009 @ 10:37AM
jamabam said...
it'll be fun when one of the pastry chefs confuse salt for sugar. that happened in an episode of Chopped over on the Food Network one time. the judges' faces upon tasting were classic!
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10-26-2009 @ 11:17PM
nick said...
Although I'll probably watch it, the only problem I see with desserts, is that not everything lends itself well to fast cooking (ie, today's quickfire challenge we're all making ice cream. you've got 30 minutes... go! or today's quickfire is all about cakes, easy bake style. 30 minutes, 15 watt light bulb. Your time starts now!).
The interesting thing here, is that even though Food Network has desserts, they're primarily ALL cakes. With the exception of maybe Paula Dean.
Would love to see desserts OTHER than cakes cakes and more cakes.
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11-19-2009 @ 5:23PM
Nihpuad said...
I'm SO there if they do an EasyBake Oven challenge!
10-27-2009 @ 1:08PM
wulfn1 said...
sounds intriguing.
Ought to be interesting , especially on the baking side, as there is more science to baking and less art.
The dessert side, wow they could go way out in left field with some of their desserts.
All in all, would be fun to see what they produce each week and what the grande finale will be.
I am sure I will watch to find out.
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