Review: Chef Hunter

I have been excited about Food Network’s latest cooking competition, Chef Hunter.  A) Because it does not involve cake. 2. Because it’s real.  Finally, because I was a candidate for season one and will try again for season two.  Oh, and host Carrie McCully is a very cool lady.

McCully is the principal of Force of Nature Media, a boutique-consulting firm that specializes in recruitment and placement of culinary professionals in the United States. Carrie found her niche 15 years ago in New York City when friends who owned restaurants and clubs began asking for advice about servers’ uniforms, designs, menus, marketing and help with finding talented new chefs from her vast network of connections. Soon she realized that her passion for fine food, design and thinking outside the box, along with her innate skill of balancing tradition with foreseeable trends, was her career calling. Over the years Carrie has had the privilege of working with some stellar forces including Alain Ducasse, Terrance Brennan, Martha Stewart, Alison Price Becker, The Museum of Modern Art and Kathryn Bigelow, among others.

Here’s the gist.  There’s a restaurant that is looking for a new chef.  Maybe theirs has opened his own place, maybe theirs has retired, maybe theirs sucked.  Doesn’t matter.  Restaurants from around the country vie to have Carrie find them their new chef.  Cameras roll!

Each restaurant owner has a vision and a plan and three chefs fitting that vision go head to head to prove they are the best fit for the restaurant of the week.  In essence it is an audition for a chef’s job and there happens to be a film crew there to capture the drama.

The show started with three chefs.  They were given the task of inventing an appetizer that reflects both their point of view and the vision of the restaurant owner.  Afterwards one chef is cast off.  The other two take turns running the restaurant for a day.  Actually running the restaurant including ordering, dealing with purveyors, creating specials, cooking the current menu, expediting supervising the kitchen staff and working with the general manager.  This is the job.

My take:  Chef Hunter was exactly what I expected.  This is reality TV that is actually real.  Sure some of the responses might have been canned from time to time but that will always happen.  Sometimes someone gives a frank response at the same time a bus passes by so you have to do it over.  For the most part, though, the drama on Chef Hunter is real.  The chefs going for the position are real chefs who are actually applying for this job.  The winner actually gets the job.  That’s high drama and best of all it is not contrived.

Will it be a hit?  I hope so.  I would hate to think that people would watch crap like Cupcake Wars or Hell’s Kitchen and not watch a show this good.  I know this for sure though, I’ll be watching it.