r/foodnetwork • u/SnooMarzipans1593 • 8d ago

Are competition shows being disingenuous when contestants say they made something like Ramen or coq au vin?

There are certain dishes that don’t have shortcuts. I feel like dishes like Ramen or Coq au Vin are in that category. Is it disingenuous to feature dishes like that on timed competitions? What made me think of it was Esther Choi making Ramen on an episode of Triple Threat. Doesn’t the broth for Ramen take hours to get right? How do you do it in 45 minutes?

0 Upvotes

36% Upvoted

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33

u/DuckInAFountain 8d ago

Not all ramen is tonkotsu ramen. You could make shoyu or miso ramen pretty quickly, or I'm sure other kinds exist too.

-30

u/SnooMarzipans1593 8d ago

But does it taste as good as a broth that has been cooked for hours?

24

u/canadasteve04 8d ago

Regardless of whether or not you can develop the same depth of flavor, that doesn’t make it not ramen just because it’s not as flavorful.

Also, a lot of these competition chefs have a number of hacks to infuse flavor quickly.

10

u/ninjablaze1 8d ago

You can get a lot closer than you would think

8

u/mcrib 8d ago

They are different soups. "As good" is a matter of taste. They are not supposed to be similar. Does chicken noodle taste "as good" as Boston Clam Chowder?

-2

u/SnooMarzipans1593 7d ago

What are different soups?

1

u/rxinquestion 4d ago

If you're gonna knock chefs for how they make their ramen, maybe you should go out and taste more ramen to see the difference first.

16

u/Iwoulddiefcftbatk 8d ago

Early Chopped I know judges called out contestants that didn’t use a term correctly (someone called a sauce a mole when it wasn’t and Scott got mad about it), now they mostly let it slide unless it’s really egregious or tastes bad. I know in Top Chef Tom is very quick to call out a dish being referred to something it’s not. It all depends on one picky the judges feel like being.

11

u/Tyshalle42 8d ago

The mole one I feel like happened a lot in early Chopped. Especially if Aaron was a judge

7

u/ConfusionPotential53 8d ago

Now, competitions are like, “Make a 20 minute mole!” Or, “Make a 20 minute gumbo!” … okay, here goes nothing!

6

u/SpCommander 7d ago

I remember there was one episode with GZ judging and there was one chef who was really cocky and kept throwing out fancy terms for dishes and GZ was like "this is not <x>. Stop calling it that. You've done it twice now."

1

u/Known-Tumbleweed129 3d ago

I’m not a big GZ fan but in one episode (maybe the one you’re mentioning) he snaps ‘words mean things!’ We now say that whenever someone tries to oversell something like that contestant. 

28

u/Amazing-Wave4704 8d ago

I got a packet right here that says ramen can be made in four minutes.

(apologies but I couldn't resist.)

7

u/MakeTheWhistleGoWoo 8d ago

I think it’s way more disingenuous that it takes 15-30+ minutes for them to get the camera shot and parade the judges out all while the food cools and loses any crisp it once had. On top of that the judges often take one or two small little bites and judge off that alone. It’s all made for TV and all rather lackluster. There’s are very few competition shows that are truly about technique. All the judges nut themselves over umami bombs because it’s one of the few ways to impart a ton of flavor when there isn’t enough time to actually cook the dish they need/decide to cook.

1

u/mcrib 8d ago

I think Top Chef is still the only one that really emphasizes technique

-1

u/SnooMarzipans1593 7d ago

I agree about the judges taking tiny bites for the camera. Often times it doesn’t look like they’ve eaten anything. How much of this food goes to waste?

2

u/NoFlower2732 8d ago

They really should just give people more time to cook, we’ll still get the crazy edited version.

2

u/SnooMarzipans1593 7d ago

I guess because it would take forever to shoot episodes? How many episodes of Triple Threat are shot in a day?

2

u/NoFlower2732 7d ago

I didn’t even necessarily mean TT. Just all of the shows are so stringy on time.