I will admit that I am a fan of most cooking shows on television. I am not overly fond of the some of the "la de da" chefs who do the critiques, but really enjoy watching the contestants battle it out. Now what I want to see is a cooking show that has only people like you and I, who can cook pretty good, but are not professionals. And we can describe our ingredients like, "The green stuff that smells pretty good!" I think that would be a lot of fun. And for the judges? Maybe first round losers from "Hell's Kitchen!"
There is a cooking show like that in one of the local channels. The host is a noted actress for her acting skills and she is not a chef nor a real cook. She learns cooking or I should say her demo cooking is by recipe only. She studies the recipe (more like has a tutor for it) and cooks it in front of the camera. No professional terms, just like the layman, you and me. By the way, the actress is Jennylyn Mercado, a grand winner of a tv reality contest and later on became an awarded actress.
I gave up watching so called trend setting cookery shows as I found them extremely irritating. They are not about good ingredients or cooking anymore, but how you can come up with more fancy words and ways to murder food. Words are not necessary to produce tasty food out of the simplest ingredients and there are non better than street food vendors to prove that.
Yes, there is a cooking competition similar to this it airs on NBC. The name of the show off hand I can't actually remember. The show takes good cooks from day to day life and pits them against expert chefs. Don't think the individuals stand a chance think again. I caught a few episodes last year during the shows first season and there was a competitor who was a housewife who beat one of the professional chefs in the battle. So, this show is interesting to watch at times to see what untap talent is actually out there, and whether it can measure up to that of a professional.