24 in 24: Last Chef Standing

I know there are always going to be people who complain-those who just want to see Emeril doing a classic cooking demo on Food Network. But personally, I love shows like this. High-concept culinary competitions are right up my alley, and this one takes it to a whole new level.

The production value is incredible. I honestly can't even begin to imagine the logistics behind making something like this. The intensity! The energy! Do the camera operators even get to sleep? They must be working in shifts or rotating crews, because there's no way anyone could power through 24 straight hours on set. And it's not just the crew-the chefs, the hosts, even the judges... everyone must be absolutely exhausted by the end of each challenge. It really adds another layer of drama and authenticity to the show.

I'm thrilled that Season 2 is finally back. No spoilers here, but I'm 100% rooting for Brian Voltaggio. He's a beast in the kitchen and one of my longtime favorites. That said, the competition looks even tougher this season. I love that they brought in more big-name chefs-it raises the stakes and makes the whole thing feel even more legit. The casting this year is top-notch.

If you're into culinary competitions that push chefs to their physical and creative limits, this is absolutely worth watching. Bring on the chaos, the flavor, and the fierce battles-I'm all in.

Show was good until this last season when it decided to define itself by a myopic chef who just repeats how many months he has been sober over and over and over and over. Literally nothing else to define that person besides been sober x months. Every time they open their mouth, I have been sober x months. Over and over to the judges and cameras. Never anything more whatsoever. Other chefs talk about their families, the charities they want to help, the issues they want to address, etc. Yet the other chef nothing but I have been sober x amount of months. Nothing wrong with being sober until it becomes your sole defining characteristic with absolutely nothing else to define you as a person. If anything the chef set back the sobriety movement by making it their sole defining characteristic. No better than someone's who defines themselves purely by a religion versus being a complete and complex person.

I THOUGHT I was going to like this show. It sounded like a great NEW idea, and it was. It's definitely not boring, but they just don't leave enough time for each segment for the chefs to really DO anything. I mean, even the best of the best can only do so much with nothing. It's hard enough working with the conditions that they are working with, but to then put unreasonable time limits on top of it just makes it chaotic and uninspiring. It just seems like they are making a bunch of messes. On top of the unreasonable time limits, you have the "hosts" interrupting them every few seconds asking stupid questions, as if they have a few extra seconds to spare to chat. Geez, just get out of their face! It seems like all the cooking competitions now do this. They have the "hosts" interrupt the competitors over and over again asking mundane, irrelevant questions, taking the focus away from the actual cooking and disrupting the competition. I wish they would just sit and be quiet until it's their turn.

If you want to watch a show where the contestants or rather chefs complain about how tired they are constantly and maybe do a little cooking on the side then this is the show for you. It gets really tiresome, listening to these chefs constantly talk about how tired they are And how successful they are but really just how tired they are. It's a good concept, but they need to figure out how to edit this thing so that it's not so boring where I'm constantly fast forwarding to segments not wanted to hear what the chefs are even talking about because all they're talking about is how tired they are .

Watching the first episode. About halfway. At the end of each day there's a new judge, so there's 3. Contestants are licking stirring utensils then using them again, and touching their sweaty hair and faces then touching food. There's so many crew members present, someone should say something. Being that their are 3 judges, they should make 3 servings. Right? Or the first judge to get food that is, say a burger, shouldn't finger it but use utensils to cut it into 3. No, first one picks it, bites into it, and passed it to the next one. That one does the same thing. One cook presented a one spoon bite for the judges. I would think, especially because it was egg, each judge would use a spoon. No. First put lips all over it, second lipped, it. Poor 3rd judge. SO DISGUSTING!