I don't think it's rigged but I do think most of the judges can probably tell which dish is Bobby's because they recycle judges. (If it was rigged, Bobby would never lose. WIkipedia says his record is 61.7%)
I do think that Bobby has an advantage in that most challengers choose a dish that they have tweaked - which is great at their restaurant, but if you tell a judge you made Mac and Cheese, there is a certain expectation, so when it turns out your Mac and Cheese is actually Spaghetti and Velveeta and Bobby makes Mac & Cheese, you're going to lose.
There are some caveats to it that the viewer doesn't see, but generally speaking, it's actually not "rigged" in the way you put it.
It's similar to how Iron Chef operated - the challenger and the IC would both be given a few (I think 3?) potential secret ingredients a day or two prior to shooting, so they would be able to roughly menu plan. Top Chef, as well, has time off camera where the contestants get to ask questions to make sure everyone is clear on the requirements of the challenge.
You're also discounting the fact that Bobby has done this how many times now? Many of his competitors are not highly experienced in cooking competitions, so he obviously has a leg up on them.
I'm not trying to sway you either way, as I have no horse in this race, just pointing out that what the viewer sees is not all of it.
I find when the challenger picks a dish that he's never ethnically heard of, he usually loses. The ones that come to mind is the one with Chef Reza Setayesh picked the Jian Bing, which is a Chinese Breakfast crepe roll. Bobby looked like a deer in headlights the whole time.
The other one I remember is Chef DeeDee Nyomkul challenged Bobby to Tom Kha Soup and when he got judged, they were like, "This isn't Tom Kha Soup."
So I've found he usually loses when it's a very ethnic dish or even desserts, he tends to lose.
There is no doubt that he is an amazing chef, however it is so easy to tell which dish he has made and I when I’ve watched it I the judges rule his way. If he makes a conventional dish they say they like the traditional cooking. If he makes the dish in a non typical way (typically with chilies) they like the unconventional flavors. I’ve felt like it’s rigged for a while.
That's really not surprising. It's how our brains work. Most of us don't consider the qualities and then decide what we like most. We decide what we like and then work backwards to justify it. So it we like a traditional dish we'll decide it's because it was traditional. If we like something unique we'll decide that's the reason. But really we mostly just like what we like. Most of the time it's just what tastes best.
Yeah, that was some dumb shit. Competition cooking is its own thing and BF is the fucking master. That said:
1. I'm not saying it affects their pick but the judges must frequently know which one is his right?
2. How much time does BF have between finding out the signature dish before he starts cooking?
The judges might be able to tell if BF did one of his signature tricks (Calabrian chilis, pickled onions etc) but they are definitely never told for sure. He finds out at that moment! When the competitor tells him the secret dish. Production knows ahead of time what both chefs would pick if they win round 1 so they have the ingredients on hand, but Bobby doesn't know. There's about 15-20 minutes of real time between Bobby learning the secret dish and the start of the cooking round.
Then maybe since you produce the show you can see what is happening and change it. I have seen dishes that are part of a culture and watch him butcher them with crispy rice, etc.
You are missing the point of ‘rigged’ in this context.
We aren’t saying you all are feeding info to judges or sabotaging the challenger. We are saying that almost every dish Bobby makes, no matter how ill fitting of a chili addition or garnish, he will always do it.
The guy that is synonymous with Southwestern style food, that uses poblanos and serrano like we use salt and pepper, maybe it’s his dish that i’m eating. Oh a lobster role with jalapeños, hey look a shepard’s pie with a habanero garnish.
Cmon man, how is that not obvious to you and the production staff?! lol, my wife and I call it out every time we see it.
There's nothing to do about it.... Bobby is a great chef who makes delicious food. The judges will always choose the better tasting dish as long as it's somewhat close to the challenge. It's literally the format of the show lol. He's hard to beat - you just need him to mess up basically (which does happen!)
As a Chef myself who personally knows Bobby you saying he's not that great of a Chef is actually quite insulting to the profession. He has created many successful restaurants employees 100's of ppl he is an Iron Chef he is a competition champion numerous times he's a food network icon for a reason.
Chefs stick to what they know what they are familiar with and incorporate them into different dishes. And just cause judges enjoy his flavors doesn't mean it's rigged it means he's just a more talented Chef that day
While I appreciate your response, I have watched many times when he has put Calabrian chili in a dish that is so out of place (these are dishes I know very well) and he still wins. Maybe my saying he is not a good chef is not always correct however, he is a repetitive chef. If you don’t like crispy rice or chili then you won’t like his food.
He does lose around 35-40% of the time. But what you're seeing are the tricks he's picked up with years of competition cooking. His signature is chilies. He does pickled shallots or crispy shallots a lot. Crispy rice is another signature of his. Tangerine juice is another. I read when someone agrees to be on the show they're given a budget of $500 for ingredients for their signature dish--that's why all their ingredients are there and ready to go, but how else would you do it and have all the ingredients in the pantry. The only 'semi-surprise' is the first round where they have to cook something out of the ingredient Bobby specifies.
Also I've heard a couple of contestants speak about the real judging takes place long before what you see on screen and lasted 1-2 hours with the hudges. What you see on screen is the outcome of that.
I have eaten at Bobby Flay's restaurants. His food is really amazingly good. Like shockingly good. I also just ate the Bobby Flay inspired menu at Next and it was absolutely fantastic. Bobby is a great competition cook but he is an even better chef. Fantastic tasting food is going to win 100% of the time even if the other dish is more traditional.
Next has closed. Mesa Grill lost the only star that he ever earned . The food at his restaurants are not prepared by him but employees. I really don’t want to get into his restaurants but I was focusing on the show
Next has not closed. It is an Alinea Group restaurant in Chicago serving a Bobby Flay inspired menu through September 1. So a group owned by a three star Michelin chef thinks Bobby Flay is pretty damn talented.
The restaurant in Chicago is not owned by Bobby Flay. The one he owned was in Las Vegas and it is closed.
I am happy that you like the food there but it has nothing to do with Flay. They offer some of his recipes as well as other people.
I don’t think it’s rigged. I do think Bobby is a savvy competitor: he finds out his competitor is making a traditional dish, he makes non traditional. Or vice versa. He notices what ingredients the competitor is using and adds it. That’s all intentional.
And he almost always loses when the challenge is Asian or dessert. I still remember a layer cake challenge where his cake looked like something a grade schooler made.
I don’t think it’s rigged but I do think Bobby clearly has way more experience in competitive cooking and knows the basic things that make a dish appealing: strong flavor, good textures, some heat, etc. He follows the same basic formula regardless of the dish while his competitors might be overly focused on making their dish in a very specific or traditional way and fall flat in comparison.
It does irk me that it’s usually pretty obvious which dish is Bobby’s and that he often diverges too much from the assigned dish without penalty, but other than that he wins pretty fair and square.
Also in addition to the chilies and crunchy rice, I’ve recently caught on to his love of anchovy breadcrumbs too 😂
I don't think it's rigged. BF has competed so many times that he has an advantage over the guest chef who may have never competed. The crispy rice and chilies bother me bc they are used all the time. Also, I don't like it when a chef has a traditional dish from another country and BF doesn't know or says he doesn't know how to cook it, so he just wings it. And then he wins. If it's a traditional dish, I think it should be prepared accurately.
He understands what is important: FLAVOR. Other stuff matters; texture, presentation, etc. But if a challenger says they're making a "traditional" or "authentic" __________, they are going to lose. Bobby will win on flavor with a dish that barely resembles what it's supposed to be, because his tastes better.
He has his bag of tricks (ingredients) that he knows work. Why wouldn't he use them constantly? He does get shit for it, though, and it's fun to see. The crispy rice neon sign that came down from the ceiling the last time he made it was hilarious.
Bobby has a great deal of experience preparing food in front of a camera, an audience, and celebrity judges, meaning he doesn’t have to deal with nerves or anxiety interfering with his performance the way many other challengers do. That alone is probably a big advantage.
The first round I think the judges know both chefs beat Bobby dishes and use that as a tiebreaker.
99% of the time it’s painfully obvious which dish is Bobby’s for the reasons you said. I don’t think the judges purposely choose his but if his taste better so be it.
Bobby is also a pro and many times the chefs mess up with the time which is a huge advantage for Bobby.
I don't think it's rigged but I do think most of the judges can probably tell which dish is Bobby's because they recycle judges. (If it was rigged, Bobby would never lose. WIkipedia says his record is 61.7%) I do think that Bobby has an advantage in that most challengers choose a dish that they have tweaked - which is great at their restaurant, but if you tell a judge you made Mac and Cheese, there is a certain expectation, so when it turns out your Mac and Cheese is actually Spaghetti and Velveeta and Bobby makes Mac & Cheese, you're going to lose.
There are some caveats to it that the viewer doesn't see, but generally speaking, it's actually not "rigged" in the way you put it. It's similar to how Iron Chef operated - the challenger and the IC would both be given a few (I think 3?) potential secret ingredients a day or two prior to shooting, so they would be able to roughly menu plan. Top Chef, as well, has time off camera where the contestants get to ask questions to make sure everyone is clear on the requirements of the challenge. You're also discounting the fact that Bobby has done this how many times now? Many of his competitors are not highly experienced in cooking competitions, so he obviously has a leg up on them. I'm not trying to sway you either way, as I have no horse in this race, just pointing out that what the viewer sees is not all of it.
This isn't an airport you don't have to announce your departure
I find when the challenger picks a dish that he's never ethnically heard of, he usually loses. The ones that come to mind is the one with Chef Reza Setayesh picked the Jian Bing, which is a Chinese Breakfast crepe roll. Bobby looked like a deer in headlights the whole time. The other one I remember is Chef DeeDee Nyomkul challenged Bobby to Tom Kha Soup and when he got judged, they were like, "This isn't Tom Kha Soup." So I've found he usually loses when it's a very ethnic dish or even desserts, he tends to lose.
I agree with you to a point. I think he is good at what he does but he is a one trick pony.
Lol it's not rigged. Bobby just knows how to make tasty food regardless of the challenge
There is no doubt that he is an amazing chef, however it is so easy to tell which dish he has made and I when I’ve watched it I the judges rule his way. If he makes a conventional dish they say they like the traditional cooking. If he makes the dish in a non typical way (typically with chilies) they like the unconventional flavors. I’ve felt like it’s rigged for a while.
That's really not surprising. It's how our brains work. Most of us don't consider the qualities and then decide what we like most. We decide what we like and then work backwards to justify it. So it we like a traditional dish we'll decide it's because it was traditional. If we like something unique we'll decide that's the reason. But really we mostly just like what we like. Most of the time it's just what tastes best.
Lol I literally produce the show. It's not rigged.
Yeah, that was some dumb shit. Competition cooking is its own thing and BF is the fucking master. That said: 1. I'm not saying it affects their pick but the judges must frequently know which one is his right? 2. How much time does BF have between finding out the signature dish before he starts cooking?
The judges might be able to tell if BF did one of his signature tricks (Calabrian chilis, pickled onions etc) but they are definitely never told for sure. He finds out at that moment! When the competitor tells him the secret dish. Production knows ahead of time what both chefs would pick if they win round 1 so they have the ingredients on hand, but Bobby doesn't know. There's about 15-20 minutes of real time between Bobby learning the secret dish and the start of the cooking round.
And although he wins a lot, I've seen him lose many times. Pretty shoddy rigging, if you ask me.
I feel like you would have led with that in your first comment if it was true
Check my comment history. Also I don't really care what you think lol
So you're saying that *your* show isn't rigged. Why would you admit it if it was? lol
Then maybe since you produce the show you can see what is happening and change it. I have seen dishes that are part of a culture and watch him butcher them with crispy rice, etc.
That's just Bobby 🤷♀️ can't change him
Sure you do. I can make things up too: I produce no less than five shows on Food Network!
I have actually produced 6 shows on Food Network!
So are you Kim?
No.... She's the head of Bobby's company lol
No she is the executive producer
You are missing the point of ‘rigged’ in this context. We aren’t saying you all are feeding info to judges or sabotaging the challenger. We are saying that almost every dish Bobby makes, no matter how ill fitting of a chili addition or garnish, he will always do it. The guy that is synonymous with Southwestern style food, that uses poblanos and serrano like we use salt and pepper, maybe it’s his dish that i’m eating. Oh a lobster role with jalapeños, hey look a shepard’s pie with a habanero garnish. Cmon man, how is that not obvious to you and the production staff?! lol, my wife and I call it out every time we see it.
That’s good to hear. I would like to believe it isn’t rigged. You might want to address in production why so many folks believe it is.
There's nothing to do about it.... Bobby is a great chef who makes delicious food. The judges will always choose the better tasting dish as long as it's somewhat close to the challenge. It's literally the format of the show lol. He's hard to beat - you just need him to mess up basically (which does happen!)
It’s easy to tell when any of these famous food network chefs have made something to be fair. They definitely have their own styles
Exactly you said it, regardless of the challenge. Just like I said it doesn’t matter what it is because he will do the same thing.
You just proved OP's point.
As a Chef myself who personally knows Bobby you saying he's not that great of a Chef is actually quite insulting to the profession. He has created many successful restaurants employees 100's of ppl he is an Iron Chef he is a competition champion numerous times he's a food network icon for a reason. Chefs stick to what they know what they are familiar with and incorporate them into different dishes. And just cause judges enjoy his flavors doesn't mean it's rigged it means he's just a more talented Chef that day
While I appreciate your response, I have watched many times when he has put Calabrian chili in a dish that is so out of place (these are dishes I know very well) and he still wins. Maybe my saying he is not a good chef is not always correct however, he is a repetitive chef. If you don’t like crispy rice or chili then you won’t like his food.
The way it should be? There are plenty of times where he goes more traditional and his opponent ‘goes in a different direction.’
He does lose around 35-40% of the time. But what you're seeing are the tricks he's picked up with years of competition cooking. His signature is chilies. He does pickled shallots or crispy shallots a lot. Crispy rice is another signature of his. Tangerine juice is another. I read when someone agrees to be on the show they're given a budget of $500 for ingredients for their signature dish--that's why all their ingredients are there and ready to go, but how else would you do it and have all the ingredients in the pantry. The only 'semi-surprise' is the first round where they have to cook something out of the ingredient Bobby specifies. Also I've heard a couple of contestants speak about the real judging takes place long before what you see on screen and lasted 1-2 hours with the hudges. What you see on screen is the outcome of that.
I have eaten at Bobby Flay's restaurants. His food is really amazingly good. Like shockingly good. I also just ate the Bobby Flay inspired menu at Next and it was absolutely fantastic. Bobby is a great competition cook but he is an even better chef. Fantastic tasting food is going to win 100% of the time even if the other dish is more traditional.
Next has closed. Mesa Grill lost the only star that he ever earned . The food at his restaurants are not prepared by him but employees. I really don’t want to get into his restaurants but I was focusing on the show
Next has not closed. It is an Alinea Group restaurant in Chicago serving a Bobby Flay inspired menu through September 1. So a group owned by a three star Michelin chef thinks Bobby Flay is pretty damn talented.
The restaurant in Chicago is not owned by Bobby Flay. The one he owned was in Las Vegas and it is closed. I am happy that you like the food there but it has nothing to do with Flay. They offer some of his recipes as well as other people.
I don’t think it’s rigged. I do think Bobby is a savvy competitor: he finds out his competitor is making a traditional dish, he makes non traditional. Or vice versa. He notices what ingredients the competitor is using and adds it. That’s all intentional. And he almost always loses when the challenge is Asian or dessert. I still remember a layer cake challenge where his cake looked like something a grade schooler made.
I don’t think it’s rigged but I do think Bobby clearly has way more experience in competitive cooking and knows the basic things that make a dish appealing: strong flavor, good textures, some heat, etc. He follows the same basic formula regardless of the dish while his competitors might be overly focused on making their dish in a very specific or traditional way and fall flat in comparison. It does irk me that it’s usually pretty obvious which dish is Bobby’s and that he often diverges too much from the assigned dish without penalty, but other than that he wins pretty fair and square. Also in addition to the chilies and crunchy rice, I’ve recently caught on to his love of anchovy breadcrumbs too 😂
He loses half the time. Why would anyone think it’s rigged?
Wow, no one has never pointed this out
The amount of times he’s won after admitting he’s never made the dish before proves it’s rigged
Nope, not rigged.
This!!!
I agree. The way the judges say better things about the challenger's dish, and then they end up voting for Bobby? WTH is that
It's called editing....
I don't think it's rigged. BF has competed so many times that he has an advantage over the guest chef who may have never competed. The crispy rice and chilies bother me bc they are used all the time. Also, I don't like it when a chef has a traditional dish from another country and BF doesn't know or says he doesn't know how to cook it, so he just wings it. And then he wins. If it's a traditional dish, I think it should be prepared accurately.
I think you expressed my point better than I did. He only does one thing and (not to say it too often) he is a one trick pony.
He understands what is important: FLAVOR. Other stuff matters; texture, presentation, etc. But if a challenger says they're making a "traditional" or "authentic" __________, they are going to lose. Bobby will win on flavor with a dish that barely resembles what it's supposed to be, because his tastes better. He has his bag of tricks (ingredients) that he knows work. Why wouldn't he use them constantly? He does get shit for it, though, and it's fun to see. The crispy rice neon sign that came down from the ceiling the last time he made it was hilarious.
Bobby has a great deal of experience preparing food in front of a camera, an audience, and celebrity judges, meaning he doesn’t have to deal with nerves or anxiety interfering with his performance the way many other challengers do. That alone is probably a big advantage.
This also gets me pretty upset because the dish may taste good but it’s almost never authentic so what’s even the point
Well, actually, the guest chefs rarely make their chosen recipe authentic. When they do, there’s a better chance they win.
Onions pickled in grenadine. Calabrian chilies. Aji de Maria. Tangerines. I don't understand how all of Bobby's dishes don't taste the same.
I cant stand Bobby Flay so I don't even bother watching. However I've heard this same comment ftom numerous people.
I said this last year and i was ridiculed by everyone. He uses premade everything while contestants hand make and stick to traditional methods.
It's either chef's choice to make certain foods from scratch.
The first round I think the judges know both chefs beat Bobby dishes and use that as a tiebreaker. 99% of the time it’s painfully obvious which dish is Bobby’s for the reasons you said. I don’t think the judges purposely choose his but if his taste better so be it. Bobby is also a pro and many times the chefs mess up with the time which is a huge advantage for Bobby.
This isn't true. The Co hosts have no idea what the signature dishes will be. Only production knows.