7 Dark Secrets of Your Favorite TV Cooking Shows
By: Lucy Meilus
Credit: Flickr/Michael Miller
You might not admit it, but there’s a good chance you secretly love to watch Rachael Ray knock out chicken enchiladas in under 30 minutes, or Ina Garten throw her beloved Jeffrey a surprise birthday party, or Martha Stewart mash potatoes with Snoop Dogg.
But the actual production of a cooking show is something the general public knows very little about. For instance, is the food even edible, or is it 2/3 glue?
A recent AskReddit post asked users who’ve worked on cooking shows what it’s like behind the scenes, and we’ve compiled the most revealing answers:
More: 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Anthony Bourdain
Credit: Flickr/Jenn
There’s tons of waste
“I worked on a cake decorating show for a season and every day we had to throw out the 3 50lb cakes that the contestants had just spent the last 8 hours decorating.
Because they were sitting under the studio lights for so long they were no longer safe to eat so we couldn’t give them away.
It was painful to see all that waste but it was also a lot of fun to tear apart giant wedding cakes at the end of the day.” - jaspersgirl1411
Judges don’t eat the dishes we see
“My BIL works for a major cooking channel. All of the food is thrown away and each dish can be made several times. So there is a lot of waste.
If it’s a contest style show the judges don’t eat the version that you see cooked and plated. That version is thrown away and a new version is cooked specifically for them to eat. Then they take 2-3 bites from a plate and throw the rest away.
Many of the final versions are not real food or are inedible because they have been painted or sprayed with chemicals to make them pretty.” - absinthevisions
The food is heavily manipulated
“My parents own a film company where they shoot food for commercials for A list brands. I’ve seen bread dipped in wax so it doesn’t deflate while on set, tomato slices filled with gelatin so the middle parts with the seeds don’t leak liquid, and people sorting through thousands of flakes of cereal to find the perfect ones to fill a bowl with (pretty sure I have a pic of my bro doing this).
My bro also worked on a show where contestants had to make wacky food dishes and he was the one that wound up having to make them look pretty for camera, which meant rearranging the food on the plates, spritzes of oil to make elements glisten and a whole lot of other stuff that basically would make it inedible irl.
EDIT: found pic of brother sorting cereal for a commercial https://imgur.com/JpJSuKi” - danideahl
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Credit: Flickr/Wally Gobetz
Most of the prep work is done ahead of time
“My brother was a sous chef for his (at the time) boss on a popular food competition show. He said the secret ingredient was revealed a few hours prior to filming and the chefs sat down with their sous chefs and made plans ahead. My brother also said he spent a lot of time prior to filming doing prep work, like breaking down meats or chopping vegetables, boring things the camera won’t want to focus on to save time.” - LadyofRivendell
Food stylists do a lot of the cooking
“I work on a daytime talk show that has frequent cooking segments with “celebrity” chefs. Most of the chefs are pretty minor but we do get the occasional Wolfgang type.
Most of the actual cooking is done by the food stylist (officially a props position). We have two stylists with an assistant for each, they get the recipe beforehand and spend a day prepping it before shooting. On the day of taping the chef will work with the food stylist to make sure everything is up to par, sometimes there are problems, things get overcooked, dropped, but usually everything’s fine.
The prepared food usually ends up being the host’s lunch. If there’s a decent amount left it will get put out at the craft service for the crew to go through. It’s usually pretty good but sometimes looks better than it tastes, it is prepped for tv so that’s where the priority is.” - cmonster_75
TV chefs make mistakes too
“Worked as a production intern with a network involved with food and as you can probably imagine there is a crap-ton of waste involved.
What people probably don’t realize is that these amazing chefs/cooks make mistakes just like normal people. They burn crap, they undercook crap, they drop entire trays of food on the ground. Whenever a screw up occurs, they have to reset and cook the food all over again.
I was working with the sound engineers on a particular show and the host badly cut his finger during a shoot and got blood all over the food. Reshoot! When you watch the episode back you see him making food, then all of a sudden in the very next shot he has a bandage on his finger. Editing magic.
When they want to stage shots of just the food on its own “the hero shot” they have a damn intern make a duplicate of the meal (doesn’t matter if it’s undercooked inside because nobody is gonna eat it) which just has to look good on the surface. They then spray it with an aerosol can of some ungodly preservative to make it “stay.” You could come back a year later and it would still be camera ready.
Any and all food made on these shows ends up in a big trash can while everyone on set has to bring their own lunches. Sometimes it’s a lot of food. In a perfect world we would’ve driven the leftovers to a homeless shelter or something but this is TV baby, ain’t nobody got time for dat.” - Landlubber77
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Credit: Flickr/Kathleen Tyler Conklin
Sometimes, you get to take home freebies
“Ok best part about working on set of a food competition show: taking home fresh ingredients. One night I took home a pound of cherry stone clams, half a pound of red royal shrimp and a pound of head on jumbo prawns. Next night I took home 2 pounds of mussels and a live lobster.
Also, lots of cooking equipment after we wrap. It’s awesome.” - DrKillFactory
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