TVNZ 1’s new cooking show combines the good vibes of the Great Kiwi Bake Off with the good grills of BBQ Pitmasters. Tara Ward finds out if it makes the cut.
The lowdown
Cooks on Fire sees seven teams of amateur chefs compete to win $30,000 by showcasing their barbecue skills in a series of cooking challenges. Each episode consists of two tests: a throwdown challenge where teams cook with a specific ingredient or theme, and a scorcher challenge, where teams must use a surprise ingredient.
The last team standing wins, and the battle of the barbecue is judged by three food experts: chef and Eat Well for Less NZ host Ganesh Raj, food writer Nici Wickes and award-winning barbecue pitmaster Jared Macdonald. Guest judges like Masterchef winner Karena Bird and chef Peter Gordon also pop by.
The good
First of all, none of the cooks actually end up on fire. Cooks on Fire is basically The Great Kiwi Bake Off for barbecues, a similarly light and jovial show that celebrates nice people making nice things. It’s filmed outside in a lovely manicured garden, and the cooking is accompanied by plenty of meaty guitar background music, the type you often hear on Ice Road Truckers or Treehouse Masters. If you want a show to happily grunt your way through, this would be it.
Like GKBO, the judges are key to the show’s success. Cooks on Fire has a great mix of expertise and energy in Ganesh, Nici and Jared, with the latter kicking off the series by saying “for the next six weeks, I’m taking all your barbecues and putting them in my face”. The judges are warm and supportive, but they’re also not afraid to give criticism when they need to. Most importantly, they provide the viewers with a strong sense of what the food actually tastes like, and what the cooks could have done differently.
But the real hero of Cooks on Fire is of course the food. If you love meat, you’re about to see it cooked a thousand different ways on a thousand different stoves, grills and smokers. These teams – or “meat mechanics”, if you will – love getting up close and personal with their meat, and they’re forever rubbing it, rolling it and spritzing it to keep it moist. They cover it in spices, and then they hold it aloft and look at it longingly. All their meat dreams are coming true, as long as they can get the crackle in their pork belly just right.
But Cooks on Fire wants to prove that barbecues aren’t just for sausage sizzles, and it’s amazing to see what these teams can create on the humble barbie. The challenges encourage the teams to be as creative as possible, because who knew you could cook pastry or curries or bake meringues on a grill? Teams also have to cook vegetarian dishes, and episode one’s surprise eggplant challenge pushes most teams beyond their meaty comfort zones. “Can they do it? I don’t know,” a worried Ganesh says. Aubergines, always bringing the drama.
The not-so-good
Cooks on Fire is absolutely fine. The couples are nice, the challenges are fun, the hedge in the background is beautifully trimmed, but for a show about flames and heat, it’s missing a little spark. Also, some of these contestants have incredible barbecue setups at home, and it would be great to factor that into the show, somehow.
The verdict
Cooks on Fire proves there’s more to barbecuing than just snags and rissoles. It’s low on tension but a pleasant way to spend an hour, and it will inspire you to take your barbecue cooking to the next level. And the sooner the joyful team of Nici Wickes and Ganesh Raj end up as judges on The Great Kiwi Bake off, the better.
Cooks on Fire screens on Thursdays on TVNZ 1 at 7.30pm and streams on TVNZ+.
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