Debbie:
If you had to be a contestant on any reality show, which would it be and why? Now, before you go saying that there are no circumstances under which you would be caught dead on a reality show, play along. There’s a gun to your head, Dad threatens never to cook for you again, Keith and I will leave Owen to you in our will if you don’t … so it’s a must that you participate in a reality show or much, much worse will befall you.
I’d choose MasterChef. There’s no way I’m not eating or brushing my teeth for months, nor am I sharing a house with a bunch of bitchy drama queens. I’d almost consider Wipeout as my second choice because you just can’t convince me it’s as hard as some of those dopes make it look. But MasterChef wins hands-down.
I love that it’s a competition between home chefs and it’s not some lame prize like getting your own restaurant to fail at or working for Gordon Ramsay. You get 250K and your own cookbook deal. Perfect. Some of the challenges seem like a cakewalk for me (yes, I can name the ingredients in chili and I know what a starfruit and okra are), while others would really force me to tap into my creativity and cooking territories I’ve not explored before, which would be fun (passion fruit desserts or cooking a live crab, for example). I’d totally hate the catering challenges where the contestants work as a team to cook for truckers, weddings and the like, but I could get through it because I’m way more mature and Zen than many of the goofballs on this show.
How about you — a different reality show, or would we be going head-to-head on MasterChef?
Bob:
I actually haven’t caught MasterChef yet, mostly because I just can’t support anything that has Gordon Ramsay in it. I just don’t have a lot of respect for the man after catching some of Hell’s Kitchen. I understand that he is a great (world renowned) chef, and that he tones down his behavior in his other shows, but I just can’t…. With that being said, I have no idea if I would enjoy being on there or not. I think being judged over my cooking would make me very, very nervous.
I do have to admit, though, that I do kind of want to go on Wipeout. I’m not exactly in the best shape, or any sort of shape at all, and I would probably do horribly and embarrass myself, but I still think it would be a blast. Plus, when it first aired, our brother offered me 1000 dollars if I would go on the show.
Unfortunately the show that I really, really wanted to go on isn’t on the air anymore. Back in the day, I didn’t miss an episode of Win Ben Stein’s Money. You know how I love trivia games, and I always thought it would be a blast to go onto that show and see how I could do. That’s more of a game show, though. Does it still count?
Debbie:
The nice thing about MasterChef is that they give all kinds of cooks a chance to play to their strengths. You’d do really well on the classical challenges, like making a creme brulee or something that’s from a recipe and uses technique. I’d be great at creating an original recipe from a bunch of ingredients. Maybe we should merge ourselves and enter next season!
I would love to see you on Wipeout so badly that I just might match our brother’s offer….
I don’t know if it counts or not, but I love Win Ben Stein’s Money and you probably would have kicked some serious booty at that. There really aren’t any shows like that one on these days, are there? Aside from Jeopardy, not a lot of reality / game shows require any brain power. So sad.
Bob:
Now I’m a little insulted that you are questioning my cooking creativity!
Of course we are both leaving out the obvious answer here: Judge on Iron Chef America. Anything else would pale by comparison. That’s always been the dream.
Debbie:
Not questioning your creativity as much as I am acknowledging my lack of finesse when it comes to technique! But Iron Chef judge — that’s a gig we’d both be great at. Bring it on!
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Sep 16, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
