Cooks vs. Cons

Thought this might be an interesting show. Had two episodes on the DVR. Watch one last night--- way too much emphasis on the judges. And the constant repetition of I.....Am......A........... (Cook/Con)!!!!!!!! Suffered through the show - even with being able to fast forward. Deleted the other one and removed it from my DVR listing. It's an interesting concept but poorly executed. End of review. Now I try to submit it and am told I don't have ENOUGH lines of comment!!!! You really want me to say more things about this poorly executed show which only seems to be a vehicle for job security for "celebrity" chefs??? End of review, again. Oops, still needed one more line - can I review this site which seems to be more about content than context? That should do it - 11 lines!!!!

You let a guy move forward who did not use the product selected for the challenge. Who cares that it was beautiful and tastes, it was a chicken wing competition and you allowed him to break the rules and move forward. Sorry, I like your show, but that was wrong. Rules are rules and if you are going to let this guy skip the product of choice, then you cannot send anyone home if they do not use an ingredient. If I was judging I would of not even tasted his dish, but certainly asked him why he did not use the specified product, and why should he be allowed to continue when he did not follow the rules. What chicken was there to taste - NONE. If he wants to cook vegan, great - avoid competitions using meat. If the rules don't mean anything, then have no rules.

I guess the idea is kind of interesting. Format is very similar to Chopped but it's less of an actual cooking show then chopped and since it's food network, I would say chopped is better. YES execution is way off. It's more of a mystery then a cooking show and they just want the viewer's curiosity to stay tuned to find out who's who. But it's so rigged. They purposely make some contestants sound so professional and you can tell the makeup artist changes the appearance of certain contestants. They prescreen the contestants so they have to have both looks (con and pro). Too much editing, I just don't think this should be on food network.

When you watch the show, close your eyes and listen to Geoffrey. He tries to sound "devilish" like Alton Brown on Cutthroat Kitchen.....could be the same writers....who knows. But, there is quite the personality change from Geoffrey's Chopped appearances. Seems fake.

The idea for the show is fine, but the judges changing their minds every five minutes on who is and who is not the professional cook is annoying.

I call "shenanigans" on the 30 minute time limit, too. No way some of those dishes are prepared in 30 minutes without some kind of preparation time.

Pro chefs vs amateur cooks. Which is which? Who will win?

Could a pro fall to an amateur? Or are the professional chefs really the standard?

Throughout the show the judges are constantly asked: which one is the cook, which one is the con?

A small side prize pool for the judges guessing who is who would be a welcome addition but there's nothing really to stop this from blending into the sea of elimination cooking competition shows.

It's entertaining, the twitter interactivity is a nice touch, and having the eliminated cook or con reveal what they are is fairly interesting.

As a side note, I like Zakarian as the host. Judging from the amount of guff he gets from his fellow chefs on other shows where he's not a judge I would think that he has a good sense of humour and I would love to see more of that shine while he is a host on his own show.

It's also interesting to hear what the judges think are "pro moves".

I'm gonna give it a few episodes to make up my mind 100% but judging from the first course, this is a show giving a chance. (can't believe I'm gonna let that pun slide).