I have a bit of an obsession with cooking shows, more specifically cooking competitions like MasterChef and The Great British Bake Off. As a food nerd, I love seeing how creative the contestants can be, and it’s really interesting seeing new people and new challenges every season.

Sometimes you just want some relaxing television, and while there can be a bit of drama in cooking competitions, generally the worst thing that happens is a cake not rising (can you tell I’ve been watching Bake Off lately?). I also don’t hate seasons not ending on a terrible cliff-hanger to make sure you come back next year 🙂

Of all the cooking competitions I watch, MasterChef Australia is my favourite. Because they just crank out more episodes than the US or Canadian versions, you get to know the contestants a lot better and you get to see a lot more interesting food. Also, Australians are apparently ridiculously nice. A few seasons ago one of the contestants had a bit of a freakout because they had to butcher a whole eel for a challenge and they had a phobia of them. On US or even Canadian MasterChef, the other contestants would most likely have just shrugged their shoulders and let them go home. On Australian MasterChef, one of the other contestants took time out of their own cook to come over and partially butcher it to the point where they could do the rest. And they do stuff like that all the time!

Australian MasterChef is also more focused on the food than the other versions I’ve seen. Where MasterChef US deliberately stirs up drama by doing things like making contestants pick teams and then twisting the knife by asking whoever got picked last how they feel about it, whoever runs the Australian version realizes there’s plenty of drama in people pushing themselves to do their very best at something really hard and skips the boring shit-stirring.

Even though I’m not much of a baker I still love The Great British Bake Off too. There’s just something charming about a show where the prize is being named the UK’s best amateur baker and having a picnic in a beautiful park with all the other contestants and their families.It’s a bit of a slower-paced show than MasterChef just because baking is a slower-paced activity. There’s not much excitement you can get out of everyone hanging out having a cup of tea while their loaves of bread bake.

If you’d like a nice relaxing watch, I definitely recommend any of those shows.