Most enjoyable cookery show (Come Dine With Me)

Member Name: suz1584

Product:	Come Dine With Me
Date:	25/06/09 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Loads of ideas for meals

Disadvantages: when people don't get on :(

When Come Dine With Me was first screened on our tv's I wasn't interested in watching it. I thought it was just another cooking programme where they will cook meals and present them in away I could never imagine doing with ingredients that are next to impossible to find.

In fact I felt like this for years and I have only started to watch it over the past couple of months. Whilst in Bournemouth staying at James's (my partner) mums house I noticed she had some of these recorded. One morning she put them on and that was me hooked. And I would like to admit my opinion was wrong and it is nothing like the other cooking programmes I can't bring myself to watch.

What is it?

It's a show with 4 or 5 contestants. Each contestant then hosts a dinner party at their house for the other competitors. The meal is meant to be 3 courses and cooked by the contestant.

At the end of the meal the other contestants then score the host on there skills of a dinner party, this is done in private. This includes entertainment, how much time the host spent at the dinner table and not cooking and also the meal. At the end of the week the winner is announced at the final dinner.

Whats in it for them?

Well the chance of winning £1000 if they win. And just a few (hopefully) nice meals made by strangers

My opinion

There is two different lengths the original programmes were on for half an hour every night between Mon-Fri as their was 5 contestants. Now the programme lasts an hour to show the full week but now only has 4 contestants.

I have to admit my favourite one is the half an hour shows as you get to watch more and you actually get to see a lot more of each contestant. The hour shows are just too rushed and you don't get into it as much.

With the half an hour shows I record them everyday and tehn watch them all at once at the end of the week. I enjoy them more when I watch them all the time.

My favourite thing about the show has to be the voice over Dave Lamb. His sarcastic comments makes the show funny and light hearted. This is great as so many hosts seem to take things way too seriously.

I also like to watch the different dishes people make and see if I like any. There has been a few dishes that I've wanted to make myself. Luckily Channel 4 put all the recipes on the website so you are able to go and make the dishes yourself.

Overall

The show is great and easy to watch. There has been several shows that the contestants haven't seen eye to eye and can have arguements. This must be extremely uncomfortable for the other people at the dinner table but 9 times out of 10 things run smoothly for the rest of the week and everything is forgotten.

I have also watched one where the host fell asleep so the guests had to make their own meal. That was really bad but most of the guests were pretty full of themselves in that show anyway. I wouldn't of wanted to cook for them!!

Sometimes all hosts get on great and keep in touch afterwards, that always seems nice as they probably would never have met if they hadn't gone on the show. There has been no long lasting romances as far as I'm aware.

My favourite one which kept my up until 1.30am just to watch every half hour episode. One of the contestants decided to tactically vote and scored everyone 1 or 2. At the end of the week she was asked to either re-score everyone or be disqualified. I'm glad the made her re-score as she was nowhere near the best host that week.

It is funny and I really enjoy watching it. Definitely recommend even watching it once just to see whether it's your type of programme or not as it's not what I had expected and I'm sure a few other people have the wrong idea about it too

Summary: Love it - very addictive