Whats cooking? (Come Dine With Me)

Member Name: wendz86

Product:	Come Dine With Me
Date:	28/06/09 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, can get some good recipes

Disadvantages: None

I don't think channel 4 ever expected come dine with me to do quite as well as it has done. It started off as a late afternoon programme and now it even has an omnibus on a Sunday and celebrity editions of the programme.

Come dine with me is a cookery programme but has a bit of a twist compared to normal cookery programmes. On this programme there are usually four or five contestants and each of these contestants has to hold a dinner party. The contestants have never met each other and have to entertain these strangers in their house. Each night the rest of the contestants have to then vote as to how good they think the dinner party was including the food.

There is a different episode each day of the week usually. Although sometimes, for example the omnibus on Sundays, you can watch all the episodes together in one go. I quite enjoy watching them altogether and I am never at home in time to watch the ones on during the week anyway. The episodes that have 4 contestants in, including the celebrity editions, are one hour long and have just the one episode rather than five.

In the first episode you get to meet the contestants and they explain a little bit about each one. This must be strange for the first host as they have never met the others before and so won't really know what to expect when they have them round. When they all first meet they tend to be a bit more quiet and reserved but this soon dissapears after a few glasses of wine.

Each episode shows you the contestants preparing for the dinner party. The other contestants are given the menu before and can normally see if they think they are going to like what they are served or not. They show clips of the other contestants and their reactions towards the menu. They then usually show some clips of the host going shopping for some of the items. This can be them going to a proper butchers or 'cheating' and getting ready prepared food.

The next part of the show will show the host preparing the food in the kitchen. The cooks can vary in how good they are at preparing food. Some of them go wrong from the start and get all their timing wrong. Others are just cool and confident and managed to get everything done with no problem. It is quite funny when they get things wrong though. What makes this especially funny is the commentator David Lamb. He is what makes the show funny rather than a serious cookery programme like all the others. He
makes funny comments throughout the show such as when the host is mucking up on their food preparation. He commentates throughout the whole process, which as well as being funny also lets you know information such as the recipes the host is cooking.

David often reads out the recipes to the menus so that you can try them at home if you like. Hopefully with more luck than some of the contestants. These recipes are also available online on the channel 4 website as well. I do like the fact that this aspect is not pushed in your face. It is said in passing and means that if you see something you would like to make you can look it up. You don't have to spend the whole show being bored simply watching recipes though, which makes a change.

The next part of the show is when the other contestants arrive at the hosts house. The host is usually at this point still running around like a madman trying to get everything ready so the rest are usually left to their own devices. This means that they get a chance to socialise with each other and also to have a little nosy round at the hosts house. This gives them a chance to find out a bit more and maybe find something embarassing. As I said earlier these people don't know each other so this can be quite entertaining watching them snoop around.

The host then serves the food. Sometimes they make quite a lot of effort with their table decorations etc and sometimes they just seem to be very laid back about the whole thing. The meal can be quite funny to watch as sometimes the food as I said is not quite up to scratch. Watching the contestants eat and pull faces can be amusing and especially when David adds a few funny comments. Sometimes the host can end up brining something out entirely different to what they had on the menu because something went wrong or because they wanted to surprise people. One episode I thought was particularly enterataining was when one lady ended up getting caterers in and they were delivering food through her kitchen window.

After the meal the contestants in the taxi on the way home have to give the meal a score out of ten by holding up a card. They can be leniant because they really liked the person or be really harsh, it can depend. You do feel sorry for those who get the lowest score. I think it tends to be easier for those later in the week as they know the tastes of the contestants better.

After the final meal the winners are then announced. The host of that meal brings in a dinner plate with a scroll on and £1000 pounds of cash. They then read the scroll which says in backwards order how the contestants did. The person with the highest score wins and gets the £1000 pounds. The contestants who win never seem that excited. It is a small prize in comparison to others but I would be very pleased to win.

As I said earlier you can catch Come Dine With Me on channel 4 and also on More 4 as well for older episodes.

Overall Come Dine With Me is an entertaining cooking show that can be very funny.

Summary: A different type of cookery show