Cooking Competitions and Contemplations

Because I am a college student who refuses to face up to the fact that procrastination is harmful, I binge watched season 1 of The Great British Baking Show when I should’ve been studying for my finals last semester. I selected it because it seemed innocuous enough: a bunch of beautifully accented British amateur bakers squared off to be crowned Britain’s best baker. No intense plot to follow, delicious baked goods everywhere, and delectable British men baking (what who said that?!) — the ideal procrastination show. But the more I watched, the more I realized this show was truly something else.

Now, for context, I grew up on cooking shows. As a kid, I tuned into 30 Minute Meals with Rachel Ray, Emeril Live with Emeril Lagasse, and Good Eats with Alton Brown instead of Spongebob or Lizzie McGuire. My grandfather was a chef and caterer, and my father grew up helping him in the kitchen. Food and food shows were my way of bonding with my dad and recreating what I imagined my grandfather’s lively career was like. On our yearly family vacations to Maine, our whole family gathered ’round the tiny, old, barely able to receive cable TV in the living room to watch Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, Food Truck Wars, Chopped, Iron Chef America, or, very occasionally, Cupcake Wars. Food is part of my family; it only makes sense that it’d be part of our television habits, too. But all these Food Network cooking competition shows highlighted deeply American values I never really noticed until I had something to compare them to.

In these shows, competition, winning, and every man for himself stand as thematic pillars. I mean, there’s even a show now where the whole point is to have competing chefs sabotage their competition (Cutthroat Kitchen, in case you’re interested. While totally nonsense it can offer some amusing moments…). These shows stand for everything our culture does: work hard, be the best, win at all costs. And then, there’s The Great British Baking Show! What a breath of fresh air! Competitors actually….wait for it……HELP each other out during challenges. From mixing dough to gathering ingredients, to helping plate finished goods, everyone pitches in. They ask each other for advice, lean on each other for support, and appear to truly enjoy each other’s company. When someone is inevitably kicked off each week, there are usually tears but at the same time beautifully positive outlooks. Cut contestants still express joy and gratitude, noting that the experience has made them better and will serve as an amazing memory for years to come.

Okay, sure, whatever, you might be saying. They’re cooking shows. Are they really that philosophical? Maybe, maybe not. Sure, one could just view it as a typical expression of cultural differences. Maybe the British aren’t that competitive. Maybe high stakes cooking drama and backstabbing just doesn’t make for good ratings across the pond. I honestly don’t know. But I do think these two different approaches to competition offer an important question to ponder:

Is winning really the ultimate end goal of everything we do?

I’m not quite sure it is. Competition can be great, sure. It can foster high performance rates and push people to do better. But it can also hold people back from so much. Fear of being bad or losing or failing prevents us from trying new things more often than it should. When everyone is trying to be better than everyone else, rather than the best they can be, it pushes people out of new experiences and different approaches. Lending a helping hand to someone doesn’t keep you from being good at what you’re doing; it actually showcases just how talented you are. But we’re so afraid of being beaten that we tend to get entirely self-focused. Even when the stakes are high, other people’s successes don’t automatically signal your failure. Maybe we should focus more on self-improvement, rather than external ranking.

Maybe I’m reading too much into cooking competitions. But I think there’s something there.

Featured image photo credit: Harvest Fest 2015 by Sarah Stierch via Wikimedia Commons (License)

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