E&O Search for AFC's Next Celebrity Chef.. so far

I'm a sucker for food shows, particularly of the reality competitive variety. I watch Top Chef, Iron Chef, Iron Chef America... well, most of the biggie ones, anyway - there's only 24 hours in a day. I watch Masterchef too, but that's another blog post. 

Along with those shows, I've been watching the E&O Search for AFC's Next Celebrity Chef on the Asian Food Channel with the 'rents, but I haven't been following it all that closely.

Watching it so far, while I can see a frontrunner or two, but I'm not sure if I want to watch any of the other cheftestants left (if they won) on TV personally. So far they've only been tested on their cooking skills, so I expect to see if they have what it takes to be on camera and as a celebrity chef in coming episodes. The challenges are also pretty reasonable, not terribly ridiculous. 

They already had Chef Anis (the channel's youngest personality, I think) for a teach and the Chef in Black as a judge. Still no sign of the Canadian personalities, but to fly them in for something like this... 

What I like about the show:

1. I am not sure how many episodes this is running for, but kicking out two cheftestants each episode? Harsh, but at least it's not too draggy. I like.
2. White-haired Chef Wan as a judge here. Perhaps it's why he's not on Masterchef Malaysia?
3. Chef Bruce Lim channelling his inner d-bag.. or Hell's Kitchen Gordon Ramsay, take your pick. Number of plates he's broken so far (that I know of): 3 - 4. Feel free to correct me on this. 
4. Everyone is out for themselves, which makes for good TV.

What I don't really care for:

1. The elimination bit (particularly the speech delivery) needs some work.
2. Whenever Chef Wan is around (particularly in the KL legs), means that any pork dish is already out of the question... how to judge the dish fairly like that? 
3. Those wasted plates. If it was me, I'd scoop the food out with my bare hands and throw it back at the cheftestant, which would be a bit more demeaning but would make for better TV.
4. The guy that took his shirt off for no discernible reason. More people would be outraged if he was fat and flabby, but he wasn't.

I can't wait to see how it goes.