How do they have all the special ingredients and equipment that the challenging chef that won the first half needs for their favorite dish, when they don’t know who the winner is going to be for the first half until the middle of the contest?
You are talking about television. Television is full of manufactured drama. People get bored and consume drama so television manufactures it.
Yes all of these shows are 100% staged bullshit. Anyone who says different is naive.
But if I say “100% of people who make sweeping generalizations with no room for nuance should get the death penalty” then I’m the bad guy
Because there is a difference between staged and prepared.
Likely what happens is the show knows in advance what the chefs need and make it available.
It also plausible they don’t even need to buy the expensive bits ahead of time. There’s a ton of downtime in these shows where they are shooting different scenes. There’s likely plenty of time to text a PA that’s already in the grocery store to buy the lobster or the filet while the elimination is being shot and next round prep is happening.
For both chefs? Including their secret ingredients?
“Hey SnausagesinaBlanket! I’m a producer of Beat Bobby Flay. You’ve been selected to participate! Congratulations! Please let use know your planned dishes and ingredients so we can have them available on our set.”
How much could it cost to have a handful of requested groceries for a few chefs, knowing some of whom won’t move further, compared to the entire cost of producing the show?
Yes. How else would the show work?
By not filming back to back.
It could be that each round is a different day.
By staging it, apparently
In Iron Chef the contestants were given a bunch of possibilities for the key ingredient, they could then prep and request ingredients based on those
