8 secrets about how famous cooking shows are filmed

rachael ray onion cooking

Some of the secrets depend on the prove you lot're watching.
CBS Tv
  • Well-nigh educational cooking shows aren't actually filmed in the glory chef'south home kitchens.
  • Competition shows can take upwards to 12 or fourteen hours to moving picture, then the final dish isn't always what the judges taste.
  • Food waste material is dealt with differently depending on the evidence, but information technology is usually donated, eaten by the crew, or thrown out.
  • Visit Insider'due south homepage for more stories.

From the educational cooking series to high-drama contest shows, in that location'due south a food-related TV show out in that location for just about every type of viewer. But have y'all e'er wondered how these shows are made?

Here are some things you may not take known near how your favorite cooking shows are filmed.

Each hour-long episode of your favorite contest show can have 12 to 14 hours to shoot.

It'due south a long solar day of filming.
David Lang/Food Network

As anyone who has ever worked in Tv set or film production tin tell you, a lot of what y'all meet on screen happens through editing.

For case, "Chopped" winner Kathy Fang told Delish she usually started her day on prepare around 5:45 a.m. and finished shooting at viii p.m. or 9 p.k. at nighttime.

Production teams shoot tons of footage and and so select the all-time bits to class the most compelling narrative.

There are a few different places all the leftovers can go.

It can vary from evidence to show.
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

Nutrient waste is a widespread problem, so it's natural to wonder who eats all the leftover food from the shows.

This reply varies — some series, similar the "Rachael Ray Show" donate the food to local charities, according to The Daily Meal. Other shows give food to the competitors or to the production crew, according to Spoon University.

But since some nutrient gets kept out nether hot studio lights for hours — well past the time when information technology would be safe for anyone to eat — a lot of it can end up in the garbage.

Some cooking shows use food-styling hacks to make dishes look even tastier.

They want to make the food look as appetizing as possible.
Aaron Davidson/Getty Images for Nutrient Network SoBe Wine & Nutrient Festival

When it comes to shows with food, there is often a fair amount of styling involved to become the best shot possible.

Shanti Hinojos, who has been a food stylist for over a decade, told LA Weekly most some of the tricks she uses to make dishes look perfect for Idiot box, including putting marbles in bowls of soup to make the residue of the ingredients float to the peak.

She compared her job to that of an architect because she's constantly using things like toothpicks, wedges, and plastic wrap to prop food up and stuff it to make it look fuller.

The judging isn't commonly based on the last dish plated by the contestant.

Judges may eat the common cold nutrient, but they won't judge based on that.
AP

Often, the plates brought up to the judges by contestants are already cold, then the judges might await instead of tasting.

"When you're a approximate on a competition prove, yous have to get, existent quick, accustomed to eating common cold food. The manner you deal with that is the minute nosotros cut after a cooking round, the judges become up from the chopping block, and they go over to the stations and they taste things that are hot," "Chopped" host Ted Allen told Yahoo! Telly.

This is also true for the "MasterChef" franchise. The judges actually taste the contestants' dishes while they are still cooking at their individual stations.

"Nosotros will become around the room and the iii of us will taste everything hot out of [the contestants'] pot," chef George Calombaris, a "MasterChef Commonwealth of australia" judge, told Mamamia.com.

That'due south probably non your favorite celebrity chef'south actual dwelling kitchen.

Many celebrity chefs have split up filming studios on their dwelling house properties.
Food Network

In most cases, celebrity chefs don't actually flick their cooking shows in their homes. Prepare designers are probably the ones behind the cozy kitchen you've camped in for the last half an hour.

It'south a set designer'south task to breathe life into the places where film and TV crews shoot. And, with personality-driven food shows, the kitchen needs to strongly reverberate the chef'due south personality.

According to Food Network magazine, the station has shot shows like "Guy's Large Bite," "30 Minute Meals," and "Atomic number 26 Chef America" in the same New York City studio.

However, there are instances where shows are filmed at the chef'due south actual habitation — Ina Garten of "Barefoot Contessa" started out filming in her own kitchen, but now films in a converted barn on her property.

The contestants on "MasterChef" take access to cooking classes and a library of cookbooks throughout filming.

They can build their skills in their down time.
Greg Gayne / FOX

The filming schedule for "MasterChef" is pretty intense, simply co-ordinate to sometime contestant Josh Marks, they get i day off a week to strop their skills.

"Nosotros melt every single twenty-four hour period except Sunday. On Lord's day nosotros either have free fourth dimension in the kitchen or in a cooking grade," Marks told Mediaite.

He continued, "The cooking class is similar, and then 'MasterChef,' they actually teach you lot how to be a chef. Yous're non but on there cooking all willy nilly, so they're educational activity us blistering component classes, where they teach united states of america how to brand pastry cream, sponge cake, cobbler, shortbread and pie crusts, etc."

He too said the had access to about "every cookbook in the earth," which they could draw inspiration from throughout the contest.

Some cooking competition shows don't let contestants reference whatsoever recipes during the show.

They have to memorize all their recipes.
FOX Broadcasting

"MasterChef" contestant Elise Mayfield told the AV Society that competitors aren't allowed to have whatever recipes with them, even for broiled goods.

The rules vary by show, of course, merely having to memorize your formulas alee of fourth dimension is an added layer of stress for anybody competing.

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