Chef In Your Ear is yet another cooking competition show, joining the saturated list of other competition themed programs the Food Network seems to love airing. Despite adding gimmicks to make it more than just another cooking competition, it was more enjoyable than something like the clown circus of Cutthroat Kitchen. However like Cutthroat Kitchen its lasting appeal will depend on the viewer's tolerance for stupidity, and may wear thin after a few episodes.
Two chefs compete against each other and the clock to present a dish, and the loser must perform a chore for the winner (ie kitchen prep work, washing their car). The catch is that neither chef is allowed to work in the kitchen. Instead they are kept in a sound booth and use a headset and monitors to communicate with amateur home cooks, who must follow their directions and make the final dish. However these are not the types of home cooks one would find on a program like MasterChef or in an average home. These are people with very limited cooking knowledge: People described as terrible cooks by their friends and loved ones, people afraid of kitchen knives and appliances, and people who eat more takeout than home dining. People like an Italian mother whose own children said they hated her cooking, and a father who spent most of his bachelor years living on fast food and candy.
The show is primarily focused on the communication skills of the chefs and the personalities of the clueless cooks, along with their sometimes humorous responses to given directions, which continually test their mentor's patience while they scramble dazed and confused looking for specific appliances and ingredients in a kitchen they probably just stepped into. This is all apparently meant to provide endless possibilities for hilarity, but at times seems a little demeaning for the person in the kitchen. One episode had a woman using a ladle to grab something from a shelf high above her head, which the chef demanded they needed. The woman was rightfully concerned that it could fall on her head, but if she had a step stool or the items were in sensible reach for the contestants, then it would not be as hilarious for the show.
Ultimately Chef In Your Ear is something that may appeal to people looking to temporarily fill an empty space in their programming schedule, but there are better options for spending an extra hour.
