Kids Baking Championship - General Discussion

[nowornever]

I'd like to see a season where the bakers are closer to 15-18 years old.  Give some of these kids a few years and they could better handle the competition and really showcase their baking skills.  

 

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE, DUMP THE "TWISTS!"

[NJKBCFan]

3 hours ago, tobeannounced said:

And? It's a televised baking championship for kids who supposedly are the best in the US. We've seen kids with amazing skills in the past. Some of these kids may love baking, but they're not above average in any way. Maybe they shouldn't have a baking competition for kids this young based on the tears in every friggin' episode. Otherwise, give everyone a participation trophy and move on.

I don't see the point at calling a bunch of 10 year olds dumb on an internet forum. But I guess that's just me. :-(

[tobeannounced]

50 minutes ago, NJKBCFan said:

I don't see the point at calling a bunch of 10 year olds dumb on an internet forum. But I guess that's just me. :-(

Well, you're putting words in my mouth, but there is no point other than we're all stating our opinions.

[Jaded]

Like others have mentioned they could keep the twists and announce them at the beginning of the show as an extra thing that has to be made. They would still have to do whatever crazy twist that's been thought of for the episode. The producers seem to think we enjoy seeing these young kids have meltdowns at least once a week. 

[jennifer6973]

Question:. How long are they there to film the show?

[Grumpbump]

I know Davey was not producing very refined (or even tasty) desserts but man,  that kid was funny!   I loved his quips.... like when they call time and "put your hands up" and Davey says "Why? Are you under arrest?"  Or, whenever someone borrowed an ingredient from him,  he would say "that will cost you $25,000" followed by "just kidding!"

I thought his dad jokes were endearing.   Not a reason to keep him in the competition,  I know but I liked him better than those other kids who deliberately mug for the camera. 

[NJKBCFan]

Disappointing Imposter episode imho. Issi deserved the win, but it was more because everyone else’s were terrible rather than her’s being amazing (compared to last season, where the top 3 were stunning imposters, and all of the kids’ creations were at least in the ballpark). Davey was the right pick to go. 

Hate to say it, but so far none of the bakers has really impressed this season as far as their baking talents go. At this point, I think any of the kids could win because none of them has really stood out.

[LegalParrot81]

Bowtie boy (can't remember his name) definitely wears his heart on his sleeve.  2nd week in a row he's melted down and I thought he was going to hyperventilate waiting to hear who was going home.  

I liked Davey, but he may have been too young.  

Overall, none of the kids are standing out.  Maybe that's why I don't remember most of their names.

[Eliza422]

They really are handholding them this year. First Duff shows them exactly how to do the cup thing that was the defying gravity challenge, now they are all instructed to make the same exact type of food imposter...

[luvapickle]

I really do think they decided to have kids who were not as "accomplished", so 1-they would have more wanting to apply in future seasons, 2-there are only so many kids out there who can do all this & take the time off. I have a customer with a girl who is 10 & she asked me about 50 questions in the span of 15 minutes. She wants to have a bakery like mine in a "few" years.  I asked her if she would want to do one of those shows, & she goes "Ohhhh Myyyy Goshhh!, I could never go on tv in front of all those millions!". I burst out laughing. She'd be cute on it. 

 

Some of you have brought up the crying, well, imagine being that age, in the middle of a timed comp, & something goes screwy? I get that way when I'm in a time crunch & something has just gone screwy-I cry or proceed to throw something against the wall :). I'm glad they don't throw anything. 

But one thing that is a pet peeve of mine-when a judge claims that what the contestant has made is not correct. And the judge is wrong. Duff-fried calamari can be white if you add no batter. But most of the time, they are brown-like most fried food-because a batter is added.

[Rammchick]

That was a fairly hard choice this week as to who was going home.  Although neither really looked like lasagna, Davey actually created the "noodles" , vs. Matthew using pre-made puff pastry.  In the end, it was the lime curd that saved him.  But really, show.  Half the kids didn't even know what pesto is, or calamari.  Not exactly exotic foods, but might be if you're 10.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Rammchick

[theatremouse]

On the side dishes, they cards had pictures. I think they should've given them pictures of the actual lasagnas they were assigning to each kid. Specifically to avoid the "did you know pesto is green" issue. Although on the other hand, I'm pretty sure at age 10 I knew what pesto was. etc.

I want them to just stop doing "imposter" challenges if they don't enforce it. There is a difference between "imposter X" and "dessert X". Last season it happened with the pizza too. Imposter means it's supposed to look like the real-not-dessert version of the thing. Most of them weren't going for that at all. They were just like "lasagna! so ...layers! and....red stuff!" (except Matthew whose was correctly green) There's this pattern of "I'm supposed to include A and this is the same color as that, so...done". Raspberries for paprika was Davey bullshitting his way through this. But he also could've said any.red.vegetable and they would've accepted it. We've seen this before. And his was supposed to be "veggie". Kid panicked and couldn't name one vegetable he was pretending to have. And used sanding sugar for the colors basically saying "well veggies exist that are that color". I mean, I get that they're kids but then the answer there isn't judge them half-assedly, it's be more clear in the off-screen instructions they get.

[ShelleySue]

1 hour ago, Rammchick said:

.  But really, show.  Half the kids didn't even know what pesto is, or calamari.  Not exactly exotic foods, but might be if you're 10.

I thought that the twist was unfair because of the calamari.  Plus, Duff said that they were white.  Maybe it's just me, but the calamari I've seen (but never eaten - yuck!) always looks like onion rings.

Other than then using calamari, I did't have a problem with the twist or the one last week with the sauce.  It's added work for the kids, but it doesn't have to conflict with what they've already done.  Things like the addition of ginger though, that can throw off a whole recipe-- especially added so late in the competition.

Does anyone watch the Amy Poehler/Nick Offerman show, "Making It"?  At the end the contestant who is eliminated is shown doing something with Amy and Nick.  It's just a brief little scene, but it feels friendly.  It would be nice if the kids, many of whom leave crying, were shown doing something fun the last time we see them.  I think that Duff and Valerie could pull off something like that.

[Rammchick]

I love calamari.  The actual squid meat is white, but it's fried, so the outside is (supposed to be) golden brown.  So Duff was technically right, but wrong too.

[NJKBCFan]

2 hours ago, theatremouse said:

I want them to just stop doing "imposter" challenges if they don't enforce it. There is a difference between "imposter X" and "dessert X". Last season it happened with the pizza too. Imposter means it's supposed to look like the real-not-dessert version of the thing. 

Fwiw, the Pizza last season was not the "imposter" episode, it was a "Dessert Pizza" challenge, so those kids approached that challenge correctly. The Imposter challenge last season was the "Lunchbox" episode.

[needschocolate]

The top two both had meat lasagna - the easiest to imposter - a strawberry/raspberry sauce with some sort of chunks (like the brownies) for "meat."

The bottom two had veggie pesto lasagna - the most difficult one.  It is hard to make something that looks like pesto sauce - green food coloring is the wrong shade, aand so would be a sauce made from limes.  Mint might work, but using enough mint to make it look like pesto would be overpowering.  And that is only the sauce, they would also have to make different veggies to go in it.  

The two that were safe both had the spinach and mushroom lasagna - more difficult than meat, but not as bad as the veggie pesto.

I have eaten calamari, but it was never the size of a donut.  

Sorry to see Davey go, but he was the overall weakest of the bakers.

[snarkylady]

I had the impression that Matthew made sure the camera was on him for his crying.  Something about it looked wrong to me.  Just a feeling, I'm a Matthew fan. 

Is this the first time that neither Taylor nor Saylor were in the top two? 

[dewelar]

5 hours ago, luvapickle said:

Some of you have brought up the crying, well, imagine being that age, in the middle of a timed comp, & something goes screwy? I get that way when I'm in a time crunch & something has just gone screwy-I cry or proceed to throw something against the wall :). I'm glad they don't throw anything.

I don't think anybody is doubting that it's believable that these kids are melting down. The problems are that (a) nobody really wants to watch a meltdown happen to a child (a villain/cocky type on a non-kid version of a show, I can see, but not a kid), (b) there have been a lot of them this season, and (c) the show is milking them for all they're worth. It's making a show that should really be almost pure fluff and turning it into something uncomfortable. Bad form, Food Network.

Anyway, it's now four weeks in, and I'm still not enjoying this show like I did last season. It may be time to drop it for this cycle and hope that the Halloween version is better.

[Jesse]

9 hours ago, Eliza422 said:

They really are handholding them this year. First Duff shows them exactly how to do the cup thing that was the defying gravity challenge, now they are all instructed to make the same exact type of food imposter...

In this case, I wished they had actually had the exact same instructions, because the kids who did the worst (said they) didn't even know what the things were they were supposed to be impersonating! They could have had enough of a range with assigning them all generic lasagna and garlic bread, IMO. 

[NJKBCFan]

5 hours ago, dewelar said:

I don't think anybody is doubting that it's believable that these kids are melting down. The problems are that (a) nobody really wants to watch a meltdown happen to a child (a villain/cocky type on a non-kid version of a show, I can see, but not a kid), (b) there have been a lot of them this season, and (c) the show is milking them for all they're worth. It's making a show that should really be almost pure fluff and turning it into something uncomfortable. Bad form, Food Network.

Anyway, it's now four weeks in, and I'm still not enjoying this show like I did last season. It may be time to drop it for this cycle and hope that the Halloween version is better.

For me, I think that I’m less interested this season mostly because there hasn’t been anyone who has really produced a great-looking dessert yet. Yes, they are young kids, but part of the appeal of this show in the past has been watching young kids who make amazing stuff beyond their years. So far this season, everything has looked like a young kid made it. 

[Simon47]

On 8/28/2018 at 3:03 PM, snarkylady said:

I had the impression that Matthew made sure the camera was on him for his crying.  Something about it looked wrong to me.  Just a feeling, I'm a Matthew fan. 

Is this the first time that neither Taylor nor Saylor were in the top two? 

Me too, and I’m glad he didn’t go home because his bow tie was cute.

Davey was the clear choice to go home. Does anybody not think he made his plates look like a 5-year-old made them?

On 8/28/2018 at 11:08 AM, Rammchick said:

I love calamari.  The actual squid meat is white, but it's fried, so the outside is (supposed to be) golden brown.  So Duff was technically right, but wrong too.

I never have eaten calamari before, but it looks delicious.

[Jessa]

I’m going to miss Davey and his giant spoonfuls that were for tasting while baking. That made me laugh every time. 

[hookedontv]

I’m OK with Davey going home. It was painful to watch him, he was over his head. 

[Reddust]

I hated to see the sweet Georgia peach go but she had such a rough bake. Bye Saylor!

[mlp]

I was sorry to see Saylor go but I would have been sorry to see any of them eliminated and she did do the worst.  From tonight on, I like them all and wish they could all win.

The ventriloquist and her rabbit are absolutely delightful.  I don't know how old that girl is but she's very poised and quite clever.  I know she was on AGT which I don't watch any more because I can't stand Howie Mandel so I wonder if FN had to negotiate with NBC to get her.

I love Duff and Valerie.  It's a pleasure to watch hosts who clearly like each other and enjoy working together.

[NJKBCFan]

I am finding myself underwhelmed with the challenges this season. There hasn't been one that gives the kids a real opportunity to show any kind of decorating skills. 

That said, this was the first episode where I think that some of the kids are finding their sea legs. Brilliant move by Matthew and Nat to crush up their popcorn and use as dry ingredient. And I wasn't convinced that Taylor's steeping the popcorn would work, so pleasantly surprised that it did.

I thought Izze should have been the one to go, but ok with the decision to let Saylor go. At this point, I think Nat wins the whole thing.

Oh, and while it was fun to see the AGT girl, I felt like it was completely out of place on this show. All she did was distract the bakers with no real value to the theme.

[KLovestoShop]

Duff and Valerie are perfect on this show.  They both seem very upset when they have to eliminate one of the kids.  Does anyone know who started this whole huge bow on the head thing?   At least Isse uses her own hair to make the bow----at least I think it's a hair bow.  

Doesnt your heart break for the kids who struggle when baking?   I love it when Valerie sees that and she goes to help the child.  Unlike other shows like any one done by Gordon Ramsey, that's so much more cut throat, this show does care about the contestants and their feelings.  

[snarkylady]

I felt the AGT girl was an almost jarring presence.  I would forget she was on the show and then suddenly a  switch of focus and there she was.  Maybe the contestants liked her, for me a ventriloquist, no matter how young and cute, is only one step above mimes and two steps above clowns.  I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. 

I agree that the challenges are unimpressive, the baking knowledge lacking, and the skills underdeveloped.  Some of this will come with age and experience.  But how on earth could a "baker" not know what a bar cookie is?  Duff's explanation of why he accepted it made some sense but I had some trouble getting past it.    

Regarding this week's twist -- I thought the bat showed just how silly the twists are.  Well done. 

[Jillybean]

Is it against the rules for Matthew to simply ask the judges "what is a cookie bar?" Amazingly, he won the challenge without properly executing it, so maybe it doesn't matter. If they're going to saddle the kids with things they've never heard of (calamari) or, for that matter,  things I've never heard of (veggie pesto lasagna) then they should be permitted to ask for clarification.

I have no idea why the girl and her rabbit dummy were on the show.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Jillybean

[kcrabtree06]

I am sad Saylor left because I wanted her to win the whole thing, but her cheesecake didn't look too appealing. I am rooting for Matthew now (mostly because he reminds me of an older version of my nephew).

 I loved Darci Lynne on AGT! She was a singing ventriloquist on the show and was amazing and really funny, but I agree that she didn't add much to last night's show. I think someone just thought it would be fun to have her there since she won a major competition show at age 12.

[NJKBCFan]

14 minutes ago, kcrabtree06 said:

I loved Darci Lynne on AGT! She was a singing ventriloquist on the show and was amazing and really funny, but I agree that she didn't add much to last night's show. I think someone just thought it would be fun to have her there since she won a major competition show at age 12.

I think it would be more fun for a baker from a previous season come to judge ?

[cherbitrary]

1 hour ago, NJKBCFan said:

I think it would be more fun for a baker from a previous season come to judge ?

I misunderstood what they said about Darci Lynn and thought she WAS a former season winner. Spent the whole episode confused about the ventriloquism thing as a result. Was wondering if she did that while baking and how talented she must be to do both!

Realized last night we were down only to kids I like. Was sad to see my fellow GA girl Saylor go. Glad Taylor wasn't dinged too much for the bat. She was busy when they announced it and forgot. I give her points for getting anything done. If she had remembered sooner, I wonder if she'd have gone krispie treat baseball, too. She made a point of NOT going with caramel popcorn because the others were.

Found it funny that Izzy tslked about how easy macarons were (4 ingredients!) since they generally make them out to be so difficult on the adult shows. But she probably didn't have a proper foot on it.

[jcbrown]

I agree, I also realized last night we were down to only kids I like. Also agree that Taylor demonstrated the stupidity of the additional challenges. Why do something fancy if you can half-ass it and still get through?

I found the ventriloquist annoying and pointless. Don't believe all these kids knew who she was ahead of time, either.

[DebbieM4]

6 hours ago, jcbrown said:

 

I found the ventriloquist annoying and pointless. Don't believe all these kids knew who she was ahead of time, either.

I agree completely.  I kept waiting for her to leave.  I get that she's young, but other than that it seemed to be an odd fit for this show.  Way too forced, and it added nothing other than an out-of-left-field distraction.

[Simon47]

Episode 5

18 hours ago, mlp said:

I love Duff and Valerie.  It's a pleasure to watch hosts who clearly like each other and enjoy working together.

Weren’t you happy when Valerie smiled at Natasha and calmed her down, because that made her rise up to the top really fast!

8 hours ago, Jillybean said:

Is it against the rules for Matthew to simply ask the judges "what is a cookie bar?" Amazingly, he won the challenge without properly executing it, so maybe it doesn't matter. If they're going to saddle the kids with things they've never heard of (calamari) or, for that matter,  things I've never heard of (veggie pesto lasagna) then they should be permitted to ask for clarification.

Maybe not. I think he just asked what they were because he DID NOT know. And I think it’s perfectly okay, it’s just someone asking what it is.

Were you sad to see Saylor go home? I was. She was my girl!

16 hours ago, kcrabtree06 said:

 I loved Darci Lynne on AGT! She was a singing ventriloquist on the show and was amazing and really funny, but I agree that she didn't add much to last night's show. I think someone just thought it would be fun to have her there since she won a major competition show at age 12.

If I am right (quote me if I am wrong) Darci Lynne was on Little Big Shots. I think, don’t guarantee. Have you seen her on LBS?

[Jillybean]

6 hours ago, Simon47 said:

Maybe not. I think he just asked what they were because he DID NOT know. And I think it’s perfectly okay, it’s just someone asking what it is.

 

But he DIDN'T ask. That's my point. He didn't know what a cookie bar was, so he just guessed (incorrectly). My question was, is it against the rules to ask? It seems like it must be, because I don't see any other reason why they don't ask when given an assignment to make something unfamiliar.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Jillybean

[Eliza422]

I think this exposed how unskilled some of these kids are.

one didn’t know what a bar cookie was.

one didn’t know that you rest pastry dough before you roll it out.

one had terrible looking macarons - it didn’t look like she did the rest/dry step before baking - and after looking at them she didn’t recognize the problems with them.

[Simon47]

On 9/5/2018 at 12:33 PM, Jillybean said:

But he DIDN'T ask. That's my point. He didn't know what a cookie bar was, so he just guessed (incorrectly). My question was, is it against the rules to ask? It seems like it must be, because I don't see any other reason why they don't ask when given an assignment to make something unfamiliar.

He might have just went up to Duff and Valerie off camera and asked them what it is and they told him? Remember that boy from a couple seasons ago (Justice) that didn’t know what Black Forest cake is?

[NJKBCFan]

17 hours ago, Simon47 said:

He might have just went up to Duff and Valerie off camera and asked them what it is and they told him? Remember that boy from a couple seasons ago (Justice) that didn’t know what Black Forest cake is?

But again, the point is that he didn't ask. If he did ask, then he didn't understand the answer because he still did it wrong.

I would have to imagine that the kids are allowed to ask if they didn't know what it was. Especially in a challenge like this where every kid gets something different. It wouldn't be fair if one kid happened to get something s/he didn't know what it was when everyone else got something they knew.

[NJKBCFan]

Btw - Season 4 is marathoning all day Monday.

[ivygirl]

Watching the donut episode and—I know they’re kids—but it was odd that some of these kids seemed to (slightly) sabotage their own partners with the texture twist. I mean, if your partner was making key lime, wouldn’t you give them the graham crackers because that’s ACTUALLY what goes with key lime, and accept the pretzel because you can get a good crunch and flavor it the way you want? And if your partner was making some sort of chocolate thing (ETA actually a cookies and cream donut!) wouldn’t you trade for the fruity topping for the chocolate cookies because YOUR donut was fruity and not make some sort of convoluted strawberry-chocolate-coconut connection? 

Anyway, this season isn’t making me smile the way previous ones have. And many of the kids are just plain not-good, let alone best kids in the country. I don’t want to be TOO hard on them, but it’s just losing its luster.

Edited September 10, 2018 by ivygirl

[LexieLily]

9 hours ago, ivygirl said:

Watching the donut episode and—I know they’re kids—but it was odd that some of these kids seemed to (slightly) sabotage their own partners with the texture twist. I mean, if your partner was making key lime, wouldn’t you give them the graham crackers because that’s ACTUALLY what goes with key lime, and accept the pretzel because you can get a good crunch and flavor it the way you want? And if your partner was making some sort of chocolate thing (ETA actually a cookies and cream donut!) wouldn’t you trade for the fruity topping for the chocolate cookies because YOUR donut was fruity and not make some sort of convoluted strawberry-chocolate-coconut connection? 

Anyway, this season isn’t making me smile the way previous ones have. And many of the kids are just plain not-good, let alone best kids in the country. I don’t want to be TOO hard on them, but it’s just losing its luster.

I haven't been watching this season so I don't know if there was a donut episode this season, but on the donut episode last season they weren't allowed to trade.

[ivygirl]

45 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I haven't been watching this season so I don't know if there was a donut episode this season, but on the donut episode last season they weren't allowed to trade.

Hmm, maybe it was an ep from last season, then... the description that was on my TV said it was from 2018, so I assumed it was this season. But it looks like S4 was 2018 as well. Sorry! 

[NJKBCFan]

Last night's episode was ok. No melt-downs, and some of the desserts came out quite nicely. I was impressed with Nat's cupcake, Matthew's macarons, and Taylor's guava bundt. Neither of Izze's desserts looked appealing to me, but she executed them well enough and apparently they tasted great. Still a little disappointed at the lack of real decorating-oriented challenges this season (decorating a mini picnic table doesn't count). Too bad this is only a 7-episode season, as it does feel like the kids are finally finding a bit of a groove. 

As for the elimination, I think Izze was the right choice because Matthew and Taylor's best treats were better than Izze's best treat, while all three of them were similarly mediocre on their second treats. I also think Matthew was being given a little bit of an edge to keep a boy in the finals. And now we have an all-Asian final, which might be a first for these kinds of shows.

[Ilovecomputers]

Seems like Duff kept saying “macaroons” rather than “macarons.”  All in all, a boring episode. I’m glad there’s enough time every episode for what’s her name to redo her desserts. Natasha for the win. Matthew’s gonna have a meltdown if he doesn’t win. It’s a tough industry, kid. Good luck to you and all the bakers. Izzy seemed like a really young 12 year old to me. 

[snarkylady]

I thought Izzy was especially talkative last night -- maybe a combination of nerves, excitement and sugar.  Agree that she seemed young.

This is a shortened season, is it not?  At first I thought it was scheduled in order to end in time for the Halloween competition that's going to follow it.  Now I'm wondering if there just weren't any other applicants to participate in this season. 

I think the fake-out of a second twist was cruel. 

Banana is another overpowering flavor that doesn't go with everything.

I think Natasha will win it all but I won't be unhappy if either of the other two pull off a win. 

I hope this season doesn't kill the show, it's one of my guilty pleasures. 

[Shenanigan]

Taylor's cookies looked...not great, IMO. It was cute she tried to ice a banana on all of them, but it looked messy and not that much like a banana. Glad Natasha won. And although she was probably the right call to go home, have to love Issi for "Duff, I don't have time for your shenanigans."

[luvapickle]

1 hour ago, Ilovecomputers said:

Seems like Duff kept saying “macaroons” rather than “macarons.”  All in all, a boring episode. I’m glad there’s enough time every episode for what’s her name to redo her desserts. Natasha for the win. Matthew’s gonna have a meltdown if he doesn’t win. It’s a tough industry, kid. Good luck to you and all the bakers. Izzy seemed like a really young 12 year old to me. 

I say it that way, because I sound like an idiot trying French out, if I try to pronounce it the correct way.

[mlp]

I was sorry to see Izzy go even though it was the right decision.  I would have been just as sorry to see any of the others go.  I like all of them.  I get a huge kick out of Matthew but I'm kind of hoping Taylor will win.  Despite her do overs, she has done well overall.  It has nothing to do with baking but she has the most flawless complexion I've ever seen.  She looks like she doesn't even have pores.

[jcbrown]

2 hours ago, Ilovecomputers said:

Seems like Duff kept saying “macaroons” rather than “macarons.”  

He went back and forth and he should know better. It also bugged me that, although Natasha consistently pronounced it correctly, both Duff and Valerie kept saying "sherbeRt." There is only one R in sherbet.

I really liked Izzy so I was sad she went home, although it seemed like the right decision. I think the finale will be Natasha (1), Taylor (2, she will screw herself on time and have to do something over), and Matthew (3, he will do something just not right). I think Taylor could come through and win but I'll be very surprised if Matthew does.

Jinx, you owe me a coke @mlp. We said almost exactly the same thing about Izzy at the same time.