A lot of people I know get really heated when they talk about sports or video games. I, however, get extremely fired up when it comes to watching shows on food network. Shows like "Chopped", "Guy’s Grocery Games", "Dessert Games", "Cupcake Wars", and the like all get me very, very pumped up, not only because I love to cook, but also because I have been learning new techniques and about new foods while watching. This also means that I begin yelling at people when there are 30 seconds left and someone starts trying to make “quick” vinaigrette, or when another person gets super cocky about their dish until they realize that their rice or pasta or meat is waaaaay under-cooked—like, to the point of being inedible. I myself am not a very good cook, in my opinion. I would probably be one of those people on Chopped Amateurs or something because I do not know how to properly cook meat sometimes, and other times I also under-cook my pasta.

However, the people on all of these shows are supposed to be professionals. They are supposed to know what they are doing. Even the kid’s competitions, they are supposed to know what they’re doing because a lot of them have been cooking for a long time. And I understand that under pressure people tend to crack and make mistakes that they say they would never do in their own kitchen. Except, when you’re a chef in a kitchen, it’s not like you’re not under a time crunch; you still have to get a dish out on time correctly, and if you don’t there is obviously backlash. I also understand that thinking on your feet and incorporating things like pork rinds and watermelon radishes into your dish seems a little non-standard. Of course, everyone was a college student at one point, so they should know what it was like making super weird foods out of whatever you can scrounge up in your kitchen or at the campus’ grocery store.

Now, I still get heated up about sports and video game competitions and things like that, but honestly I am not athletic enough or good enough at video games to really empathize with the people competing. Cooking is a whole different story though, as almost everyone can cook. When I see those baskets open I can almost picture exactly what I would do with them and the way that I would present the meal to the judges once it’s done. I yell at competitors like a coach or judge would because I know that in their place, I would also hate to be sent home because I forgot to incorporate an ingredient into my dish, or because I decided to cram all the basket ingredients into one part of the dish and then completely screwed it up.

Cooking shows are, unabashedly, my jam. It encourages people to learn how to cook and even challenge themselves to use ingredients that they never would have used otherwise. So the next time you hear me yelling, it’s not at sports or anything, just know I’m probably watching Food network.