Travesty Tonight: Worst Cooks in America gets even worse!

Anne Burrell and Beau MacMillan of Worst Cooks in America

by Ken

I worried that I was unduly harsh on Food Network's dreadful, bad-faith Worst Cooks in America. So I half-watched tonight's third episode. It turns out that I was way too kind. The ghastly things about the first two episodes have become even worse.

When one of the contestants freaked out because her milk boiled over, and another panicked because his béchamel turned into a paste, where the hell were the chefs to tell her that (a) milk very easily boils over, you've got to watch it carefully, and him that (b) the whole trick of making a béchamel is blending your fat-and-flour mixture into the liquid?

But again, in what universe do you teach cooking by demonstrating something once and then leaving the "students" to fend for themselves except to toss the occasional dart of withering ridicule? It appears that anything the contestants learn, they're going to have to figure out for themselves.

There's no question in my mind who delivered the most incompetent performances and should have been eliminated: on chef Anne's team, chef Anne; and on chef Beau's team, chef Beau.

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